Dipole and Multipole Flows with Point Vortices and Vortex Sheets

An exact method is presented for obtaining uniformly translating distributions of vorticity in a two-dimensional ideal fluid, or equivalently, stationary distributions in the presence of a uniform background flow. These distributions are generalizations of the well-known vortex dipole and consist of a collection of point vortices and an equal number of bounded vortex sheets. Both the vorticity density of the vortex sheets and the velocity field of the fluid are expressed in terms of a simple rational function in which the point vortex positions and strengths appear as parameters. The vortex sheets lie on heteroclinic streamlines of the flow. Dipoles and multipoles that move parallel to a straight fluid boundary are also obtained. By setting the translation velocity to zero, equilibrium configurations of point vortices and vortex sheets are found.     

Short-wave instabilities on a vortex pair of unequal strength circulation ratio

The creation of vortex pairs occurs in a range of industries, including mixing, transport, and plastic moulding. In particular, vortex pairs are observed in the wake of aircraft, and are the cause of a significant hazard in the aviation industry. Instabilities, which grow on vortex pairs, have the potential to lead to enhanced dissipation, thus limiting this safety concern, in addition to enhancing mixing in chemical engineering industries. To date research has mostly considered instabilities growing on a vortex pair where each vortex has the same magnitude of circulation. However, in practice it is unusual to have an equal-strength vortex pair. This investigation is the first to consider the instability modes that may develop on a Lamb–Oseen vortex pair of arbitrary circulation ratio. We find a significant change in the growth rates of all instability modes reported previously for an equal-strength vortex pair. All simulations employ an accurate spectral-element method to discretise the domain coupled with a three-step time splitting scheme. A wide range of instability wavelengths is considered to ensure that all instability modes are captured. By identifying and enhancing the leading instability modes, we are able to enhance the dissipation of the vortex pair.     

The Motion of a Vortex Pair in a Stratified Atmosphere

The movement of a horizontal vortex pair through an inhomogeneous fluid is considered. The problem is formulated first for the case when the ambient fluid is uniform, the fluid moving with the vortex pair has a different density, and the motion is supposed laminar and inviscid. An approximate solution is obtained, which predicts that the distance between the vortices stays constant and the vortices accelerate at a constant rate. This solution is then applied to motion in a stratified atmosphere and it is found that the vortices oscillate vertically with a frequency and amplitude depending on the initial conditions and the stratification. Finally, approximate equations are constructed to describe the effects of turbulent entrainment into the fluid moving with the vortex pair, and an estimate of the damping is obtained.     

The Equation of Motion of a Vortex Layer of Small Thickness

The equation governing the evolution of a vortex layer whose thickness is small compared to its radius of curvature and in which the vorticity is everywhere the same is obtained, viscous and compressibility effects being neglected. The method of matched asymptotic expansions is applied and results in an extension, which is unexpectedly simple, of Birkhoff's integro-differential equation for vortex sheets. The equation is applied to long waves on a straight vortex layer of uniform thickness.     

Convergence of the point vortex method for 2-D vortex sheet

We give an elementary proof of the convergence of the point vortex method (PVM) to a classical weak solution for the two-dimensional incompressible Euler equations with initial vorticity being a finite Radon measure of distinguished sign and the initial velocity of locally bounded energy. This includes the important example of vortex sheets, which exhibits the classical Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. A surprise fact is that although the velocity fields generated by the point vortex method do not have bounded local kinetic energy, the limiting velocity field is shown to have a bounded local kinetic energy.

     

Lateral Vortex Dynamics behind Ahmed body

The flow-field in the wake of Ahmed body was studied experimentally. The study is oriented on unsteady behavior of the lateral vortex pair arising in the wake as well as on the wake itself. The time-mean characteristics of the wake flow are presented. The dynamical behavior of the longitudinal vortex pair is studied in details. The Stereo Time-Resolved PIV method was applied in the wake plane perpendicular to the mean flow. Two variants of Ahmed Body with slat angle 25 and 35 degrees are investigated respectively. Comparison shows considerable differences in the vortex pair topology and dynamics of the cases in question. (© 2010 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Regularising discretizations of the Birkhoff-Rott equation

A thin shear layer moving from the trailing edge of a two-dimensional aerofoil section downstream can be interpreted as a curve of discontinuity for the tangential velocity and may be approximated by a vortex sheet in inviscid, incompressible fluid flow. It is well known that vortex sheets are subject to instabilities of Kelvin-Helmholtz type which lead to roll-up phenomena in the wake. The motion of such sheets is governed by the Birkhoff-Rott equation. In the case of Kelvin-Helmholtz instability it seems clear that a curvature singularity occurs at a certain critical time and that consistent discretizations of the Birkhoff-Rott equation may fail to yield reliable results even before the time of occurrence of a singularity. We discuss the modification of the Biot-Savart kernel in the sense of Krasny who regularized the kernel by means of a global parameter. Using discrete Fourier transform we show the damping influence of this regularization technique. We modify the kernel carefully by introducing a regularization found in ordinary vortex methods and show that reliable results may be obtained up to and slightly after the singularity formation without increasing the accuracy of the computation.     

