Moderately Strong Vorticity in a Bathtub-Type Flow

Theoretical and numerical analysis is performed for an inviscid axisymmetric vortical bathtub-type flow. The level of vorticity is kept high so that the image of the flow on the radial–axial plane (r–z plane)is not potential. The most significant findings are: (1) the region of validity of the strong vortex approximation is separated from the drain by a buffer region, (2) the power-law asymptote of the stream function, specified by Δψ∼r ^4/3Δz, appears near the axis when vorticity in the flow is sufficiently strong and (3) the local Rossby number in the region of the power-law is not very sensitive to the changes of the initial vorticity level in the flow and the global Rossby number. Received 3 April 2000 and accepted 29 September 2000