Visualization of vortex breakdown structures

Shapes and structures of vortex breakdown phenomena in rotating fluids are visualized. We investigate the flow in a cylindrical container and in a cone between two spherical surfaces. The primary swirling flow is induced by the rotating upper disk in the cylindrical case and by the lower boundary in the spherical case. The upper surface can be fixed with a no slip condition or can be a stress-free surface. Depending on these boundary conditions and on the Reynolds number novel structures of recirculation zones are realized. Experiments are done to visualize the topological structure of the flow and to determine their existence range as function of the geometry and rotation rate. A comparison between the experimental and theoretical approach shows a good agreement in respect to the topological structures of the flows.     

Visualization of Taylor-Couette and spiral Poiseuille flows using a snapshot FLASH spatial tagging sequence

A new magnetic resonance imaging technique was applied to the Taylor-Couette and spiral Poiseuille (Taylor-Couette with superposed mean axial flux) flows for the first time. The experimental technique is a combination of spatial tagging methods and a snapshot FLASH imaging sequence, which allows the full-field visualization of 2-D slices of the flow field, with image acquisition times approximately half a second. By acquiring images every few seconds, direct visualization of flow patterns can be obtained in the form of cinematography. Tagged images of the Taylor-Couette flow were acquired in both the axial and transverse planes and confirmed previously reported numerical predictions of Taylor cell size. Tagged images of the spiral Poiseuille flows verified that the cells in this flow propagate at a higher velocity than the mean axial flow. In addition, intermittent cell formation was observed as the axial flow was increased.     

Visualization study on suppression of vortex shedding from a cylinder

A narrow strip has been introduced as a control element to suppress vortex shedding from a cylinder. The strip is set parallel to the cylinder axis, and the key parameter of control in this study is the strip position, which is determined by the angle of attack of the strip and the distance between the strip and the cylinder axis. A circular cylinder and a square cylinder were tested respectively. Flow visualization and hot-wire measurement were performed in a low turbulence wind tunnel in the range of Reynolds numberRe=4.0×10³≈2.0×10⁴. Test results show that, vortex shedding from both sides of the cylinder can be effectively suppressed if the strip is located in a certain zone in the wake. The effective zones in circular cylinder wakes at different Reynolds numbers have been found out, and the mechanism of the suppression has been discussed.     

Visualization studies using PIV in a cylindrical tank with and without vortex suppressor

Vortexing occurs during draining from tanks which reduces the rate of outflow. The phenomenon is augmented by initial rotation. The use of a vortex suppressor in a circular tank prevents vortexing. The reasons for the suppression of the vortexing are not clear. In this paper quantitative flow visualization results using PIV are presented which bring out the flow structure under various conditions. The suppressor leads to a faster decay in the rotational component.     

Visualization of concentration field in a vortex ring using acetone PLIF

To improve the understanding of flame propagation through a nonpremixed vortex ring, the characteristics of fuel concentration in a vortex ring have been investigated experimentally. The vortex ring was generated by the ejection of propane with a single stroke motion of a speaker. Planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) technique was adopted by seeding acetone as a tracer to fuel stream, in which the PLIF signal intensity is directly proportional to the concentration of acetone. This technique provides non-intrusive and instantaneous measurement of concentration field. Results showed that fuel concentration and its gradient decreased with the evolution of a vortex ring. When a nonpremixed flame propagated through a vortex ring, the flame location coincides with the inner most spiral mixing layer of fuel and air in a vortex ring.     

Visualization of Lagrangian fluid transport of a vortex ring based on time-resolved PIV

Journal of Visualization - We carry out experiments on vortex ring flows submerged underwater which are generated by a pulsatile circular jet with the stroke ratio of 10. The pulsatile Reynolds...     

Visualization of the large-scale vortex structures in excited turbulent jets

The present work is a part of the more common research aimed at establishing the role of large-scale vortex structures in the mechanism of noise generation by subsonic turbulent jet. The work presents the results of photography and videography of fast non-stationary processes in a circular subsonic jet under lateral acoustic excitation by harmonical source located upstream in a stilling chamber. Jet velocity varied in the range of 40–200 m/s (M=0.12–0.6).     

Visualization of two-dimensional vortex flows in thin oscillating liquid films

A possibility of visualizing flows using random inhomogeneities of film thicknesses of different colors as particles for visualization is shown on an example of a vortex flow structure in an oscillating thin liquid film. Formation of vortex flows in a thin liquid film containing surface-active substances is investigated in experiments. The film is fixed horizontally along the edges of the cell vibrating in the vertical direction. Spatially homogeneous oscillations of the liquid film can excite different types of waves that generate two-dimensional vortex flows due to nonlinearity. We present results of experimental investigation of the structure of vortex flows in a thin film (0.5–10 μm) with rectangular boundaries. It has been revealed that, if the horizontal size of an inhomogeneous region is much smaller than the size of vortices, the inhomogeneities are transported by vortices and their interference pattern can be used for visualization of vortex flows.     

Propagating viscous modes in a Taylor-Couette system

The nonequilibrium eigenmodes for the Taylor-Couette system are investigated in the narrow gap approximation. Propagating viscous modes are found under a wide variety of conditions.     

Control of chaotic Taylor-Couette flow with time-delayed feedback

We demonstrate that unstable periodic orbits embedded in the experimental chaotic attractor determined by the Taylor-Couette flow can be stabilized with a time-delay autosynchronization algorithm. The optimal parameters of the feedback and their dependence on the control parameter are shown as experimental results.     

Visualization of vortex bound states in polarized fermi gases at unitarity

We theoretically analyze a single vortex in a spin polarized 3D trapped atomic Fermi gas near a broad Feshbach resonance. Above a critical polarization the Andreev-like bound states inside the core become occupied by the majority spin component. As a result, the local density difference at the core center suddenly rises at low temperatures. This provides a way to visualize the lowest bound state using phase-contrast imaging. As the polarization increases, the core expands gradually and the energy of the lowest bound state decreases.     

Irregular mixing due to a vortex pair interacting with a fixed vortex

The paper examines scalar advection caused by a point–vortex pair encountering a fixed point vortex in a uniform flow. The interaction produces two types of vortex motion. First is unbounded as the pair moves unrestrictedly after encountering the fixed vortex. The scalar exchanging between the pair's bubble and fixed vortex's neighbourhood is numerically estimated. Second is bounded as the pair's vortices periodically oscillate about the fixed vortex. The pair's periodic motion perturbs scalar motion causing a portion of scalar trajectories to manifest chaotic behaviour. We analyse scalar transport using Poincaré sections, which reveal regular and chaotic transport regions.