Numerical simulation of an isolated vortex and shear flow interaction

A numerical solution for the Navier-Stokes equations in the unbounded region is considered for the interaction of an isolated vortex and shear flow. A Chebyshey collocation method in space and finite-difference method for temporal discretization are used. The results of the numerical experiments for the interaction are discussed. It is shown that shear flow can both increase and decrease the vortex dissipation rate.     

An inviscid model for vortex shedding from a deforming body

An inviscid vortex sheet model is developed in order to study the unsteady separated flow past a two-dimensional deforming body which moves with a prescribed motion in an otherwise quiescent fluid. Following Jones (J Fluid Mech 496, 405–441, 2003) the flow is assumed to comprise of a bound vortex sheet attached to the body and two separate vortex sheets originating at the edges. The complex conjugate velocity potential is expressed explicitly in terms of the bound vortex sheet strength and the edge circulations through a boundary integral representation. It is shown that Kelvin’s circulation theorem, along with the conditions of continuity of the normal velocity across the body and the boundedness of the velocity field, yields a coupled system of equations for the unknown bound vortex sheet strength and the edge circulations. A general numerical treatment is developed for the singular principal value integrals arising in the solution procedure. The model is validated against the results of Jones (J Fluid Mech 496, 405–441, 2003) for computations involving a rigid flat plate and is subsequently applied to the flapping foil experiments of Heathcote et al. (AIAA J, 42, 2196–2204, 2004) in order to predict the thrust coefficient. The utility of the model in simulating aquatic locomotion is also demonstrated, with vortex shedding suppressed at the leading edge of the swimming body.      

On the hysteresis of vortex shedding in a periodically-varying flow

Efforts are made to explore the hysteresis characteristics of vortex shedding in a pipe flow, whose velocity varies periodically in time. Results obtained show that during acceleration of the flow, the vortex strength tends to be stronger, whereas during deceleration of the flow, the situation is reversed. As reconstructed from the velocity signals measured at a point in the flow field, the shed vortex arrays appear to possess uneven vortex strengths in response to periodically-varying incoming flows. Furthermore, in the hysteresis range, the streamwise spacings between the vortices appear to be unequal.     

Treatment of vortex sheets for the transonic full-potential equation

This paper summarizes a combined analytical-computational technique which models vortex sheets in transonic potential-flow methods. In this approach, the inviscid nature of discontinuities across vortex sheets is preserved by employing the step function to remove singularities at these surfaces. The location and strength of the vortex sheets are determined by satisfying the flow-tangency boundary condition and the vorticity transport equation. The theory is formulated for the general three-dimensional case, but its application is confined to the problem of computing slipstreams behind propellers with free-vortex blading in axisymmetric flows.     

On variational features of vortex flows

Ideal incompressible fluid is a Hamiltonian system which possesses an infinite number of integrals, the circulations of velocity over closed fluid contours. This allows one to split all the degrees of freedom into the driving ones and the “slave” ones, the latter to be determined by the integrals of motions. The “slave” degrees of freedom correspond to “potential part” of motion, which is driven by vorticity. Elimination of the “slave” degrees of freedom from equations of ideal incompressible fluid yields a closed system of equations for dynamics of vortex lines. This system is also Hamiltonian. The variational principle for this system was found recently (Berdichevsky in Thermodynamics of chaos and order, Addison-Wesly-Longman, Reading, 1997; Kuznetsov and Ruban in JETP Lett 67, 1076–1081, 1998). It looks striking, however. In particular, the fluid motion is set to be compressible, while in the least action principle of fluid mechanics the incompressibility of motion is a built-in property. This striking feature is explained in the paper, and a link between the variational principle of vortex line dynamics and the least action principle is established. Other points made in this paper are concerned with steady motions. Two new variational principles are proposed for steady vortex flows. Their relation to Arnold’s variational principle of steady vortex motion is discussed.      

Factors influencing non-circular ring vortex motion

Non-circular ring vortices are innately unstable, giving rise to a range of new phenomena. Here we report on our and Heertsch's [1] experiments in which vortices were generated at rectangular holes and nozzles with aspect ratios 2<<20. Different piston histories were also used. For forestrokes alone we were able to confirm the typical non-splitting motion of the primary vortex. On introducing a backstroke following the forestroke even for values of as low as 2 — values which should not give rise to splitting vortices — vortices could be made to split into 2, 3 or 4 secondary vortices. For cases where they rejoined the process was significantly different to that predicted by theory [2]. For 3 for a nozzle geometry the splitting angle is extremely sensitive to the stroke (length) so long as splitting takes place, whereas for 9>>5 the splitting angle tends to become independent of the stroke. This sensitivity on the stroke is reduced for vortices generated at a hole geometry. For all cases investigated here the splitting angle seems to be relatively insensitive to the Reynolds number. Vortices generated at hole geometries also tend to be less stable than those generated at tube geometries. Finally, the dependence of the splitting angle on the stroke length only scales with the nozzle breadth for 7>>5.

