The Origins of Vortex Sheets in a Simulated Supercell Thunderstorm

2014 ◽  
Vol 142 (11) ◽  
pp. 3944-3954 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Markowski ◽  
Yvette Richardson ◽  
George Bryan
Keyword(s):  
Vertical Velocity ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Lower Boundary ◽  
Vortex Sheet ◽  
Horizontal Gradient ◽  
Vortex Sheets ◽  
Vertical Vorticity ◽  
Supercell Storms ◽  
Gust Fronts ◽  
Homogeneous Environment

Abstract This paper investigates the origins of the (cyclonic) vertical vorticity within vortex sheets that develop within a numerically simulated supercell in a nonrotating, horizontally homogeneous environment with a free-slip lower boundary. Vortex sheets are commonly observed along the gust fronts of supercell storms, particularly in the early stages of storm development. The “collapse” of a vortex sheet into a compact vortex is often seen to accompany the intensification of rotation that occasionally leads to tornadogenesis. The vortex sheets predominantly acquire their vertical vorticity from the tilting of horizontal vorticity that has been modified by horizontal buoyancy gradients associated with the supercell’s cool low-level outflow. If the tilting is within an ascending airstream (i.e., the horizontal gradient of vertical velocity responsible for the tilting resides entirely within an updraft), the vertical vorticity of the vortex sheet nearly vanishes at the lowest model level for horizontal winds (5 m). However, if the tilting occurs within a descending airstream (i.e., the horizontal gradient of vertical velocity responsible for tilting includes a downdraft adjacent to the updraft within which the majority of the cyclonic vorticity resides), the vortex sheet extends to the lowest model level. The findings are consistent with the large body of prior work that has found that downdrafts are necessary for the development of significant vertical vorticity at the surface.

scholarly journals An Idealized Numerical Simulation Investigation of the Effects of Surface Drag on the Development of Near-Surface Vertical Vorticity in Supercell Thunderstorms

2016 ◽  
Vol 73 (11) ◽  
pp. 4349-4385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul M. Markowski
Keyword(s):  
Lower Boundary ◽  
Cold Pool ◽  
Surface Drag ◽  
Lower Boundary Condition ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Vertical Vorticity ◽  
Supercell Storms ◽  
Scale Turbulence ◽  
Barotropic Vorticity ◽  
Pool Formation

Abstract Idealized simulations are used to investigate the contributions of frictionally generated horizontal vorticity to the development of near-surface vertical vorticity in supercell storms. Of interest is the relative importance of barotropic vorticity (vorticity present in the prestorm environment), baroclinic vorticity (vorticity that is principally generated by horizontal buoyancy gradients), and viscous vorticity (vorticity that originates from the subgrid-scale turbulence parameterization, wherein the effects of surface drag reside), all of which can be advected, tilted, and stretched. Equations for the three partial vorticities are integrated in parallel with the model. The partial vorticity calculations are complemented by analyses of circulation following material circuits, which are often able to be carried out further in time because they are less susceptible to explosive error growth. Near-surface mesocyclones that develop prior to cold-pool formation (this only happens when the environmental vorticity is crosswise near the surface) are dominated by only barotropic vertical vorticity when the lower boundary is free slip, but both barotropic and viscous vertical vorticity when surface drag is included. Baroclinic vertical vorticity grows large once a cold pool is established, regardless of the lower boundary condition and, in fact, dominates at the time the vortices are most intense in all but one simulation (a simulation dominated early by a barotropic mode of vortex genesis that may not be relevant to real convective storms).

scholarly journals Remarks on Stationary and Uniformly-rotating Vortex Sheets: Rigidity Results

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier Gómez-Serrano ◽  
Jaemin Park ◽  
Jia Shi ◽  
Yao Yao
Keyword(s):  
Angular Velocity ◽  
Disjoint Union ◽  
Vortex Sheet ◽  
Vortex Sheets ◽  
Smooth Curves ◽  
Rigidity Results ◽  
Positive Vorticity ◽  
Constant Vorticity ◽  
Concentric Circles ◽  
Finite Disjoint Union

