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Unstable flows in the runner of water turbines, such as reverse flow, vorticity and flow direction transition, are the main factors causing increased losses and decreased efficiency, and changing the geometry structure in the downstream of the runner is an important means of mitigating these instabilities. The different flow fields downstream of runners induced by different locking nut structures are numerically calculated and verified by experimental results. The flow states are evaluated in terms of characteristic quantities such as pressure gradient, swirling flow, reverse flow, and vorticity. The results show a non-negligible effect of the locking nut, which leads to a more uniform pressure distribution, increases the descending speed of the reverse flow rate, and reduces the volume and strength of the vortex. The small locking nut significantly weakens the pressure gradient, reduces the top reverse flow zone, and decreases the vortex volume at the blade flow passage outlet and the size of the downstream disturbance vortex. The extended lock nut reduces the growth rate of the vortex generation rate and the size of the partial vortex, but increases the range of the high-pressure zone, causing the bottom reverse flow and increasing the vortex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution of unforced and weakly damped two-dimensional turbulence over random rough topography presents two extreme states. If the initial kinetic energy E is sufficiently high, then the topography is a weak perturbation, and evolution is determined by the spontaneous formation and mutual interaction of coherent axisymmetric vortices. High-energy vortices roam throughout the domain and mix the background potential vorticity (PV) to homogeneity, i.e., in the region between vortices, which is most of the domain, the relative vorticity largely cancels the topographic PV. If E is low, then vortices still form but they soon become locked to topographic features: Anticyclones sit above topographic depressions and cyclones above elevated regions. In the low-energy case, with topographically locked vortices, the background PV retains some spatial variation. We develop a unified framework of topographic turbulence spanning these two extreme states of low and high energy. A main organizing concept is that PV homogenization demands a particular kinetic energy level E#. E# is the separator between high-energy evolution and low-energy evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various aspects of the interaction of vortices with the barotropic flow. Vortex interaction with a flow results in rotation variants, nutational oscillations, and unlimited stretching of its core. The vortex remains in a localized formation, with the semi-axes of the ellipse experiencing fluctuations near an average value in the first two cases. In the third case, the vortex is significantly elongated, and its shape in the horizontal plane changes as follows: one axis of the ellipse increases, and the other decreases. In this case, the vortex, when viewed from above, stretches into a thread, while remaining ellipsoidal. These vortex formations are called filaments. The latter arise from initially almost circular vortices in the horizontal plane and represent structures with non-zero vorticity elongated in one direction. Here, we aim to study the energy transformation of a vortex during its evolution process, mainly due to changes in its shape by stretching. The energy evolution of a mesoscale vortex located in the Norwegian Sea is analyzed using GLORYS12V1 ocean reanalysis data to verify the theoretical conclusions. During the evolution, the vortex is found to transform from a round shape and becomes elongated, and after three weeks its longitudinal scale becomes 4 times larger than the transverse one. During the transformation of a vortex, the kinetic energy and available potential energy decrease respectively by 3 times and 1.7 times. Concurrently, the total energy of the vortex is found to decrease by 2.3 times. We argue that the stretching of vortices results in a loss of energy as well as its redistribution from mesoscale to submesoscale. The lost part of the energy returns to the flow and results in the occurrence of the reverse energy cascade phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Liutex vector is new quantity introduced to represent the rigid-body rotation part of fluid motion and thus to define and identify vortices in various flows. In this work, the intermittency and power-law similarity of the Liutex vector in homogeneous, isotropic turbulence and a turbulent channel are explored. First, we found that the Liutex vector is more intermittent than the vorticity vector in the considered turbulent flows, which indicates that an iso-surface of a Liutex magnitude with an appropriate threshold could capture the major rotating motions or vortical motions of the flow. Second, the three-dimensional energy spectrums of velocity, vorticity (enstrophy spectrum) and the Liutex vector in homogeneous isotropic turbulence are shown to exhibit power laws of −5/3, 1/3 and 1/3 in the inertial subrange, respectively, whilst the Liutex energy spectrum particularly satisfies an additional −10/3 power law in the viscous subrange. This viscous similarity of the Liutex vector is the only power law that survived from the wall presence and is argued to originate from the fact that the Liutex vector represents the rigid part of fluid motion and is free from any shear contamination. The existence of such a viscous similarity law indicates a certain coherence of the small scales of