Dynamics of an unbalanced circular foil and point vortices in an ideal fluid

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of the motion of an unbalanced circular foil and point vortices in an ideal incompressible fluid. Using Bernoulli's theorem for unsteady potential flow, the force due to the pressure from the fluid on the foil is obtained for an arbitrary vortex motion. A detailed analysis is made of the case of free vortex motion in which a Hamiltonian reduction by symmetries is performed. For the resulting system, relative equilibria corresponding to the motion of an unbalanced foil and a vortex in a circle or in a straight line are found and their stability is investigated. New examples of stationary configurations of a vortex and a foil are given. Using a Poincaré map, it is also shown that in the general case of an unbalanced circular foil the reduced system exhibits chaotic trajectories.