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Sommario Vortici ad anello non circolari sono intrinsecamente instabili e danno luogo ad una gamma di nuovi fenomeni. In questo articolo vengono riportati gli esperimenti degli Autori e di Heertsch in cui sono generati vortici in ugelli e fori rettangolari con rapporti geometrici =2÷20. Sono state anche usate differenti storie del moto del pistone. Nel caso in cui si usi solo la corsa in avanti si è stati capaci di confermare il moto tipico del vortice primario senza divisione del vortice stesso. Introducendo una corsa inversa, subito dopo la corsa in avanti, persino per pari circa a 2 — valore in cui il vortice non si dovrebbe dividere — i vortici si potevano dividere in due, tre o quattro vortici secondari. Nei casi in cui si verificava la riconnessione, l'evoluzione del processo era molto differente rispetto alla teoria. Per <3, per una data geometria dell'ugello, l'angolo di separazione è estremamente sensibile alla lunghezza della corsa, mentre per =5÷9 l'angolo di separazione tende a diventare indipendente dalla corsa. Questa sensibilità è ridotta per vortici generati in fori. In tutti i casi l'angolo di separazione sembra abbastanza indipendente dal numero di Reynolds. Vortici generati in corrispondenza di fori tendono ad essere meno stabili di quelli generati in ugelli. Infine, la dipendenza dall'angolo di separazione sulla lunghezza della corsa scala con l'ampiezza dell'ugello solamente per =5÷7.

     

The energy transfer mechanism of a perturbed solid-body rotation flow in a rotating pipe

Three-dimensional direct numerical simulations of a solid-body rotation superposed on a uniform axial flow entering a rotating constant-area pipe of finite length are presented. Steady in time profiles of the radial, axial, and circumferential velocities are imposed at the pipe inlet. Convective boundary conditions are imposed at the pipe outlet.The Wang and Rusak(Phys. Fluids 8:1007–1016, 1996.doi:10.1063/1.86882) axisymmetric instability mechanism is retrieved at certain operational conditions in terms of incoming flow swirl levels and the Reynolds number. However, at other operational conditions there exists a dominant,three-dimensional spiral type of instability mode that is consistent with the linear stability theory of Wang et al.(J. Fluid Mech. 797: 284–321, 2016). The growth of this mode leads to a spiral type of flow roll-up that subsequently nonlinearly saturates on a large amplitude rotating spiral wave. The energy transfer mechanism between the bulk of the flow and the perturbations is studied by the Reynolds-Orr equation. The production or loss of the perturbation kinetic energy is combined of three components: the viscous loss, the convective loss at the pipe outlet, and the gain of energy at the outlet through the work done by the pressure perturbation. Theenergy transfer in the nonlinear stage is shown to be a natural extension of the linear stage with a nonlinear saturated process.     

Formation and interaction of intense vortex sheets in 3-dimensional,incompressible, hydrodynamics

Various questions related to the physics of inviscid flows are reviewed. The emergence of strong vortex sheets has repeatedly been observed in the simulation of the 3-dimensional equations, with a variety of initial conditions. In the case of axisymmetric Euler flows, the origin of these sheets can be easily understood with the help of an analogy with thermally driven flows. A more general mechanism to explain these sheets is proposed. Questions of singularities are briefly reviewed. Lastly, preliminary results on the connection between the sheets forming in inviscid flows, and the vortex tubes observed in high Reynolds number flows are presented.

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Sommario Sono considerate varie questioni correlate con la fisica dei flussi non-viscosi. La nascita di strati di forti vortici è stata ripetutamente osservata nella simulazione delle equazioni tridimensionali, per diverse condizioni iniziali. Nel caso di flussi di Eulero assialsimmetrici, l'origine di questi piani può essere facilmente compresa con l'aiuto di una analogia con i flussi guidati termicamente. Viene inoltre proposto un più generale meccanismo per giustificare questi strati e si passano in rassegna brevemente questioni riguardanti le singolarità. Infine, vengono presentati alcuni risultati preliminari sulla connessione tra i piani formantisi in flussi non viscosi ed i vortici tubolari osservati nei flussi ad alti numeri di Reynolds.

