Wind-Up of a Spanwise Vortex in Deepening Transition and Stall

A fundamental flow problem of unsteady wind-up of a spanwise vortex is studied in this theoretical work on deepening dynamic stall and transition in a boundary layer, internal layer or related unsteady motion. It examines the nonlinear evolution of the spanwise vortex produced when the local wall pressure develops a maximum or minimum, subsequent to the finite-time break-up of an interacting layer and the impact of normal pressure gradients. The evolution is controlled by an inner–outer interaction between the effects of the normal pressure gradient and the momentum jumps across and outside the vortex, which is situated near the strong inflexion point induced in the mean flow. Although the work concentrates on a particular internal-flow context, many of the flow properties found are generic and in particular apply for a more general case including external flows. Analysis and associated computations point to two main distinct trends in the vortex response, depending to a large extent on a parameter gauging the relative strengths of the above effects. The response is either an explosive one, provoking enhanced wind-up, growth and pressure in the vortex, or it is implosive, causing the vortex to shrink and virtually empty itself through unwinding, leaving little local pressure variation. A further discussion includes the after-effects of this vortex response and some of the connections with experiments and direct computations on deepening stall and transition. Received 22 February 1999 and accepted 28 March 2000