Numerical and experimental study of the interaction between a vortex dipole and a circular cylinder

Abstract

This paper describes a study of the centred collision between a dipolar vortex and a solid circular cylinder. The flow was analysed experimentally by using dye visualizations and streak photography. Flow characteristics such as vorticity fields and the transport of passive tracers were compared with numerical simulations. Observations revealed that thin layers of vorticity, created at the cylinder wall are advected by the primary dipole halves, which, while rolling up into compact patches, give rise to the formation of two new asymmetric dipoles that move away along curved trajectories. The structure of the vorticity distribution inside the dipole, before and after the collision, has been investigated. Both the numerical and the experimental results indicate that the vorticity patches originating from the original primary dipole approximately preserve their original functional relationship ω=f(ψ), while the secondary vorticity patches show a tendency to organize into structures attaining a similar relationship.