turbulence and could possibly help understand and model turbulence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of experimental and numerical investigations on synthetic jet actuators with various arrangements. First, an actuator with one membrane in the cavity is a standard, reference arrangement; and second, one novel modified arrangement has two membranes in the cavity. Authors use constant temperature-anemometry measurements to identify the characteristic frequencies in which the output jet velocity reaches a maximal value, namely, the resonant frequency of the actuator (Helmholtz frequency) and of the membrane (structural resonance). A numerical model of a synthetic jet actuator has been validated using experimental data for the case with one membrane in a cavity. The simulation results confirm the existence of a toroidal vortex at the actuator exit for the frequencies determined in the experiment. Numerical results of a modified actuator with two membranes in the cavity give promising results in the context of separation control by synthetic jet devices, i.e., increase of output velocity and vorticity from the same occupied space is obtained. Numerical simulations show that in the modified actuator with two membranes in the cavity, the jet output velocity and vorticity of a created toroidal vortex at the actuator outlet can be increased by 80%, compared to the case with one membrane. The new geometry of a synthetic jet actuator with perpendicular membranes is to be implemented into the wind tunnel measurements to prove the use of a modified synthetic jet actuator as a device applicable for active flow control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To assess unsteady vortex interaction between rim seal purge flow and upstream stator, numerical investigations were conducted under different purge flow rates. The vortex distributions for the stator and cavity were investigated and the interaction processes near the cavity exit, in particular the vorticity change resulting from the ingress and egress, were analyzed. Results show the intensity of hub passage vortex (HPV) and hub trailing shedding vortex (HTSV) at stator exit is decreased as a consequence of enhancing blockage effects caused by the egress flow. However, when the purge flow rate increases, from stator exit to downstream of cavity exit, the reduction in the intensity of two vortices is weakened as the extrusion of egress flow thins their vortex tubes. The vortex inside the cavity is generated as the combined effect of relative rotation of cavity walls and nonuniform circumferential pressure mainly imposed by upstream stator. The ingress leads the positive axial vorticity near the stator hub to ingest into the cavity and eject into the main passage due to the blockage of purge flow. Furthermore, the interaction between the ingress of the mainstream and purge flow produces local negative axial vorticity. The egress flow carries negative axial vorticity mainly originated from the rotational cavity wall, and enters into the main flow passage near the rotating hub, then locations of HPV and HTSV move to the mid-span slightly with the extrusion of egress flow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The non-invasive quantitative evaluation of left ventricle (LV) function plays a critical role in clinical cardiology. This study proposes a novel ultrasonic biomechanics method by integrating both LV vortex and wall motion to fully assess and understand the LV structure and function. The purpose of this study was to validate the ultrasonic biomechanics method as a quantifiable approach to evaluate LV function.Methods: Firstly, B-mode ultrasound images were acquired and processed, which were utilized to implement parameters for quantifying the LV vortex and wall motion respectively. Next, the parameters were compared in polyvinyl alcohol cryogen (PVA) phantoms with different degree of stiffness corresponding to different freezing and thawing cycles in vitro. Finally, the parameters were computed in vivo during one cardiac cycle to assess the LV function in normal and abnormal subjects in vivo.Results: In vitro study, the velocity field of PVA phantom differed with stiffness (varied elasticity modulus). The peak of strain for wall motion decreases with the increase of elasticity modulus, and periodically changed values. Statistical analysis for parameters of vortex dynamics (energy dissipation index, DI; kinetic energy fluctuations, KEF; relative strength, RS; and vorticity, W) based on different elasticity (E) of phantom depicted the good viability of this algorithm. In vivo study, the results confirmed that subjects with LV dysfunction had lower vorticity and strain (S) compared to the normal group.Conclusion: Ultrasonic biomechanics method can obtain the vortex and wall motion of left ventricle. The method may have potential clinical value in evaluation of LV dysfunction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concentration-compactness is used to prove compactness of maximising sequences for a variational problem governing symmetric steady vortex-pairs in a uniform planar ideal fluid flow, where the kinetic energy is to be maximised and the constraint set comprises the set of all equimeasurable rearrangements of a given function (representing vorticity) that have a prescribed impulse (linear momentum). A form of orbital stability is deduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Barotropic geostrophic flows are investigated using rectangular and polar coordinate systems. It is shown that, for the analysis of geostrophic flows with radial symmetry, the use of a polar coordinate system is