Authors: David Murphy Xuerui Mao
Publish Date: 2015/01/28
Volume: 29, Issue: 1-2, Pages: 55-65
Abstract
The interaction of a vortex and a pipe flow modelled as the Lamb–Oseen vortex and the Poiseuille flow respectively is investigated by means of stability analyses and direct numerical simulations DNS From the distribution of the most unstable mode it is observed that the instability is induced by the combination of the radial gradients of the base azimuthal and axial velocity components eg an axial or azimuthal vorticity perturbation acts on the axial or azimuthal base velocity via a liftup effect to generate axial or azimuthal velocity streaks which are further stretched by the base azimuthal or axial velocity to create azimuthal or axial vorticity This liftupstretch mechanism is confirmed in DNS of the model base flow initially perturbed by the most unstable mode After nonlinear saturation the perturbations decay since the flow no longer supports instability after sufficient radial mixing induced by the liftup of the azimuthal and axial velocity components These observations suggest that the vorticity outside the vortex core can be suppressed by instabilities if a streamwise boundary layer flow exists outside the core
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