The development of concentrated vortices: a numerical study

Abstract

Amongst the more important laboratory experiments which have produced concentrated vortices in rotating tanks are the sink experiments of Long and the bubble convection experiments of Turner & Lilly. This paper describes a numerical experiment which draws from the laboratory experiments those features which are believed to be most relevant to atmospheric vortices such as tornadoes and waterspouts.In the numerical model the mechanism driving the vortices is represented by an externally specified vertical body force field defined in a narrow neighbourhood of the axis of rotation. The body force field is applied to a tank of fluid initially in a state of rigid rotation and the subsequent flow development is obtained by solving the Navier–Stokes equations as an initial-value problem.Earlier investigations have revealed that concentrated vortices will form only for a restricted range of flow parameters, and for the numerical experiment this range was selected using an order-of-magnitude analysis of the steady Navier–Stokes equations for sink vortices performed by Morton. With values of the flow parameters obtained in this way, concentrated vortices with angular velocities up to 30 times that of the tank are generated, whereas only much weaker vortices are formed at other parametric states. The numerical solutions are also used to investigate the comparative effect of a free upper surface and a no-slip lid.The concentrated vortices produced in the numerical experiment grow downwards from near the top of the tank until they reach the bottom plate whereupon they strengthen rapidly before reaching a quasi-steady state. In the quasi-steady state the flow in the tank typically consists of the vortex at the axis of rotation, strong inflow and outflow boundary layers at the bottom and top plates respectively, and a region of slowly-rotating descending flow over the remainder of the tank. The flow is cyclonic (i.e. in the same sense as the tank) in the vortex core and over most of the bottom half of the tank and is anticyclonic over the upper half of the tank away from the axis of rotation.