preferable. Relations between the hydrodynamic characteristics, including the expressions of the fluid particle velocity components and vorticity through pressure, are obtained. It is established that, in the case of stationary barotropic flows, isobaths coincide with current lines. Stationary radially symmetric geostrophic flows are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, the performance of the vorticity confinement method has been improved by combining it with the vortex feature detection methods. In the conventional vorticity confinement method, the only parameter to apply or not to apply vorticity confinement is the non-zero value of vorticity. On the other hand, the presence of vorticity in some cases, like the boundary layer and the shear layer flows, does not imply the presence of vortices. Applying the vorticity confinement at these points can lead to errors, in addition to loss of solution time. In order to solve this problem, using the combination of vorticity confinement method and four methods of vortex feature detection (non-dimensional Q, non-dimensional λ2, non-dimensional modified Δ, and the S − Ω correlation) the vorticity confinement term is applied only in vortex regions. In order to investigate the effects of this combination, the compressible Euler equation has been investigated for the problem of two-dimensional stationary single vortex at Mach number 0.5. The results indicate significant positive effects in reducing the solving time, decreasing the sensitivity of the solution to the amount of confinement parameter and significant elimination of the oscillation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vortexes induced by tsunamis, “tsunami vortexes”, pose a potential danger for ship evacuation, and their prediction is important to determine their role in navigation and safe vessel evacuation. This study simulated tsunami-induced vortexes in Osaka Bay and investigated their spatial and temporal scales using a port-resolved, high-resolution tsunami model based on a scenario for the largest tsunamigenic earthquake expected to occur along the Nankai Trough in the near future. Vortexes induced by tidal currents were also evaluated using a realistic tidal simulation for comparison with the magnitudes of the tsunami vortexes. The tsunami simulation identified the dominant areas of the tsunami vortexes characterized by the magnitude of the vorticity. Unified maps of tsunami speeds and vortexes showed the difficult areas for ship evacuation and indicated that these areas can persist after the approach of the leading wave around the entrances to port areas. The areas of tsunami vortex formation were largely deduced by analyzing the vorticity fields in the tidal simulations, because the magnitude of tsunami-induced vorticities was closely correlated with that of the tide-induced vorticities. The combination of tide and tsunami simulations can identify areas of tsunami vortex formation and provide valuable information to guide measures for safer vessel evacuation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mixing is an essential operation in many microfluidic devices. Droplet-based micromixers utilize droplets for mixing enhancement. In the present study, a novel three-dimensional simulation is conducted which has the ability to capture not only the mixing process, but also the chemical reactions inside liquid droplets. This two-phase model is used for simulating the reacting flow inside a serpentine microchannel and explores the effects of droplet size and reaction rate on the production and consumption of species in droplets. It is observed that the chemical reaction in each droplet, begins from its front area. Furthermore, it is shown that the production of species does not depend on water fraction (ratio of water flow rate to total flow rate) and for all droplet sizes, only depends on the reaction rate. Moreover, different transient generated vortices and secondary flows are studied in the presence and absence of droplets and explained in details based on the position of droplets. It is found that during the passage of droplets through a microchannel bend, the number of cross-sectional vortices changes and the velocity magnitude in these secondary flows increases dramatically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surface friction is important to a vortex moving toward Taiwan but was ignored in several previous studies. The change of the potential vorticity comes from friction in the shallow-water equation, hence, it was applied to study the westbound vortex influenced by the central mountain range (CMR) blocking and surface friction, which is defined as friction coefficient multiplied by the square root of topographic elevation. Without surface friction, the movement of vortex is not affected by the CMR due to the conservation of potential vorticity. With small surface friction, the simulated vortex first deflects southward slightly, then rebounds gently north due to the effect of channel flow, as the previous studies. With moderate or large surface friction, when the vortex approaching Taiwan, it deforms and creates two wind maxima; one due to effect of channel flow and the other on the east of the vortex, because the slowdown vortex is pushed by the mean easterly flow behind. Meanwhile, the vortex and two wind maxima rotate cyclonically. Hence, the vortex can deflect north or south, or form a loop, that depends on the strength and location of the wind maxima. If the circulation of the vortex moves around the northern tip of Taiwan, it can induce a significant secondary vortex on the lee side. On the other hand, the secondary