Identification and Quantification of Shear Layer Influences on the Generation of Vortex Structures

Abstract

The analysis of complex flow fields based on the notion of organized motions of flow field features with spatial and temporal coherence, the so-called coherent structures, is one of the principal methods in the development of advanced analysis tools in fluid mechanics. For decades the focus of research was on vortex structures as the only coherent structure of interest, caused by the significant role of these structures in the understanding of the main fluid dynamical events, e.g. turbulence in boundary layers. A new topic is the extension of the flow field analysis by the detection of shear layer structures. The consideration of shear layer structures allows additional insight into dynamic processes, e.g. generation and decay of vortex structures.