Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 iii Paper 43 5 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For a one-layer shallow water flow the Froude number is . Supercritical flow has , so both characteristic speeds point downstream. Subcritical flow has , allowing information to travel upstream. At hydraulic control the flow passes through at a geometry-induced critical section; that condition fixes discharge in relation to upstream head when the exit is free.
For escaping light air, reflect the usual lower-layer picture vertically: a lowered doorway roof acts as an inverted broad-crested weir. The lower return flow can be ignored dynamically only while it has a sufficiently large available area and small velocity. If the warm interface lies far below the doorway top, the cool inflow occupies a substantial dynamically active fraction of the opening; its inertia and pressure cannot be replaced by a motionless deep ambient. A two-layer exchange model is then required. If the warm layer reaches below the doorway bottom, the assumed separate lower replacement path is lost entirely.
Outside a freely controlled doorway the outgoing current becomes supercritical and then rises rapidly. That upturn violates the small-vertical-acceleration shallow water approximation, but it does not alter the upstream discharge as long as it does not submerge or back-pressure the control. Information cannot return through the supercritical outflow to the critical section. A blocked conservatory or a drowned doorway is different and can move the control upstream.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 iii Paper 44 1 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Put . In the Unscaled Papkovich–Neuber representation, choose the componentwise harmonic vector fieldBoth and are harmonic away from the origin: the latter is a linear combination of derivatives of the harmonic function . Also , so the representation gives . The no-slip boundary condition requires and , givingThus the Rotational Stokes flow between concentric spheres isThe divergence of is zero: the cross-product field itself has zero divergence, and is radial and perpendicular to . Hence in this pressure gauge.
There is also a symmetry argument. Take the rotation axis as the polar axis. Linearity of Stokes flow makes velocity and pressure perturbations change sign when the rotation reverses. Reflection in any plane containing that axis reverses the axial rotation vector. Combined with axial symmetry, this excludes meridional velocity components and forces the pressure perturbation to be both unchanged and sign-reversed by that reflection. Equivalently a purely azimuthal axisymmetric Stokes flow has no meridional component of its vector Laplacian, so its meridional pressure gradient vanishes. Thus the pressure is constant; setting that arbitrary constant to zero gives the same result without solving the radial coefficients.
For the Newtonian fluid stress tensor, let . The symmetric part of the velocity gradient isbecause the gradient of rigid rotation is antisymmetric. Consequently the full stress tensor, with , isFor , its only nonzero spherical-coordinate components are . On the inner sphere the traction exerted by the fluid, using the sphere's outward normal , isIts torque isusing . Therefore the applied Torque in rotational Stokes flow between concentric spheres isFor , the relevant speed and length are and , so negligible inertia requires the rotational Reynolds numberFor a narrow gap , the viscous gradients are controlled by , not . A centrifugal acceleration of scale is then compared with viscous scale , rather than . Their ratio is . This explains why the large-gap condition is not a necessary narrow-gap criterion; a thin gap greatly strengthens viscous resistance. This base-flow scaling is distinct from a criterion for stability to arbitrary short-scale disturbances.
The Minimum-dissipation theorem for Stokes flow compares a Stokes solution with all sufficiently regular incompressible trial velocities in the same fluid domain that have the same prescribed boundary velocities. With no body-force work, the dissipation functional isIf and on the prescribed boundary, integration by parts with and makes the cross term vanish. ThusThe comparison fixes velocities, rather than applied torques or forces.
Now let the particles take their actual rigid translations and rotations in the particle-containing flow. Extend the fluid velocity through each particle by its rigid velocity. No-slip boundary conditions make this extension continuous; rigid motion has zero rate-of-strain tensor and zero divergence. The extension is therefore an admissible trial field in the original particle-free annulus, and its dissipation equals that of the fluid outside the particles. Hence .
