Formation of vortex street and vortex pair from a circular cylinder oscillating in water

The flow around a circular cylinder undergoing sinusoidal oscillating movement in still water is investigated by phase-locked PIV measurements. The pattern and development of large-scale vortex structures in the flow are studied from the velocity vectors and vorticity contours obtained at eight successive phases of an oscillating cycle. Experiments are performed at three Keulegan–Carpenter numbers; KC=12, 6.28 and 4.25. Results at KC=12 reveal the mechanism of vortex formation and the development of the shed vortices into a vortex street at a lateral direction to the line of cylinder movement. The role of a biased flow stream and the length of the cylinder stroke in the formation of the vortex street are discussed. At the lower KC numbers, a symmetric pair of vortices is found attached to the leeward face of the cylinder. The vortex pair exhibits an increasing degree of asymmetry when KC increases from 4.25 to 6.28. An explanation in terms of the length of the cylinder strokes and the degree of flow asymmetry is offered for the transition of flow regimes from a vortex pair to a vortex street. The present results are compared with the observations made in previous experimental and numerical studies in the literature.     

Formation of a vortex street behind an oscillating cylinder

The paper presents the results of an experimental study of the vortex street behind a circular cylinder oscillating across a water stream at Reynolds numbers less than the critical value at which a vortex street is formed behind a stationary cylinder. The asymptotic dependence of the nondimensional vortex separation frequency (the Strouhal number) on the main relevant parameters is obtained. The value of a constant coefficient appearing in this relationship has been found experimentally.Moscow. Translated from Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 1, pp. 51–56, January–February, 1995.     

Destabilisation of a compressed vortex by a round jet

This paper presents data and analysis related to the compression and the breakdown of a tumbling motion after radial disruption in a simple geometry of the compression chamber of a model engine with large optical access. The disruption is a round jet injection perpendicular to the vorticity tube. Two configurations of injection are selected. They correspond respectively to a straight jet that competes with the tumble and an inclined jet that adds angular momentum to the large-scale rotating motion. The ratio between the angular momentum brought by the spray and the initial angular momentum of the tumble is of the order of 30% and is representative of the direct-injection engine situation at moderate rotation rate. The injection is performed at bottom dead centre (BDC) in a well-defined and well-known tumbling motion. The data are obtained in the symmetry plane of a square chamber by using particle image velocimetry (PIV) and planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF). A calibration is made in order to take account of acetone fluorescence yield during compression. The analysis of the injection phase at BDC shows that the mean topology of the flow after both injections differs significantly and that the vorticity tube is significantly distorted only in the vicinity of the injection plane. Strong transverse mean flows are detected by analysing the divergence of the mean velocity field. Although a mean rotation is still observed after injection during the compression phase, the authors show that no strong vortex core is evident. An important consequence of this finding, confirmed by the evolution of the global in-plane mean and fluctuating kinetic energy in the symmetry plane is that no vortex breakdown occurs during the compression after the injection event. Therefore, the global fluctuating kinetic energy at the end of the compression is much lower after an injection. During the first half of the compression, an inhomogeneous distribution of the jet fluid in the chamber is detected by the PLIF measurements. The transport of the jet fluid clearly results from both in-plane and out-of-plane motions triggered by the injection jet. This spatial repartition depends strongly on the injection strategy and can be very difficult to control accurately from cycle to cycle. The mixture is more homogeneous at top dead centre (TDC) with a low value of the spatial variance of the mean concentration field.     

Vortex ring velocity and minimum separation in an infinite train of vortex rings generated by a fully pulsed jet

A pulsed jet with a period of no flow between pulses (i.e., a fully pulsed jet) produces a multiplicity of vortex rings whose characteristics are determined by the jet pulsing parameters. The present study analyzes the case of impulsively initiated and terminated jet pulses in the limit of equal pulse duration and period to determine the minimum possible vortex ring separation obtainable from a fully pulsed jet. The downstream character of the flow is modeled as an infinite train of thin, coaxial vortex rings. Assuming inviscid flow and matching the circulation, impulse, kinetic energy, and frequency of the jet and vortex ring train allow the properties of the vortex ring train to be determined in terms of the ratio of jet slug length-to-diameter ratio (L/D) used for each pulse. The results show the minimum ring separation may be made arbitrarily small as L/D is decreased and the corresponding total ring velocity remains close to half the jet velocity for L/D < 4, but the thin-ring assumption is violated for L/D > 1.5. The results are discussed in the context of models of pulsed-jet propulsion.     

Stereo particle image velocimetry applied to a vortex pipe flow

Stereo particle image velocimetry (PIV) has been employed to study a vortex generated via tangential injection of water in a 2.25 inch (57 mm) diameter pipe for Reynolds numbers ranging from 1,118 to 63,367. Methods of decreasing pipe-induced optical distortion and the PIV calibration technique are addressed. The mean velocity field analyses have shown spatial similarity and revealed four distinct flow regions starting from the central axis of rotation to the pipe wall in the vortex flows. Turbulence statistical data and vortex core location data suggest that velocity fluctuations are due to the axis of the in-line vortex distorting in the shape of a spiral.     