vortex, triggered by the flow passing over the CMR, is rather weak. This paper may provide the formation of asymmetric inner flow and the deflection of the vortex, which may be difficult to define in a more complicated atmospheric model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coherent secondary flow structures (i.e., swirling motions) in a curved artery model possess a variety of spatio-temporal morphologies and can be encoded over an infinitely-wide range of wavelet scales. Wavelet analysis was applied to the following vorticity fields: (i) a numerically-generated system of Oseen-type vortices for which the theoretical solution is known, used for bench marking and evaluation of the technique; and (ii) experimental two-dimensional, particle image velocimetry data. The mother wavelet, a two-dimensional Ricker wavelet, can be dilated to infinitely large or infinitesimally small scales. We approached the problem of coherent structure detection by means of continuous wavelet transform (CWT) and decomposition (or Shannon) entropy. The main conclusion of this study is that the encoding of coherent secondary flow structures can be achieved by an optimal number of binary digits (or bits) corresponding to an optimal wavelet scale. The optimal wavelet-scale search was driven by a decomposition entropy-based algorithmic approach and led to a threshold-free coherent structure detection method. The method presented in this paper was successfully utilized in the detection of secondary flow structures in three clinically-relevant blood flow scenarios involving the curved artery model under a carotid artery-inspired, pulsatile inflow condition. These scenarios were: (i) a clean curved artery; (ii) stent-implanted curved artery; and (iii) an idealized Type IV stent fracture within the curved artery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Right ventricular diastolic dysfunction (RVDD) is an important prognostic indicator in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). RV vortex rings have been observed in healthy subjects, but their significance in RVDD is unknown. Vorticity, the local spinning motion of an element of fluid, may be a sensitive measure of RV vortex dynamics. Using four-dimensional (4D) flow cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR), we investigated the relationship between right heart vorticity with echocardiographic indexes of RVDD. Thirteen (13) PAH subjects and 10 controls underwent same-day 4D flow CMR and echocardiography. RV diastolic function was assessed using trans-tricuspid valve (TV) early (E) and late (A) velocities, E/A ratio, and e’ and a’ tissue Doppler velocities. RV and right atrial (RA) integrated mean vorticity was calculated for E and A-wave filling periods using 4D datasets. Compared with controls, A-wave vorticity was significantly increased in RVDD subjects in both the RV [2343 (1,559 –3,295) vs. 492 (267-2,649) 1/s, P = 0.028] and RA [30 (27– 44) vs. 9 (5–27) 1/s, P = 0.005]. RA E vorticity was significantly decreased [13 (7–22) vs. 28 (15–31) 1/s, P = 0.038] in RVDD. E-wave vorticity correlated TV e’, E-,and TV E/A (P < 0.05), and A-wave vorticity associated with both TV A and E/A (P < 0.02). RVDD is associated with alterations in E- and A-wave vorticity, and vorticity correlates with multiple echocardiographic markers of RVDD. Vorticity may be a robust noninvasive research tool for the investigation of RV fluid and tissue mechanical interactions in PAH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accuracy, robustness, dissipation characteristics and efficiency of several structured and unstructured grid methods are investigated with reference to the low Mach double vortex pairing flow problem. The aim of the study is to shed light into the numerical advantages and disadvantages of different numerical discretizations, principally designed for shock-capturing, in low Mach vortical flows. The methods include structured and unstructured finite volume and Lagrange-Remap methods, with accuracy ranging from 2nd to 9th-order, with and without applying low-Mach corrections. Comparison of the schemes is presented for the vortex evolution, momentum thickness, as well as for their numerical dissipation versus the viscous and total dissipation. The study shows that the momentum thickness and large scale features of a basic vortical structure are well resolved even at the lowest grid resolution of 32×32 provided that the numerical schemes are of a high-order of accuracy or the numerical framework is sufficiently non-dissipative. The implementation of the finite volume methods in unstructured triangular meshes provides the best results even without low Mach number corrections provided that a higher-order advective discretization for the advective fluxes is employed. The compressible Lagrange-Remap framework is computationally the fastest one, although the numerical error for the momentum thickness does not reduce as fast as for other numerical schemes and computational frameworks, e.g., when higher-order schemes are utilized. It is also shown that the low-Mach number correction has a lesser effect on the results as the order of the spatial accuracy increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the multi-scale wake structures of a new asymmetric side mirror of a race car, which can generate the aerodynamic downforce. The turbulent wake generated by symmetric bluff bodies of triangle and semi-cylinder and an asymmetric bluff body (called CT-cylinder) were experimentally investigated and were compared. Firstly, the instantaneous velocity and vorticity were quantitatively measured by high-speed PIV at a Reynolds number of 