The Stokes boundary-work identity gives . The outer sphere is stationary, the maintained inner sphere has zero translational velocity, and every added particle has zero total force and torque, so none of those other boundaries contributes power. Likewise . ThereforeFor nonzero rotation and a particle of positive volume the inequality is strict: equality in the dissipation identity would force the extension to be the unique original flow, but that original flow has nonzero strain on every open particle region, whereas a rigid interior has zero strain. This proves that force-free inclusions increase rotational resistance:No dilute-suspension approximation or assumption about the particle shapes was used.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 iii Paper 44 4 Solution 2026-10-14
For a stationary solid skeleton, the Darcy velocity is liquid volume transport per unit total cross-sectional area, while the pore velocity is the intrinsic mean fluid velocity within the connected pore space. ThusFor an incompressible liquid in a saturated region, conservation of mass is . With time-independent but spatially varying porosity, it becomesnot generally . Neglecting dispersion, a fluid interface is advected by the pore velocity; its mean normal speed is .
For the thin layer on the inclined plane, the gravitational acceleration components are downslope and normal to the plane. The hydrostatic approximation and constant pressure above the current giveWith permeability of a porous medium , Darcy's law therefore givesHere denote the components of the Darcy velocity. Integrate over depth, using the prescribed power laws:Both integrals are finite for the positive exponents in the model. Conservation of the stored fluid gives , orFor , set , andSince , the depth-dependent inclined porous-current equation isThe longitudinal flux carries fluid downslope, while the thickness-gradient terms spread it. The degenerate horizontal or vertical slope limits need their own coordinate scaling.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 iii Paper 45 1 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Write , , and use the usual reduced rigid-recoil representation , with zero initial recoil and a smooth stroke returning and to zero. For this representation,Define the fluid impulse and its first moment byThe force law from part (i) gives, by integration by parts,These are the endpoint momentum flux in elongated-body recoil. PutThe endpoint quantities are needed in addition to the integrals unless further end-shape assumptions are made. Lateral force and yaw torque balance areExpanding gives the requested simultaneous second-order equations, with the retained endpoint fluxes:Substituting and integrating once from the initially straight, unrecoiling state yieldsThese are first-order coupled equations for with known forcing.
The claimed mass-independent final angle requires a qualification. LetAfter the stroke, and . If the post-stroke dynamics are stable, the first-order system relaxes toLet . Solving this two-by-two system givesThis is quadratic-bend turning with finite body mass. At the limiting state , so . The forward velocity is in the chosen direction, and its lateral component has precisely the body's slope: the fish glides parallel to itself. The angle is generally reached after a relaxation transient, not necessarily immediately at .
The advertised result is obtained in the thin-body approximation that neglects relative to fluid added mass, or in the special geometry :For example, take negligible nose added mass and nonzero tail added mass , so . In the zero-body-mass approximation, the post-stroke equations for are homogeneous. The inertia matrix is positive definite by Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, andThe two eigenvalues of therefore have positive real parts: their sum and product are positive, whether they are real or conjugate. For the transient decays, proving parallel gliding and the displayed turn in this approximation.
With finite , the angle is not a consequence of the printed force law for arbitrary . A concrete stable counterexample uses , , and . Then , , , , , and . Hencewhich differs from for positive body mass. This example has positive determinant and positive matrix trace of the relaxation matrix. Another immediate check is that if both endpoint added masses vanish, integrating the force law conserves total lateral momentum. A finite-mass fish cannot then end with and a nonzero new transverse velocity. Thus endpoint and inertia assumptions cannot silently be omitted.
If is literally the centre of mass position of a deforming body, use a mass-centered deformation rather than the raw quadratic. For body mass density , its mean is , with ; in the slender approximation . The reference translation above is then . Likewise the active angular momentum contains , where , which vanishes for symmetric mass distribution. These corrections modify derivative forcing during the stroke. Since the shape and its time derivative return to zero, they do not remove the finite-body-mass qualification of the final impulse relation.
