Advances in applied mechanics. Volume 26

Five comprehensive articles covering several main active areas of applied mechanics are presented. A paper on the rotation and bifurcation of a self-gravitating liquid drop includes a report on a Spacelab experiment performed by the author in the microgravitational environment aboard Spacelab 3. Another paper provides a critical review of the state of the art regarding theoretical models commonly used to analyze two-phase flow and the mechanics of bubbly liquids. A third paper, on nonlinear resonant surface waves and homoclinic bifurcation, raises timely questions concerning forced generation of solitary wages, and presents a new mathematical method with generally applicable examples. A fourth paper addresses the physical problem of large-scaled coherent structures in real, developing turbulent free-shear flows with an interpretation of the nonlinear aspects of hydrodynamic stability theory. The fifth paper studies three-dimensional turbulent boundary layers and wakes for ship-hull shaped bodies.