AbstractIn this paper, we show that the only solution of the vortex sheet equation, either stationary or uniformly rotating with negative angular velocity $$\Omega $$ Ω , such that it has positive vorticity and is concentrated in a finite disjoint union of smooth curves with finite length is the trivial one: constant vorticity amplitude supported on a union of nested, concentric circles. The proof follows a desingularization argument and a calculus of variations flavor.

scholarly journals Collapse of n Point Vortices, Formation of the Vortex Sheets and Transport of Passive Markers

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 943
Author(s):  
Henryk Kudela
Keyword(s):  
Differential Equations ◽  
Point Vortex ◽  
Optimization Procedure ◽  
Vortex Sheet ◽  
Point Vortices ◽  
Vortex Sheets ◽  
Impermeable Barrier ◽  
Initial Location ◽  
Passive Tracers ◽  
Initial Iterate

In this paper, the motion of the n-vortex system as it collapses to a point in finite time is studied. The motion of vortices is described by the set of ordinary differential equations that we are able to solve analytically. The explicit formula for the solution demands the initial location of collapsing vortices. To find the collapsing locations of vortices, the algebraic, nonlinear system of equations was built. The solution of that algebraic system was obtained using Newton’s procedure. A good initial iterate needs to be provided to succeed in the application of Newton’s procedure. An unconstrained Leverber–Marquart optimization procedure was used to find such a good initial iterate. The numerical studies were conducted, and numerical evidence was presented that if in a collapsing system n=50 point vortices include a few vortices with much greater intensities than the others in the set, the vortices with weaker intensities organize themselves onto the vortex sheet. The collapsing locations depend on the value of the Hamiltonian. By changing the Hamiltonian values in a specific interval, the collapsing curves can be obtained. All points on the collapse curves with the same Hamiltonian value represent one collapsing system of vortices. To show the properties of vortex sheets created by vortices, the passive tracers were used. Advection of tracers by the velocity induced by vortices was calculated by solving the proper differential equations. The vortex sheets are an impermeable barrier to inward and outward fluxes of tracers. Arising vortex structures are able to transport the passive tracers. In this paper, several examples showing the diversity of collapsing structures with the vortex sheet are presented. The collapsing phenomenon of many vortices, their ability to self organize and the transportation of the passive tracers are novelties in the context of point vortex dynamics.

scholarly journals Confined vortex surface and irreversibility. 1. Properties of exact solution

2021 ◽  
pp. 2150097
Author(s):  
Alexander Migdal
Keyword(s):  
Strain Tensor ◽  
Special Kind ◽  
Local Strain ◽  
Vortex Sheet ◽  
Exceptional Case ◽  
Surface Integral ◽  
Time Reversibility ◽  
Navier Stokes Equation ◽  
Vortex Sheets ◽  
Asymmetric Vortex

We revise the steady vortex surface theory following the recent finding of asymmetric vortex sheets (Migdal, 2021). These surfaces avoid the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability by adjusting their discontinuity and shape. The vorticity collapses to the sheet only in an exceptional case considered long ago by Burgers and Townsend, where it decays as a Gaussian on both sides of the sheet. In generic asymmetric vortex sheets (Shariff, 2021), vorticity leaks to one side or another, making such sheets inadequate for vortex sheet statistics and anomalous dissipation. We conjecture that the vorticity in a turbulent flow collapses on a special kind of surface (confined vortex surface or CVS), satisfying some equations involving the tangent components of the local strain tensor. The most important qualitative observation is that the inequality needed for this solution’s stability breaks the Euler dynamics’ time reversibility. We interpret this as dynamic irreversibility. We have also represented the enstrophy as a surface integral, conserved in the Navier–Stokes equation in the turbulent limit, with vortex stretching and viscous diffusion terms exactly canceling each other on the CVS surfaces. We have studied the CVS equations for the cylindrical vortex surface for an arbitrary constant background strain with two different eigenvalues. This equation reduces to a particular version of the stationary Birkhoff–Rott equation for the 2D flow with an extra nonanalytic term. We study some general properties of this equation and reduce its solution to a fixed point of a map on a sphere, guaranteed to exist by the Brouwer theorem.

