Vortex dynamics

Vorticity, the local fluid spin of a fluid element, is critical to the phenomenology of fluid flows. Fluid vortices that we are familiar with include hurricanes, bathtub vortices, the contrails behind jet aircraft, and many others. Understanding the dynamics of elementary vortices leads to challenging problems in applied mathematics.

Irrotational flow, that is flow without vorticity, leads naturally to Laplace’s equation. In paper 38, we examine the nature of the flow far from a rotating object in two dimensions and clarify some classical results as found e.g. in Lamb’s Hydrodynamics.

We have also looked at vortex shedding at a sharp edge using the Brown-Michael equation.  See the Fluid-structure interactions page.

This work was supported by the Human Frontiers Science Program and by the National Science Foundation.