The turbulent decay of trailing vortex pairs in stably stratified environments

Abstract

The decay of trailing vortex pairs in thermally stably stratified environments is investigated by means of large eddy simulations. Results of in-situ measurements in the wakes of different aircraft are used to find appropriate intitializations for the simulation of wake turbulence in the quiescent atmosphere. Furthermore, cases with weak atmospheric turbulence are investigated. It is shown that the early development of the vortices is not affected by turbulence and develops almost identically as in 2D simulations of wake vortices in stably stratified environments. In a quiescent atmosphere the subsequent vortex decay is controlled by the interaction of short-wave disturbances, owing to the aircraft induced turbulence, and baroclinic vorticity, owing to stable stratification. As a consequence, vertical vorticity streaks between the vortices are induced which are substantially intensified by vortex stretching and finally lead to rapid turbulent wake-vortex decay. When in addition atmospheric turbulence is also present, the long-wave instability is dominantly promoted. For very strong stratification ( Fr<1) it is observed that wake vortices may rebound but lose most of their strength before reaching the flight level. Finally, the simulation results are compared to the predictive capabilities of Greene's approximate model.