Experimental and numerical investigation of turbulent convection in a rotating cylinder

2009 ◽  
Vol 642 ◽  
pp. 445-476 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. P. J. KUNNEN ◽  
B. J. GEURTS ◽  
H. J. H. CLERCX
Keyword(s):  
Temperature Gradient ◽  
Boundary Layers ◽  
Power Law ◽  
Vertical Velocity ◽  
Stereoscopic Particle Image Velocimetry ◽  
Turbulent Heat Transfer ◽  
Bulk Temperature ◽  
Rossby Number ◽  
Cyclonic Vorticity ◽  
Vertical Vorticity

The effects of an axial rotation on the turbulent convective flow because of an adverse temperature gradient in a water-filled upright cylindrical vessel are investigated. Both direct numerical simulations and experiments applying stereoscopic particle image velocimetry are performed. The focus is on the gathering of turbulence statistics that describe the effects of rotation on turbulent Rayleigh–Bénard convection. Rotation is an important addition, which is relevant in many geophysical and astrophysical flow phenomena.A constant Rayleigh number (dimensionless strength of the destabilizing temperature gradient) Ra = 109 and Prandtl number (describing the diffusive fluid properties) σ = 6.4 are applied. The rotation rate, given by the convective Rossby number Ro (ratio of buoyancy and Coriolis force), takes values in the range 0.045 ≤ Ro ≤ ∞, i.e. between rotation-dominated flow and zero rotation. Generally, rotation attenuates the intensity of the turbulence and promotes the formation of slender vertical tube-like vortices rather than the global circulation cell observed without rotation. Above Ro ≈ 3 there is hardly any effect of the rotation on the flow. The root-mean-square (r.m.s.) values of vertical velocity and vertical vorticity show an increase when Ro is lowered below Ro ≈ 3, which may be an indication of the activation of the Ekman pumping mechanism in the boundary layers at the bottom and top plates. The r.m.s. fluctuations of horizontal and vertical velocity, in both experiment and simulation, decrease with decreasing Ro and show an approximate power-law behaviour of the shape Ro0.2 in the range 0.1 ≲ Ro ≲ 2. In the same Ro range the temperature r.m.s. fluctuations show an opposite trend, with an approximate negative power-law exponent Ro−0.32. In this Rossby number range the r.m.s. vorticity has hardly any dependence on Ro, apart from an increase close to the plates for Ro approaching 0.1. Below Ro ≈ 0.1 there is strong damping of turbulence by rotation, as the r.m.s. velocities and vorticities as well as the turbulent heat transfer are strongly diminished. The active Ekman boundary layers near the bottom and top plates cause a bias towards cyclonic vorticity in the flow, as is shown with probability density functions of vorticity. Rotation induces a correlation between vertical vorticity and vertical velocity close to the top and bottom plates: near the top plate downward velocity is correlated with positive/cyclonic vorticity and vice versa (close to the bottom plate upward velocity is correlated with positive vorticity), pointing to the vortical plumes. In contrast with the well-mixed mean isothermal bulk of non-rotating convection, rotation causes a mean bulk temperature gradient. The viscous boundary layers scale as the theoretical Ekman and Stewartson layers with rotation, while the thermal boundary layer is unaffected by rotation. Rotation enhances differences in local anisotropy, quantified using the invariants of the anisotropy tensor: under rotation there is strong turbulence anisotropy in the centre, while near the plates a near-isotropic state is found.

