On the phenomenon of vortex street breakdown

Abstract

A von Kármán vortex street generated in the usual way was subjected to a deceleration, thereby changing the ratio of longitudinal to lateral spacing between the vortices. Distortion of the individual vortices followed which resulted in annihilation of concentrated vortex regions and creation of a stationary wake flow. This wake flow was itself dynamically unstable and developed into a new vortex street of a different frequency from the initial one. The breakdown of the initial vortex street is qualitatively explained by considering the convection of a concentrated vortex region due to the motion imposed by all the other vortices.