The steady motion and stability of a helical vortex

Abstract

1. Introductory .—This is the third of a series of papers dealing with the stability or instability of certain forms of vortex motion associated with the wake of a body moving in a fluid. In the earlier papers we examined the case of a system of equal vortex rings in parallel planes, as they might form in the rear of a sphere in steady motion. Nisi and Porter have shown that the lowest speed at which the vortex ring forms is 8·14 v / d where v is the kinematic viscosity of the fluid and d is the diameter of the sphere. Such a system of vortices has been proved to be only partially stable, and it is therefore to be inferred that their production occurs at a transition stage to a more stable type of flow. Now it is well known that in the case of two dimensional flow past a cylinder of any cross-sectional shape, eddies are formed in symmetrical pairs at low values of Reynolds' number, whereas at higher values asymmetry sets in and the eddying is formed alternately at one side of the cylinder and then at the other with regular periodicity. This latter stage occurs over a range of values of Reynolds’ number extending from about 70 to 10 5 . Detailed explorations of the field for some distance behind the cylinder have established that the centres of eddying approximately assume the stable formation which has come to be known as the “Kármán vortex street."