     

Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions for the pressure poisson equation of incompressible flow

In a recent paper Gresho and Sani showed that Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions for the pressure Poisson equation give the same solution. The purpose of this paper is to confirm this (for one case at least) by numerically solving the pressure equation with Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions for the inviscid stagnation point flow problem. The Dirichlet boundary condition is obtained by integrating the tangential component of the momentum equation along the boundary. The Neumann boundary condition is obtained by applying the normal component of the momentum equation at the boundary. In this work solutions for the Neumann problem exist only if a compatibility condition is satisfied. A consistent finite difference procedure which satisfies this condition on non-staggered grids is used for the solution of the pressure equation with Neumann conditions. Two test cases are computed. In the first case the velocity field is given from the analytical solution and the pressure is recovered from the solution of the associated Poisson equation. The computed results are identical for both Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions. However, the Dirichlet problem converges faster than the Neumann case. In the second test case the velocity field is computed from the momentum equations, which are solved iteratively with the pressure Poisson equation. In this case the Neumann problem converges faster than the Dirichlet problem.     

Simulation of vortex shedding including blockage by the random-vortex and other methods

Converged simulations of vortex shedding from a circular cylinder at a Reynolds number of 100 have been computed by the random-vortex method incorporating the influence of blockage. The results are compared with converged finite-element and spectral methods and close agreement for Strouhal number is obtained. Forces are, however, in less close agreement, particularly the fluctuating lift force. Strouhal numbers from simulations with zero blockage for Reynolds numbers between 60 and 180 are seen to be in very close agreement with experiments which are said to be effectively two-dimensional. In this range the Strouhal number changes from 0·135 to 0·191. There are no corresponding experimental measurements for force.     

Effect of span length and temperature on the 3-D confined flow around a vortex promoter

This article presents a numerical study on the influence of span length and wall temperature on the 3-D flow pattern around a square section vortex promoter located inside a micro-channel in the low Reynolds number regime. The first objective of the work is to quantify the critical Reynolds number that defines the onset of vortex shedding and to identify the different regimes that appear as a function of the channel aspect ratio (span to height ratio). We found that the critical Reynolds number for the onset of the Karman street regime increases as the aspect ratio decreases. In particular, for the aspect ratio of 1/2 the critical Reynolds number is nearly six times the critical Reynolds number of the 2-D problem. An intermediate oscillating regime between the steady and the Karman street solutions was also found to exist within a rather wide range of Reynolds numbers for small channel aspect ratios. The second objective was to investigate the influence of the vortex promoter wall temperature on both vortex shedding and flow pattern. This has practical engineering implications because the working fluid considered in the article is water that has a viscosity that depends significantly on temperature and promotes a strong coupling between the momentum and energy equations that influences the system behaviour. Results indicate that high surface temperature on the prism promotes the onset of the Karman street, suggesting design guidelines for micro-channel based heat sinks that make use of vortex promoters.     

On the motion of thin vortex tubes

The motion of a tube of vorticity with a cross sectional radius that is everywhere small compared to local radius of curvature of the tube is considered. In particular, we determine the inviscid motion of the 3D space curve that traces the centerline of the tube for an arbitrary distribution of axial vorticity within the core.     

Contour Dynamics with Non-uniform Background Vorticity

In this paper it is demonstrated how a contour dynamics method can be used to simulate the behaviour of vortices in the presence of non-uniform background vorticity in general, and on the γ-plane in particular. For standard contour dynamics in case of zero, or uniform background vorticity, the initial continuous vorticity distributions of the vortices are replaced by appropriate piecewise-uniform distributions. Then, the evolution of the contours separating the several regions of uniform vorticity, are followed in time. In the case of non-uniform background vorticity, it is necessary to replace the sum of the (relative) vorticity of the vortices and the background vorticity by a piecewise-uniform distribution. This has several consequences for applying the method of contour dynamics, which are discussed in this paper. The resulting method is tested on some numerical examples. One of them is (qualitatively) compared with laboratory experiments carried out in a rotating tank.     

Numerical study of the axially symmetric motion of an incompressible viscous fluid in an annulus between two concentric rotating spheres

The research reported herein involved the study of the transient motion of a system consisting of an incompressible Newtonian fluid in an annulus between two concentric, rotating, rigid spheres. The primary purpose of the research was to study the use of a numerical method for analysing the transient motion that results from the interaction between the fluid in the annulus and the spheres which are started suddenly by the action of prescribed torques. The problems considered in this research included cases where: (a) one or both spheres rotate with prescribed constant angular velocities and (b) one sphere rotates due to the action of an applied constant or impulsive t?orque. In this research the coupled solid and fluid equations were solved numerically by employing the finite difference technique. With the approach adopted in this research, only the derivatives with respect to spatial variables were approximated with the use of the finite difference formulae. The steady state problem was also solved as a separate problem (for verification purposes), and the results were compared with those obtained from the solution of the transient problem. Newton's algorithm was employed to solve the algebraic equations which resulted from the steady state problem, and the Adams fourth-order predictor–corrector method was employed to solve the ordinary differential equations for the transient problem. Results were obtained for the streamfunction, circumferential function, angular velocity of the spheres and viscous torques acting on the spheres as a function of time for various values of the system dimensionless parameters.     