The principal physical limitations are small slopes and small total turning angle, prescribed approximately constant forward speed, slowly varying slender geometry, and neglected viscosity, separation and detailed three-dimensional wake interactions. Fast large-amplitude C-starts need more than this linear theory. Neglecting body mass is most reasonable for a laterally thin body whose crossflow added mass greatly exceeds its displaced mass. Stable relaxation also requires an appropriate tail/end geometry; it is not guaranteed for every added-mass profile.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 iii Paper 45 1 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The Lighthill elongated-body theory is a reactive, nearly inviscid flow description of a long slender swimmer, appropriate when the longitudinal Reynolds number is large but its lateral displacement and slope are small. To leading order, crossflow past each section is the two-dimensional potential flow generated by lateral motion of that section. Longitudinal variation is slow on the cross-sectional scale, and axial speed is prescribed at this order. With increasing from nose to tail, fluid passes sections in increasing , and the linearized relative lateral velocity isThe section's added mass per unit length is defined by its crossflow kinetic energy . Equivalently, if is the velocity potential for unit lateral section motion, then over the exterior crossflow plane. It has units of mass per length and depends on cross-sectional shape and density. For a circular section of radius , gives . It is not the body's mass per unit length.
The transverse fluid impulse attached to a section is . A control segment has both changing impulse and an impulse flux through its ends. Taking their sum per unit length gives the reaction on the fluid:The force on the fish is . In particular, is inside the convective derivative; dropping its spatial derivative or the endpoint fluxes is not justified merely because the fish is slender.
The recoil correction in elongated-body theory adds unknown whole-body translation and yaw to a prescribed active bending shape:They are determined by total lateral linear momentum and yaw angular momentum balance, rather than by imposing that the deforming swimmer remains on its original axis. Body inertia and hydrodynamic added inertia have the same sign. If the translation variable is required to be the literal centre of mass, the active deformation must first have its mass-weighted mean removed: the reference displacement is otherwise not the centre of mass displacement during the stroke. The corresponding deformation contribution to angular momentum must also be retained when it is significant.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 iii Paper 45 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Choose an explicit orientation convention, since the supplied PDF does not display the referenced diagram. Let point upward and complete a right-handed frame with the horizontal flow direction . Usewhere points from the head towards the tail. A tail point has position . Its rotational velocity is , where the scalar is about and therefore . Keeping that sign is essential for stability.
The point lies at height , so the local imposed fluid velocity is . Its velocity relative to that fluid has componentswhere and . These follow by projection; rigid rotation has no tangential component.
Write , , , , andLet . The resistive-force theory force per length on the tail is . Head drag and excess weight giveThe fluid vorticity is , so its local angular velocity has scalar component about our axis. Sphere rotation resistance therefore contributes . Torque balance about , including gravity acting at , isEliminating gives the unapproximated local-resistance relation
Now retain head and tail translation resistance at the same order, as intended by , but use in the lever-arm integrals. Thus , . Sphere rotation resistance is smaller than tail rotation resistance by order , so omit at fixed scaled shear. Also neglect relative to the tail's hydrodynamic force-centre distance . Uniform density giveshence this step requires , or head-dominated volume. It is consistent with the distinguished logarithmic ordering, but by itself would not ensure it. The model further neglects hydrodynamic interaction between head and tail, and uses low-Reynolds-number local drag.
Under these approximations,soBecause , its equilibria satisfy . Definewith at zero shear. The two orientations modulo are and . The derivative of at an equilibrium isThe second factor is positive, so the branch is stable and the other is unstable. On the stable branch the tail tip is above : the head is lower than the far tail end.
The corresponding leading translation velocities areThe second formula uses in the normal force balance. In the equilibrium orientation , and simplifies toThis is shear-dependent settling of a sphere-and-tail body. Since for a slender filament, increases with the magnitude of shear and the signed upward-coordinate velocity increases towards zero. Equivalently, increasing shear decreases the downward sedimentation speed. The formula remains negative throughout this leading model. If there is no shear dependence; reversing the drag anisotropy would reverse the trend. At very large shear, the omitted sphere rotation term proportional to can become important, so the approximation is not uniform in arbitrarily large .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 iii Paper 45 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The cell conservation equation has the form , withThe first term is advection by the suspension's fluid velocity, the second is active swimming at fixed speed in direction , and the last is an isotropic diffusive flux due to random swimming. Here has units length squared per time, is cell number per volume, and the divergence measures local loss by transport. No birth or death term is included.
For a spherical cell of radius , its excess buoyancy force is . The Stokes drag law gives passive settling speed . Neglecting individual settling requires , not exact neutral buoyancy. A dilute suspension can still generate appreciable collective buoyancy because many small excess masses contribute to the bulk density.
Use the half-rate convention for the gyrotactic reorientation time , required by the coefficients printed in the question:The first torque tends to point the bottom-heavy cell upward; the second rotates a sphere with half the fluid vorticity. This is a quasistatic torque balance, assuming orientation relaxation is fast enough to follow the local flow. Keeping orientation dynamics instead would put on the left. The convention with aligning rate uses a reorientation parameter twice this . Thus the factor of two is a definition, not a physical discrepancy. Close to the upward state the quasistatic gyrotactic balance with half-rate reorientation gives .
For a dilute Newtonian suspension with the Boussinesq approximation, the other equations areThe background-water hydrostatic pressure is absorbed in . The cell volume is , density is , cell density is , dynamic viscosity is , and is the volume fraction. Extra cell mass produces the downward buoyancy term. Constant viscosity and no explicit swimming stress are part of this closure. Rigid impermeable plates impose no-slip boundary condition and zero normal total cell flux.
At rest, the stable cell direction is upward and the steady vertical flux is . It is constant in depth by conservation and zero at an impermeable plate, soThe pressure gradient balances its excess weight. The mean-concentration formula follows by averaging over and is continuous at .
Linearize with the horizontal Fourier mode and . Write the first-order orientation perturbation as . Unit length gives , while torque balance gives . Incompressibility impliesLet . The perturbation of fluid advection is , and swimming contributes . Cell conservation therefore givesorThis explains the destabilizing concentration-advection term and the gyrotactic redistribution term with their signs.
To eliminate pressure from the fluid equations, take their divergence, giving . Apply to the vertical equation . The concentration second derivatives cancel, leavingNo-slip conditions give and at each plate; for nonzero , the latter follows from the vanishing horizontal velocity and incompressibility. Zero perturbed normal cell flux givesThe normal orientation correction is zero at this order, and the fluid velocity is zero at the plate, so neither adds another term to this concentration condition.
Now use the stated distinguished scalings , , , , , and . Here is a scaled wavenumber, unrelated to Question 2's shear rate. At order one, the concentration equation and boundary conditions give , at both endpoints, so is constant. Absorb its nonzero value into the perturbation amplitude and chooseAt order , the fluid equation is with at both ends. Its unique solution isA homogeneous difference is cubic and the four clamped conditions make it zero.
The concentration equation at order givesso , where fixes the amplitude normalization. At order it givesThe boundary conditions expand to at each endpoint. Integrating this equation from zero to one cancels against . Also andThus the required solvability condition isSince , the clamped-quartic solvability in shallow bioconvection gives
For nonzero long horizontal waves, gives decay and gives growth; the leading neutral threshold is . The leading instability is stationary and independent of and . The exactly uniform horizontal mode has zero growth at this order because total cell number is conserved, so it does not determine the threshold. Upward swimming produces a dense upper layer; the unstable disturbance is its buoyancy-driven overturning, or bioconvection. Higher orders are needed for wavelength selection and finite-depth threshold corrections.
With fixed material parameters and mean concentration, for small , so a sufficiently thin chamber is stable to this branch. Formally its threshold corresponds to when the weak-stratification and distinguished-gyrotaxis assumptions apply. In particular, the assumed is a specified asymptotic analysis; at fixed and decreasing , one instead has . The leading result should not be asserted unchanged in that different ordering without redoing the expansion.