Pressure pulsations on a rigid wall caused by a vortex street

A topic of obvious interest is the interaction between the vortex wake behind bluff bodies and nearby objects, in particular plane surfaces. At present the most detailed studies in flows such as these have been on the characteristics of the velocity field of the vortices [1, 2]. The main topic of attention in what follows is pressure pulsations on a wall caused by separation of vortices from an adjacent cylinder. This problem is especially important for the determination of vibrations and noises due to bodies located on the rigid boundary of the flow.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 2, pp. 167–169, March–April, 1986.The author wishes to express his appreciation to M. I. Rabinovich for discussion of the results, and to P. R. Gromov and A. B. Zobnin for help in conducting the experiment.     

Evolution of a vortex street in the far wake of a cylinder

The evolution of a primary vortex street shed from a circular cylinder in the far wake is experimentally examined for 70 R 154 (R is the Reynolds number). According to the vorticity fields obtained using digital image processing for visualized flow fields, the primary vortex street breaks down into a nearly parallel shear flow of Gaussian profile at a certain downstream distance, before a secondary vortex street of larger scale appears further downstream. The process leading to the nearly parallel flow can be explained as the evolution of the vortex regions of an inviscid fluid if we invoke the observation that the distance between the two rows in the primary vortex street increases with the downstream distance, although the viscous effect probably contributes to this increase. Numerical computations with the discrete vortex method also support this explanation. The wavelengths and speeds of the primary and secondary vortex street are also measured.     

Electromagnetically generated vortex streets in a narrow channel

The understanding of fluid wakes is of fundamental importance in several technological applications. In this paper, we present an experimental and numerical study of vortex wakes produced by a traveling localized Lorentz force in a thin layer of electrolyte contained in a narrow channel. The experimental set up consists of an open rectangular container with two parallel electrodes placed along its longest walls and connected to a power source that supplies a uniform DC current to the fluid layer. A permanent magnet located underneath the container is moved with a constant velocity so that the interplay of the moving magnetic field and the applied transversal current generates a traveling Lorentz force that stirs the electrolyte and creates different vortex wakes according to the flow conditions. Attention is focused on the effect of lateral walls on the flow patterns, therefore, two containers of different width and magnets of different sizes were used to vary the blockage parameter. Numerical simulations using a quasi-two-dimensional model agree qualitatively with experimental visualizations. Further, flow transition maps built from experimental and numerical results are presented.     

Flow field characterization of a jet and vortex actuator

 An actuator, which produces several different flow fields that may be used for active flow control, is characterized in still air using flow visualization and velocity measurements. The primary actuator-induced flow fields are: free jets, wall jets, and vortex flows. The non-dimensional parameters governing these actuator-induced flows are developed. For the vortex-flow regime, the operational range of the actuator increases as it’s size decreases without a significant decrease in either the actuator induced velocity or vortex core size. The velocity scaling is developed for the vortex flow and suggests that the optimum actuator efficiency occurs at a Stokes number of approximately 7.9 for the range of parameters surveyed. In a turbulent, zero pressure gradient boundary layer, measurements made just downstream of the actuator (when operated in the vortex mode) indicate a vortical disturbance is generated in the boundary layer. Received: 2 September 1998/Accepted: 9 January 1999     

Process of formation of a vortex street in the wake behind a flat plate

The process of the formation of a vortex street in the wake behind a flat plate set parallel to a uniform flow was investigated in a low speed wind tunnel. The vorticity distributions in the wake were calculated from the measured velocities using Taylor's hypothesis.

Just behind the plate, the equi-vorticity lines were nearly parallel to the free stream. At locations somewhat downstream, sinusoidal contour lines appeared near the wake center. Further downstream, some closed contour lines appeared in the figures mapped. The arrangement of the closed lines suggests the existence of a vortex street. The maximum value for vorticity in a wave length of the fundamental velocity fluctuation decreased in the downstream direction; the concentration of vorticity, however, increased in a region the further downstream it was. Meanwhile, the value for circulation obtained by the surface integral of vorticity within the closed contours of a vortex increased until the vortex street was established.     

