The three-dimensional motions in a tidally distorted binary component when the initial degree of nonsynchronism is small is studied. A boundary layer analysis is used to investigate the mechanism by which this large-scale transient flow tends to sychronize the axial motion of the gaseous body with its orbital motion. The formation of an Ekman-type suction layer is found to induce a large-scale flow of matter within the practically inviscid interior of the star. Detailed calculations show that this time-dependent advection of matter and angular momentum brings effective synchronization within a time that is much shorter than those associated with other mechanisms.
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Tassoul et al. (1990) studied this question.