Direct numerical simulations of vortex rings at ReΓ = 7500

Abstract

We present direct numerical simulations of the turbulent decay of vortex rings with ReΓ = 7500. We analyse the vortex dynamics during the nonlinear stage of the instability along with the structure of the vortex wake during the turbulent stage. These simulations enable the quantification of vorticity dynamics and their correlation with structures from dye visualization and the observations of circulation decay that have been reported in related experimental works. Movies are available with the online version of the paper.