The formation of vortex rings in a strongly forced round jet

The periodic formation of vortex rings in the developing region of a round jet subjected to high-amplitude acoustic forcing is investigated with High-Speed Particle Image Velocimetry. Harmonic velocity oscillations ranging from 20 to 120% of the mean exit velocity of the jet was achieved at several forcing frequencies determined by the acoustic response of the system. The time-resolved history of the formation process and circulation of the vortex rings are evaluated as a function of the forcing conditions. Overall, high-amplitude forcing causes the shear layers of the jet to breakup into a train of large-scale vortex rings, which share many of the features of starting jets. Features of the jet breakup such as the roll-up location and vortex size were found to be both amplitude and frequency dependent. A limiting time-scale of t/T ≈ 0.33 based on the normalized forcing period was found to restrict the growth of a vortex ring in terms of its circulation for any given arrangement of jet forcing conditions. In sinusoidally forced jets, this time-scale corresponds to a kinematic constraint where the translational velocity of the vortex ring exceeds the shear layer velocity that imposes pinch-off. This kinematic constraint results from the change in sign in the jet acceleration between t = 0 and t = 0.33T. However, some vortex rings were observed to pinch-off before t = 0.33T suggesting that they had acquired their maximum circulation. By invoking the slug model approximations and defining the slug parameters based on the experimentally obtained time- and length-scales, an analytical model based on the slug and ring energies revealed that the formation number for a sinusoidally forced jet is L/D ≈ 4 in agreement with the results of Gharib et al. (J Fluid Mech 360:121–140, 1998).     

Dynamics of the vortex structure of a jet impinging on a convex surface

Smoke–wire flow visualization is used to investigate the behavior of a round jet issuing from a straight tube and impinging on a convex surface. Video analysis of the impinging jet shows the initiation and growth of ring vortices in the jet shear layer and their interaction with the cylindrical surfaces. Effects of relative curvature, nozzle-to-surface distance, and Reynolds number on vortex initiation, vortex separation from the surface and vortex breakup are described. Examples of vortex merging are discussed.     

Consistency issues of Lagrangian particle tracking applied to a spray jet in crossflow

Numerical simulations are performed for multiphase jets in crossflow. The flow solver uses an Eulerian/Lagrangian approach. Turbulence in the gas phase is modeled in the framework of large eddy simulation. The dispersed phase is handled using Lagrangian particle tracking. The model assumptions of solvers for Lagrangian particle tracking are critically assessed for typical flow conditions of spray jets in crossflow. The droplets are assumed to be spherical and isolated. It is shown that several model assumptions are apparently inconsistent in larger portions of the flow field. Firstly, average Weber numbers can be so large that the model assumption to regard droplets as spherical is questionable, not only near the nozzle, but also in the far-field. Secondly, the average droplet spacing can be so low that droplets directly interact with each other, again also in the far-field. Thirdly, the average Stokes numbers in the jet region can be so large that the phase coupling between the dispersed and continuous phase is weak. Some remedies to these deficiencies are proposed.     

Characteristics of ventilating flow generated by a rotating swirler in a vortex vent

A vortex ventilation system with a rotating annular disk installed coaxially with the exhaust inlet is a very effective local ventilator. A swirling flow generated by a rotating swirler makes the ventilation flow concentrated around the axis of rotation, which can increase the ventilation depth by a factor of five compared to a conventional exhaust hood. Despite the well-documented excellent ventilation performance of such a system, detailed flow characteristics are not well understood. In this study, the swirling flow field in the vortex vent was tested, and a number of peculiar flow characteristics were observed. When the rotational speed was varied, a series of different flow patterns appeared, and the changes in the flow pattern showed rapid transition, hysteresis, and flow instability similar to the vortex. The transition of the flow pattern could be explained based on the ratio of the centrifugal force to exhaust pressure. Hysteresis of the flow transition occurred in an unstable equilibrium mode between the two forces, and an unstable flow pattern occurred when the secondary recirculating flow was located beneath the swirler. A formula for the critical rotational speed was derived, which showed satisfactory agreement with experimental observation.     

On the transition process of a swirling vortex generated in a rotating tank

In this study, we investigate the transition of a swirling vortex from a one-celled to a two-celled vortex structure in a rotating tank. The main idea is to initiate the flow by siphoning fluid out of the tank and then to lift the siphoning mechanism out of the water within a short period of time. Before it reaches a state of quasi-two-dimensionality, the core region of the vortex can be roughly divided into three stages. (1) A siphoning stage induces the formation of the one-celled vortex. (2) A downward jet impingement stage triggers the transition of the vortex into the two-celled one. (3) A detachment stage of the inner cell leads to a cup-like recirculation zone, which is pushed upward by an axial flow from the boundary layer. This eventually develops into a stable quasi-two-dimensional barotropic vortex. The core region is enclosed by an outer region, which is in cyclostrophic balance. In the siphoning stage, the flow pattern can be well fitted by Burgers’ vortex model. However, in the post-siphoning stage, the present data show a flow pattern different from the existing two-celled models of Sullivan and Bellamy-Knights. Flow details, including flow patterns, velocity profiles, and surface depressions were measured and visualized by particle tracking velocimetry and the dye-injection method with various colors. The one-celled and two-celled flow structures are also similar to the conceptual images of the one- and two-celled tornadoes proposed in the literature. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.