A numerical investigation of the rolling-up of vortex sheets

1980 ◽  
Vol 373 (1752) ◽  
pp. 67-91 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Integration ◽  
Numerical Investigation ◽  
Equations Of Motion ◽  
Additional Term ◽  
Vortex Sheet ◽  
Time Step ◽  
Vortex Sheets ◽  
Numerical Instabilities ◽  
Sinusoidal Disturbance ◽  
Induced Velocity

In this paper the development of a vortex sheet due to an initially sinusoidal disturbance is calculated. When determining the induced velocity in points of the vortex sheet, it can be represented by concentrated vortices but it is shown that it is analytically more correct to add an additional term that represents the effect of the immediate neighbourhood of the point considered. The equations of motion were integrated by a Runge-Kutta technique to exclude numerical instabilities. The time step was determined by the requirement that a quantity (Hamiltonian) that remains invariant as a result of the equations of motion, should not change more than a certain amount in the numerical integration of the equations of motion. One difficulty is that if a greater number of concentrated vortices are introduced to represent the vortex sheet, the effect of round-off errors becomes more important. The number of figures retained in the computations limits the number of concentrated vortices. Where the round-off errors have been kept sufficiently small, a process of rolling-up of vorticity clearly occurs. There is no point in pursuing the calculations much beyond this point, first because the representation of the vortex sheet by concentrated vortices becomes more and more inaccurate and secondly because viscosity will have the effect of transforming the rolled-up vortex sheet into a region of vorticity.

Paper 7. Unsteady Flow around a Slender Fish-Like Body

1972 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
pp. 43-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Th. Y. Wu ◽  
J. N. Newman
Keyword(s):  
Unsteady Flow ◽  
Theoretical Calculations ◽  
Cross Flow ◽  
Vortex Sheet ◽  
The Body ◽  
Dynamic Force ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Vortex Sheets ◽  
Flat Fish ◽  
The Cross

This paper attempts to extend some recent theoretical calculations on the unsteady flow generated by body movements of a slender ‘flat’ fish by further including the effect of finite body thickness in the consideration for various configurations of side and caudal fins as major appendages. Based on the slender-body approximation, the cross-flow is determined for different longitudinal body sections which are characterized by a variety of cross-sectional shapes and flow conditions (such as having smooth or fin-edged body contours, with or without vortex sheets alongside the body section). The effect of body thickness is found to arise primarily from its interaction with the vortex sheet already existing in the cross-flow. New results for the transverse hydro-dynamic force acting on the body are obtained, and their physical significances are discussed.

Fine Structure of Vortex Sheet Rollup by Viscous and Inviscid Simulation

1991 ◽  
Vol 113 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Tryggvason ◽  
W. J. A. Dahm ◽  
K. Sbeih
Keyword(s):  
Reynolds Number ◽  
High Reynolds Number ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Stokes Equations ◽  
Flow Region ◽  
Vortex Sheet ◽  
Navier Stokes ◽  
Vortex Sheets ◽  
Limiting Behavior ◽  
High Reynolds

Numerical simulations of the large amplitude stage of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability of a relatively thin vorticity layer are discussed. At high Reynolds number, the effect of viscosity is commonly neglected and the thin layer is modeled as a vortex sheet separating one potential flow region from another. Since such vortex sheets are susceptible to a short wavelength instability, as well as singularity formation, it is necessary to provide an artificial “regularization” for long time calculations. We examine the effect of this regularization by comparing vortex sheet calculations with fully viscous finite difference calculations of the Navier-Stokes equations. In particular, we compare the limiting behavior of the viscous simulations for high Reynolds numbers and small initial layer thickness with the limiting solution for the roll-up of an inviscid vortex sheet. Results show that the inviscid regularization effectively reproduces many of the features associated with the thickness of viscous vorticity layers with increasing Reynolds number, though the simplified dynamics of the inviscid model allows it to accurately simulate only the large scale features of the vorticity field. Our results also show that the limiting solution of zero regularization for the inviscid model and high Reynolds number and zero initial thickness for the viscous simulations appear to be the same.

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