The Effect of Surface Tension on the Moore Singularity of Vortex Sheet Dynamics

We investigate the regularization of Moore’s singularities by surface tension in the evolution of vortex sheets and its dependence on the Weber number (which is inversely proportional to surface tension coefficient). The curvature of the vortex sheet, instead of blowing up at finite time t ₀, grows exponentially fast up to a O(We) limiting value close to t ₀. We describe the analytic structure of the solutions and their self-similar features and characteristic scales in terms of the Weber number in a O(We⁻¹) neighborhood of the time at which, in absence of surface tension effects, Moore’s singularity would appear. Our arguments rely on asymptotic techniques and are supported by full numerical simulations of the PDEs describing the evolution of vortex sheets.     

Algebraic spiral solutions of 2d incompressible Euler

We consider self-similar solutions of the 2d incompressible Euler equations. We construct a class of solutions with vorticity forming algebraic spirals near the origin, in analogy to vortex sheets rolling up into algebraic spirals.     

A new proof of Wu’s theorem on vortex sheets

We give a new proof of Wu’s theorem on vortex sheets by using W 1,p estimate for the elliptic equation of divergence form with partially BMO cofficients and Lp boundedness of commutators of Calderón-Zygmund operators.     

Vortex design problem

In this investigation we propose a computational approach for the solution of optimal control problems for vortex systems with compactly supported vorticity. The problem is formulated as a PDE-constrained optimization in which the solutions are found using a gradient-based descent method. Recognizing such Euler flows as free-boundary problems, the proposed approach relies on shape differentiation combined with adjoint analysis to determine cost functional gradients. In explicit tracking of interfaces (vortex boundaries) this method offers an alternative to grid-based techniques, such as the level-set methods, and represents a natural optimization formulation for vortex problems computed using the contour dynamics technique. We develop and validate this approach using the design of 2D equilibrium Euler flows with finite-area vortices as a model problem. It is also discussed how the proposed methodology can be applied to Euler flows featuring other vorticity distributions, such as vortex sheets, and to time-dependent phenomena.     

Dynamic Depletion of Vortex Stretching and Non-Blowup of the 3-D Incompressible Euler Equations

We study the interplay between the local geometric properties and the non-blowup of the 3D incompressible Euler equations. We consider the interaction of two perturbed antiparallel vortex tubes using Kerr's initial condition . We use a pseudo-spectral method with resolution up to 1536 × 1024 × 3072 to resolve the nearly singular behavior of the Euler equations. Our numerical results demonstrate that the maximum vorticity does not grow faster than doubly exponential in time, up to t = 19, beyond the singularity time t = 18.7 predicted by Kerr's computations , . The velocity, the enstrophy, and the enstrophy production rate remain bounded throughout the computations. As the flow evolves, the vortex tubes are flattened severely and turned into thin vortex sheets, which roll up subsequently. The vortex lines near the region of the maximum vorticity are relatively straight. This local geometric regularity of vortex lines seems to be responsible for the dynamic depletion of vortex stretching.     

Convergence of vortex methods for weak solutions to the 2-D euler equations with vortex sheet data

We prove the convergence of vortex blob methods to classical weak solutions for the two-dimensional incompressible Euler equations with initial data satisfying the conditions that the vorticity is a finite Radon measure of distinguished sign and the kinetic energy is locally bounded. This includes the important example of vortex sheets. The result is valid as long as the computational grid size h does not exceed the smoothing blob size ε, i.e., h/ε ≦ C.. ©1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Vortex sheets with reflection symmetry in exterior domains

In this paper we prove the existence of a weak solution of the incompressible 2D Euler equations in the exterior of a reflection symmetric smooth bluff body with symmetric initial flow corresponding to vortex sheet type data whose vorticity is of distinguished sign on each side of the symmetry axis. This work extends the results proved for full plane flow by the authors in [M.C. Lopes Filho, H.J. Nussenzveig Lopes, Z. Xin, Existence of vortex sheets with reflection symmetry in two space dimensions, Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 158 (3) (2001) 235-257].     

Statistical mechanics of a vortex system in a thin superconducting film using the cyclic approximation

The statistical mechanics of a vortex system in a two-dimensional superconductor is constructed using the cyclic approximation, accounting for the finiteness of the vortex core. This leads to a crossover of the vortex antivortex pair unbinding transition from the usual continuous Kosterlitz-Thouless-like behavior for large core energies to the first order transition for low energies.Translated from Teoreticheskaya i Matematicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 107, No. 1, pp. 100–114, April, 1996.Translated by L. O. Chekhov.     

Constant vorticity Riabouchinsky flows from a variational principle

Summary Flows with constant vorticity regions bounded by vortex sheets are obtained by minimizing a functional which is the difference of energy in the external (irrotational) flow and the internal flow. In the zero vorticity case this reduces to the functional used by Garabedian, Lewy, and Schiffer for Riabouchinsky's problem. The discretization is done using Schwarz-Christoffel transformations for approximating polygons and FFT's to compute required Dirichlet integrals.     

Numerical exploration of new features on three-dimensional transition of a cylinder wake

The three-dimensional transition of the wake flow behind a circular cylinder is studied in detail by direct numerical simulations using 3D incompressible N-S equations for Reynolds number ranging from 200 to 300. New features and vortex dynamics of the 3D transition of the wake are found and investigated. At Re = 200, the flow pattern is characterized by mode A instability. However, the spanwise characteristic length of the cylinder determines the transition features. Particularly for the specific spanwise charac-