Motion of a Large Dusty Buoyant Thermal With a Vortex Ring

Abstract

This paper presents a method for computing the motion and decay of a large dusty, buoyant thermal (cloud) carried by a vortex ring generated from a strong near ground explosion and ascending in an inhomogeneous atmosphere. A system of equations is derived describing the motion of the vortex ring, the thermal, and the pollutants which consist of numerous solid spherical particles. The interior properties and the trajectories of the thermal and the pollutants are obtained. The numerical solution for the thermal trajectory is in excellent agreement with experiment.