AbstractThe three-dimensional analogue of Moffatt eddies is derived for a corner formed by the intersection of three orthogonal planes. The complex exponents of the first few modes are determined and the flows resulting from the primary modes (those which decay least rapidly as the apex is approached and, hence, should dominate the near-apex flow) examined in detail. There are two independent primary modes, one symmetric, the other antisymmetric, with respect to reflection in one of the symmetry planes of the cone. Any linear combination of these modes yields a possible primary flow. Thus, there is not one, but a two-parameter family of such flows. The particle-trajectory equations are integrated numerically to determine the streamlines of primary flows. Three special cases in which the flow is antisymmetric under reflection lead to closed streamlines. However, for all other cases, the streamlines are not closed and quasi-periodic limiting trajectories are approached when the trajectory equations are integrated either forwards or backwards in time. A generic streamline follows the backward-time trajectory in from infinity, undergoes a transient phase in which particle motion is no longer quasi-periodic, before being thrown back out to infinity along the forward-time trajectory.
A two-parameter family of double-power-law biorthonormal potential-density expansions