14,440 in the circulating water channel. Then a one- and two-dimensional wavelet multi-resolution techniques were used to analyze the instantaneous velocity and vorticity in order to decompose turbulent structures into a number of subsets based on their central frequencies. It is found that the CT-cylinder wake generates the asymmetric flow structures and separation region that is smaller than that of the triangle wake. The contribution to vorticity concentration comes from the large-scale structure of CT-cylinder wake in the ( x , y )-plane, and the intermediate-scale structure of the CT-cylinder wake dominates the flow structure in the ( x , z )-plane. There is no evident difference among the three wakes in the relatively small-scale structures. The large-scale structures of three wakes exhibit the main contributions to the Reynolds shear stress, accounting for almost 82–92%. However, the small-scale structures make less contribution to Reynolds shear stresses. The phase-averaging and spectral analyses indicate that the CT-cylinder wake generates the relatively smaller vortices and smaller separation region and the CT-cylinder wake exhibits lower fluctuation in the shear layer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An experimental investigation is conducted to study the effect of middle length and inclination angle of an S-shaped channel on adiabatic two-phase flow patterns. To study this effect, three channel lengths of 0.25, 0.50, and 1.00m, and four bends at the angles of 22.5°, 45°, 67.5° and 90° were used along the test section which is 35.83m long. The channel cross section dimensions were 0.05×0.10m and the test fluids were air and water. The observed flow patterns in 12 cases were studied. Each flow pattern was identified by visual observation and recorded with video camera for further analysis of the collected data points. The momentum transfer phenomenon between the phases for passing the upward middle section along the S-shaped channel was closely investigated. Five flow patterns of vortex plug, vortex slug, vortex wavy-annular, churn and mist packet annular were observed. The vortex type flow patterns were recorded with high speed video camera. The physical mechanisms and momentum transfer related to formation of these flow patterns were explained in detail. Flow pattern maps were obtained and then compared for different middle lengths and inclination angles to perform a parametric study on the S-shaped channel. Moreover, effect of upstream/downstream of the S-shaped channel on the maps and transition lines were discussed. It was revealed that upstream effects reflect the interactions and momentum transfer between the phases. Therefore, flow pattern types mainly depend on upstream behavior. On the other hand, the amount of backward flow resulting in the establishment of countercurrent flow and creation of vortexes along middle section is determined by downstream effects. Increasing the middle length or inclination angle causes the transition to vortex plug flow pattern to occur at higher liquid velocities. It also causes the area with churn flow pattern on the map to expand ending in smaller vortex slug flow pattern area. However, increasing middle length or decreasing inclination angle, ends in smaller area of mist packet annular area. It is also observed that for higher middle lengths, increasing the inclination angle shifts the transition lines more remarkably. A dimensionless analysis of obtained flow pattern maps is also carried out. It is shown that effect of geometry changes along S-shaped pipeline on two-phase flow pattern transitions is determined by either inclination angle or elevation difference between two horizontal lines. The explained flow mechanisms, obtained flow pattern maps and the transition lines can be used to predict the particular flow pattern that will be established for a given mass flux, inclined length and angle along pipelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The properties of spray-induced vortex-like structures for asymmetric pressure swirl atomizer were studied experimentally with different injection pressures. The high-speed Particle Imaging Velocimetry (PIV) was used to study the spray characteristics such as velocity and vorticity. The vortex centers were identified by velocity weighted vorticity. The translational velocity components of vortex centers were computed from its displacement divided by the time interval. For five different pressure conditions, the motion trajectories of vortex center were the same in an earlier period of spray, but were different in a later period of spray. The normalized translational velocity of vortex center and normalized time were introduced to compare with vortex ring model. The results indicated that the normalized axial translational velocity decreased with increasing normalized time, which converged to the predictions of the model in long time limit where α = -0.75 in the turbulent case. However, the results for the normalized radial translational velocity were different from the predictions of the model. The normalized radial translational velocity decreased with the increase of the normalized time when the injection pressure was lower than a critical value, but it obviously increased with the increase of the normalized time in case of the injection pressure higher than the critical value. Furthermore, the average vorticities at the vortex center were obtained and increased with the increase of the injection pressure. This study provides references for developing spray theory and improving injection technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Four micromixers with