Using an electrically driven shock tube with initial pressures of 0.1 to 1.0 mm Hg and shock speeds of about Mach 12 to 15, the resistance of an air plasma between two parallel probes has been measured by two different techniques and the results compared. In one, external voltages of from 0 to 100 V were applied to the probes and in the other, electromagnetically induced voltages of from 0 to 25 V were produced by the plasma's motion in a magnetic field of up to 3500 G. In either case the resistance was found to decrease as the current flow increased and was consistent with the equilibrium electronic conductivity of the air plasma at high current densities.

The stability of small two-dimensional travelling-wave disturbances in an incompressible laminar boundary layer over a flexible surface is considered. By first determining the wall admittance required to maintain a wave of given wave-number and phase speed, a characteristic equation is deduced which, in the limit of zero wall flexibility, reduces to that occurring in the ordinary stability theory of Tollmien and Schlichting. The equation obtained represents a slight and probably insignificant improvement upon that given recently by Benjamin (1960). Graphical methods are developed to determine the curve of neutral stability, as well as to identify the various modes of instability classified by Benjamin as ‘Class A’, ‘Class B’, and ‘Kelvin-Helmholtz’ instability, respectively. Also, a method is devised whereby the optimum combination of surface effective mass, wave speed, and damping required to stabilize any given unstable Tollmien-Schlichting wave can be determined by a simple geometrical construction in the complex wall-admittance plane.

What is believed to be a complete physical explanation for the influence of an infinite flexible wall on boundary-layer stability is presented. In particular, the effect of damping in the wall is discussed at some length. The seemingly paradoxical result that damping destabilizes class A waves (i.e. waves of the Tollmien-Schlichting type) is explained by considering the related problem of flutter of an infinite panel in incompressible potential flow, for which damping has the same qualitative effect. It is shown that the class A waves are associated with a decrease of the total kinetic and elastic energy of the fluid and the wall, so that any dissipation of energy in the wall will only make the wave amplitude increase to compensate for the lowered energy level. The Kelvin-Helmholtz type of instability will occur when the effective stiffness of the panel is too low to withstand, for all values of the phase speed, the pressure forces induced on the wavy wall.

The numerical examples presented show that the increase in the critical Reynolds number that can be achieved with a wall of moderate flexibility is modest, and that some other explanation for the experimentally observed effects of a flexible wall on the friction drag must be considered.

The equations describing the motion of a gas carrying small dust particles are given and the equations satisfied by small disturbances of a steady laminar flow are derived. The effect of the dust is described by two parameters; the concentration of dust and a relaxation time τ which measures the rate at which the velocity of a dust particle adjusts to changes in the gas velocity and depends upon the size of the individual particles. It is shown that if the dust is fine enough for τ to be small compared with a characteristic time scale associated with the flow, then the addition of dust destabilizes a gas flow; whereas if the dust is coarse so that τ is relatively large, then the dust has a stabilizing action.

For plane parallel flow, it is shown that the stability characteristics for a dusty gas are still determined by solutions of the Orr-Sommerfeld equation, but with the basic velocity profile replaced by a modified profile which is in general complex. A simple, although unrealistic, example is used to illustrate some features of the action of dust. It is intended to describe the solution of the modified Orr-Sommerfeld equation for plane Poiseuille flow in a later paper.

The problem of an unstable fluid overturning in a vertical tube filled with porous material is treated by an approximation of boundary-layer type. It is shown that the fluid can experience a pseudo-inertial effect, in which variations in density across the tube exhibit properties analogous to variations of momentum in an inertial flow. The mean fluid density and mean-square vertical velocity over a horizontal cross-section of the tube are related by a pair of hyperbolic equations, for which there exist two systems of characteristics. It is shown that changes in the mean density of the fluid can be propagated as discontinuities. For discontinuities of finite amplitude, two jump conditions are derived, one of which is found to involve an undetermined parameter λ. The theory is applied to the case of a vertical tube containing porous material saturated with water, which is attached at the top to a reservoir filled with an aqueous solution (an analogue of Taylor's (1954) experiment). The motion of a finite discontinuity which arises at the initial unstable interface is calculated by two approximate methods. These results compare satisfactorily with the data from three experiments, using tubes of circular cross-section, provided that the value of λ is about 0·75. If the theoretical interpretation is correct, it appears that convective flow ceases when the vertical density gradient is slightly less than the neutral value.

The gravity-wave response of a semi-infinite liquid to the oscillating pressure Pδ(x) exp (iwt) is given in an asymptotic form that is uniformly valid through the transition zone that separates the dispersion-controlled precursor and the monochromatic steady state. The same problem has been considered previously by Stoker (1957), but his initial conditions were spurious, and he did not seek a uniformly valid asymptotic representation.

The disintegration of a charged liquid jet is examined, and the break-up mechanism inferred from photographic evidence. Gravitational, molecular and electrical forces all contribute to the segmentation of the jet and determine the drop size distribution. The disintegration process is investigated from the point of view of drop generation. The segmentation of the charged jet differs from the known ways in which an uncharged jet is broken into drops.