Quantitative Measurement of Mass Transport Using Vortex Rings

Abstract

Basic experiments were performed to investigate the use of vortex rings as a means to transport a small amount of fluid. The compact and unchanging nature of vortex rings is suitable to obtain high-density distribution of the transported fluid within a specific confined region. A certain amount of fluid in a cylinder was discharged into a quiescent fluid in the water tank by a piston through an orifice 20.0 mm in diameter. The fluid distributions transported by a set of 10 vortex rings, by 20 vortex rings, and by a single, short puff-like jet were quantitatively analyzed and compared. For all ejection conditions, the total volume of discharged fluid and the average ejection velocity through the orifice are the same (78.5×104 mm3 and 125 mm/s, respectively). The particle count method was used to quantitatively measure the distribution of the transported fluid. As a result, the vortex rings were found to be superior to the single short discharge for transporting a fluid to obtain a high density distribution in a narrow region.