double V-shaped baffles are designed. • All mixers achieve high mixing efficiency at the short distance of 3500 μm. • The visualization of vortex formation is conducted to analyze the mixing mechanism. • Different vortex patterns form in the microchannels as inlet velocity varies. Achieving rapid mixing of different liquids in a short distance is important for biochemical applications. Here, a new type of micromixers consisting of double symmetrical V-shaped baffles (MMA and MMB mixers) and double asymmetrical V-shaped baffles (MMC and MMD mixers) is proposed. Numerical simulations are performed to evaluate their mixing performance when the Reynolds number (Re) ranges from 0.1 to 50. Meanwhile, the visualization of vortex formation is conducted to analyze the mixing mechanism. The results show that the mixing efficiency of all mixers approaches 0.8 for all Re at the short distance of 3500 μm. At relatively low Re =0.5, the MMA and MMB perform better than MMC and MMD due to more adequate molecular diffusion; whereas the unbalanced lateral flows and multidirectional vortices in the MMC and MMD induce stronger chaotic convection at high Re =50, leading to a higher performance. Moreover, the disturbance created by the vortex on the mass transfer surface is not only relying on its vorticity but also correlates with the position of vortex/vortex leg. Lastly, all micromixers are fabricated, tested and compared with the simulation results and both of them show a good agreement. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The testing of the standard and modified SST models of the transfer of shear stresses was carried out on an example of calculating the heat transfer with an intense detached flow around a conical dimple with a slope angle of 45 ° on the heated wall of a narrow channel. It was shown that the standard turbulence model by Menter SST (MSST) of 2003, widely used in the packages Fluent, CFX, StarCCM+, etc., significantly underestimated the intensity of the return flow. A correction of this model was presented that took into account the influence of the curvature of streamlines within the framework of the Rodi-Leshziner-Isaev (RLI) approach for spatial separated flows. It was found that the predictions for the RLI MSST 2003 were close to the predictions for the original standard MSST 1993, in which the eddy viscosity was calculated using the vorticity modulus. At the same time, the predictions based on the modified one, following Smirnov-Menter (SM) MSST 2003, included in the ANSYS model catalog did not differ too much from the standard MSST 2003. The preference of the MSST modified within the RLI 2003 for calculating the heat transfer in intense separated flows was substantiated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A model is developed to explore fire–atmosphere interactions due to the convective sink and vorticity sources in a highly simplified and idealized form, in order to examine their effect on spread and the stability of various fire front geometries. The model is constructed in a cellular automata framework, is linear, and represents a background flow, convective sink, and vortices induced by the fire plume at every burning cell. We use standard techniques to solve the resulting Poisson equations with careful attention to the boundary conditions. A modified Bresenham algorithm is developed to represent convection. The three basic flow types—large-scale background flow, sink flow, and vortex circulation—interact in a complex fashion as the geometry of the fire evolves. Fire-generated vortex–sink interactions produce a range of fire behavior, including unsteady spread rate, lateral spreading, and dynamic fingering. In this simplified framework, pulsation is found associated with evolving fire-line width, a fire-front acceleration in junction fires, and the breakup of longer initial fire lines into multiple head fires. Fuel is very simply represented by a single burn time parameter. The model fuel is uniform yet patchiness occurs due to a dynamic interaction of diffusive and convective effects. The interplay of fire-induced wind and the geometry of the fire front depends also on the fuel burn time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rotorcraft blade tip vortex rolled up by the blade tip when the rotor rotates at high speed will produce a complex induced velocity field, which will have an important impact on the aerodynamic load and performance of the rotor. For this reason, this paper carries out the research on the identification of blade tip vortex and the motion characteristics of the vortex. Through the time-resolved particle image velocimetry (TR-PIV) experiment, the flow field of the rotor at a fixed rotate speed (2100 r/min) with a collective pitch of 6° and 9° was obtained. Based on the vorticity field, Q criterion, and Ω criterion, the research on vortex identification and vortex motion characteristics are realized. The results show that with the increase of blade motion azimuth, the radial position of blade tip vortex gradually contracts inward and the axial position moves downward in hovering state. As the collective pitch of the rotor increases, the radial contraction becomes more obvious, and the axial displacement increases, at the same time, the blade tip vortex intensity increases. Comparative study results show that different vortex identification methods have obtained certain deviations in the vortex center. Compared with other vortex identification methods, the Ω criterion method has a smaller deviation and can accurately identify the vortex core radius and vortex boundary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]