Fast numerical evaluation of flow fields with vortex cells

A vortex cell (in this paper) is an aerodynamically shaped cavity in the surface of a body, for example a wing, designed specially to trap the separated vortex within it, thus preventing large-scale unsteady vortex shedding from the wing. Vortex stabilisation can be achieved either by the special geometry, as has already been done experimentally, or by a system of active control. In realistic conditions the boundary and mixing layers in the vortex cell are always turbulent. In the present study a model for calculating the flow in a vortex cell was obtained by replacing the laminar viscosity with the turbulent viscosity in the known high-Reynolds-number asymptotic theory of steady laminar flows in vortex cells. The model was implemented numerically and was shown to be faster than solving the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations. An experimental facility with a vortex cell was built and experiments performed. Comparisons of the experimental results with the predictions of the model are reasonably satisfactory. The results also indicate that at least for flows in near-circular vortex cells it is sufficient to have accurate turbulence models only in thin viscous layers, while outside the viscosity should only be small enough to make the flow effectively inviscid.     

Visualization of the flow structure in a vortex tube

The temperature separation in a vortex tube has been investigated for the purpose of exploring the phenomenon and improving the tube performance. Different explanations for the temperature separation have been proposed. However, there has not been a consensus in the hypothesis.This paper reports on a study in progress exploring the flow structure in a vortex tube. Flow visualization, using water as a working fluid, is used to reveal the existence of multiple circulation regions within the vortex tube and a new hypothesis describes the temperature separation mechanism. This research contributes to the understanding of the flow behavior in a vortex tube and supports the previous works that show the generation of the cold component of the flow is the result of the expansion near the cold nozzle and the hot component is produced due to the friction between the layers of flow.     

Flow past confined delta-wing type vortex generators

This paper presents the results of an experimental study of flow structure in horizontal equilateral triangular ducts having double rows of half delta-wing type vortex generators mounted on the duct’s slant surfaces. The test ducts have the same axial length and hydraulic diameter of 4 m and 58.3 mm, respectively. Each duct consists of double rows of half delta wing pairs arranged either in common flow-up or common flow-down configurations. Flow field measurements were performed using a Particle Image Velocimetry Technique for hydraulic diameter based Reynolds numbers in the range of 1000-8000. The secondary flow field differences generated by two different vortex generator configurations were examined in detail. The secondary flow is found stronger behind the second vortex generator pair than behind the first pair but becomes weaker far from the second pair in the case of Duct1. However, the strength of the secondary flow is found nearly the same behind the first and the second vortex generator pair as well as far from the second vortex generator pair in the case of Duct2. Both ducts are able to create a counter-rotating and a second set of twin foci. Duct2 is able to create the second set of twin foci in an earlier streamwise location than Duct1, as these foci are well-known to their heat transfer augmentation. A larger vortex formation area and a greater induced vorticity field between vortex pairs are observed for Duct2 compared with Duct1. As the induced flow field between the vortex pairs increases the heat transfer, and as the flow field between the vortex cores is found larger in the case of Duct2, therefore, it is expected to obtain better heat transfer characteristics for Duct2 compared with Duct1.     

Adaptive panel representation for oblique collision of two vortex rings

In this article, we use a hierarchical panel method for representing vortex sheet surface motion in 3D flow to investigate the oblique collision of two vortex rings. The particles representing the sheet are advected by a regularized Biot-Savart integral with smoothed Rosenhead-Moore kernel. The particle velocities are evaluated by an adaptive treecode algorithm based on Taylor expansions in Cartesian coordinates. The method allowed us to consider late stages of a vortex rings collision, producing a funnel region. Vorticity iso-surfaces evolution is also investigated.     

Diffusion velocity for a three-dimensional vorticity field

A discussion is presented on the existence of a diffusion velocity for the vorticity vector that satisfies extensions of the Helmholtz vortex laws in a three-dimensional, incompressible, viscous fluid flow. A general form for the diffusion velocity is derived for a complex-lamellar vorticity field that satisfies the property that circulation is invariant about a region that is advected with the sum of the fluid velocity and the diffusion velocity. A consequence of this property is that vortex lines will be material lines with respect to this combined velocity field. The question of existence of diffusion velocity for a general three-dimensional vorticity field is shown to be equivalent to the question of existence of solutions of a certain Fredholm equation of the first kind. An example is given for which it is shown that a diffusion velocity satisfying this property does not, in general, exist. Properties of the simple expression for diffusion velocity for a complex-lamellar vorticity field are examined when applied to the more general case of an arbitrary three-dimensional flow. It is found that this form of diffusion velocity, while not satisfying the condition of circulation invariance, nevertheless has certain desirable properties for computation of viscous flows using Lagrangian vortex methods. The significance and structure of the noncomplex-lamellar part of the viscous diffusion term is examined for the special case of decaying homogeneous turbulence.