Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-qlrfm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-08T20:36:30.742Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Solitary waves on a vorticity layer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2006

F. J. Higuera
Affiliation:
E.T.S. Ingenieros Aeronáuticos, Pza. Cardenal Cisneros 3, 28040 Madrid, Spain
J. Jiménez
Affiliation:
E.T.S. Ingenieros Aeronáuticos, Pza. Cardenal Cisneros 3, 28040 Madrid, Spain

Abstract

Contour dynamics methods are used to determine the shapes and speeds of planar, steadily propagating, solitary waves on a two-dimensional layer of uniform vorticity adjacent to a free-slip plane wall in an, otherwise irrotational, unbounded incompressible fluid, as well as of axisymmetric solitary waves propagating on a tube of azimuthal vorticity proportional to the distance to the symmetry axis. A continuous family of solutions of the Euler equations is found in each case. In the planar case they range from small-amplitude solitons of the Benjamin–Ono equation to large-amplitude waves that tend to one member of the touching pair of counter-rotating vortices of Pierrehumbert (1980), but this convergence is slow in two small regions near the tips of the waves, for which an asymptotic analysis is presented. In the axisymmetric case, the small-amplitude waves obey a Korteweg–de Vries equation with small logarithmic corrections, and the large-amplitude waves tend to Hill's spherical vortex.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1994 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ablowitz, M. J. & Clarkson, P. A. 1991 Solitons, Nonlinear Evolution Equations, and Inverse Scattering. Cambridge University Press. pp. 173181.
Benjamin, T. B. 1967 Internal waves of permanent form in fluids of great depth. J. Fluid Mech. 29, 559592.Google Scholar
Bliss, D. B. 1973 The dynamics of flows with high concentration of vorticity. PhD thesis, Dept. Aero. & Astro., MIT.
Broadbent, E. G. & Moore, D. W. 1985 Waves of extreme form on a layer of uniform vorticity. Phys. Fluids 28, 15611563.Google Scholar
Doligalski, T. L. & Walker, J. D. A. 1984 The boundary layer induced by a convected two-dimensional vortex. J. Fluid Mech. 139, 128.Google Scholar
Jiménez, J. 1990 Transition to turbulence in two-dimensional Poiseuille flow. J. Fluid. Mech. 218, 265297.Google Scholar
Jiménez, J. & Moin, P. 1991 The minimal flow unit in near-wall turbulence. J. Fluid Mech. 225, 213240.Google Scholar
Jiménez, J. & Orlandi, P. 1993 The roll-up of a vortex layer near wall. J. Fluid Mech. 248, 297313.Google Scholar
Leibovich, S. 1970 Weakly non-linear waves in rotational fluids. J. Fluid Mech. 42, 803822.Google Scholar
Leibovich, S. & Randall, J. D. 1972 Solitary waves in concentrated vortices. J. Fluid Mech. 51, 625635.Google Scholar
Maxworthy, T. 1972 The structure and stability of vortex rings. J. Fluid Mech. 51, 1532.Google Scholar
Maxworthy, T. 1974 Turbulent vortex rings. J. Fluid Mech. 64, 227239.Google Scholar
Moffatt, H. K. & Moore, D. W. 1978 The response of Hill's spherical vortex to a small axisymmetric disturbance. J. Fluid Mech. 87, 749760.Google Scholar
Orlandi, P. 1990 Vortex dipole rebound from a wall. Phys. Fluids A 2, 14291436.
Orlandi, P. & Jiménez, J. 1991 A model for bursting of near wall vortical structures in boundary layers. In 8th Symp. on Turbulent Shear Flows, September 1991, Munich, pp. 28.1.128.1.6.
Perry, A. E. & Fairlie, B. D. 1975 A study of turbulent boundary layer separation and reattachment. J. Fluid Mech. 69, 657672.Google Scholar
Pierrehumbert, R. T. 1980 A family of steady, translating vortex pairs with distributed vorticity. J. Fluid Mech. 99, 129144.Google Scholar
Pozrikidis, C. 1986 The non-linear instability of Hill's vortex. J. Fluid Mech. 168, 337367.Google Scholar
Pullin, D. I. 1981 The nonlinear behaviour of a constant vorticity layer at a wall. J. Fluid Mech. 108, 401421.Google Scholar
Pullin, D. I. & Grimshaw, R. H. J. 1983 Interfacial progressive gravity waves in a two-layer shear flow. Phys. Fluids 26, 17311739.Google Scholar
Pullin, D. I. & Grimshaw, R. H. J. 1988 Finite-amplitude solitary waves at the interface between two homogeneous fluids. Phys. Fluids 31, 35503559.Google Scholar
Rayleigh, Lord 1887 On the stability or instability of certain fluid motions, II. In Scientific Papers, vol. 3. Cambridge University Press, pp. 1723.
Saffman, P. G. 1993 Vortex Dynamics, secs. 9.6 and 14.2. Cambridge University Press.
Saffman, P. G. & Szeto, R. 1980 Equilibrium shapes of a pair of equal uniform vortices. Phys. Fluids 23, 23392342.Google Scholar
Saffman, P. G. & Tanveer, S. 1982 The touching pair of equal and opposite uniform vortices. Phys. Fluids 25, 19291930.Google Scholar
Sendstad, O. 1992 Mechanics of three dimensional boundary layers. PhD thesis, Stanford University.
Shariff, K. & Leonard, A. 1992 Vortex rings. Ann. Rev. Fluid Mech. 24, 235279.Google Scholar
Shariff, K., Leonard, A. & Ferziger, J. H. 1989 Dynamics of a class of vortex rings. NASA TM 102257.
Stern, M. E. & Pratt, L. J. 1985 Dynamics of vorticity fronts. J. Fluid Mech. 161, 513532.Google Scholar
Teles da Silva, A. F. & Peregrine, D. H. 1988 Steep, steady surface waves on water of finite depth with constant vorticity. J. Fluid Mech. 195, 281302.Google Scholar
Turfus, C. 1993 Prandtl–Batchelor flows past a flat plate at normal incidence in a channel–inviscid analysis. J. Fluid Mech. 249, 5972.Google Scholar
Wu, H. M., Overman, E. A. & Zabuski, N. J. 1984 Steady-state solutions of the Euler equations in two dimensions: Rotating and translating V-states with limiting cases. I. Numerical algorithms and results. J. Comput. Phys. 53, 4271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar