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Penetration of a spherical vortex into turbulence

Eames, I; Flór, JB; (2024) Penetration of a spherical vortex into turbulence. Journal of Fluid Mechanics , 999 , Article A17. 10.1017/jfm.2024.673. Green open access

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Abstract

The penetration of a spherical vortex into turbulence is studied theoretically and experimentally. The characteristics of the vortex are first analysed from an integral perspective that reconciles the far-field dipolar flow with the near-field source flow. The influence of entrainment on the vortex drag force is elucidated, extending the Maxworthy (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 81, 1977, pp. 465–495) model to account for turbulent entrainment into the vortex movement and vortex penetration into an evolving turbulent field. The physics are explored numerically using a spherical vortex (initial radius R0 , speed Uv0 ), characterised by a Reynolds number Re0(=2R0Uv0/ν , where ν is the kinematic viscosity) of 2000, moving into decaying homogeneous turbulence (root-mean-square u0 , integral scale L ) with turbulent intensity It=u0/Uv0 . When the turbulence is absent ( It=0 ), a wake volume flux leads to a reduction of vortex impulse that causes the vortex to slow down. In the presence of turbulence ( It>0 ), the loss of vortical material is enhanced and the vortex speed decreases until it is comparable to the local turbulent intensity and quickly fragments, penetrating a distance that scales as I−1t . In the experimental study, a vortex ( Re0∼1490–5660 ) propagating into a statistically steady, spatially varying turbulent field ( Ive=0.02 to 0.98). The penetration distance is observed to scale with the inverse of the turbulent intensity. Incorporating the spatially and temporally varying turbulent fields into the integral model gives a good agreement with the predicted trend of the vortex penetration distance with turbulent intensity and insight into its dependence on the structure of the turbulence.

Type: Article
Title: Penetration of a spherical vortex into turbulence
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1017/jfm.2024.673
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2024.673
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Keywords: Vortex Flows: Vortex breakdown; Vortex Flows: Vortex interactions; Vortex Flows: Vortex shedding
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Mechanical Engineering
URI: https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10201314
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