Electrical discharges and intense vortices

Abstract

In this paper we consider the axisymmetric flow field generated in a semi­-infinite viscous incompressible fluid by an electric current discharge in the presence of a line vortex which coincides with the axis of the discharge. The system is supposed to be bounded by a fixed plate which is perpen­dicular to the line vortex. A similarity solution is constructed for the non­-linear problem. The idealized solution is, in effect, the superposition of two existing solutions both of which are associated with up-draught velocities and lends qualitative support to theories that associate tornado vortices with electrical activity, though here the agency generating the velocity field is the Lorentz force and not, the usually assumed, electric heating.