Vortex dynamics of viscous fluid flows. Part 1. Two-dimensional flows

Abstract

The method of product integration is applied to the vortex dynamics of two-dimensional incompressible viscous media. In the cases of both unbounded and bounded flows under the no-slip boundary condition, the analytic solutions of the Cauchy problem are obtained for the Helmholtz equation in the form of linear and nonlinear product integrals. The application of product integrals allows the generalization in a natural way of the vortex dynamics concept to the case of viscous flows. However, this new approach requires the reconsideration of some traditional notions of vortex dynamics. Two lengthscales are introduced in the form of a micro- and a macro-scale. Elementary ‘vortex objects’ are defined as two types of singular vortex filaments with equal but opposite intensities. The vorticity is considered as the macro-value proportional to the concentration of elementary vortex filaments inhabiting the micro-level. The vortex motion of a viscous medium is represented as the stochastic motion of an infinite set of elementary vortex filaments on the micro-level governed by the stochastic differential equations, where the stochastic velocity component of every filament simulates the viscous diffusion of vorticity, and the regular component is the macro-value induced according to the Biot–Savart law and simulates the convective transfer of vorticity.In flows with boundaries, the production of elementary vortex filaments at the boundary is introduced to satisfy the no-slip condition. This phenomenon is described by the application of the generalized Markov processes theory. The integral equation for the production intensity of elementary vortex filaments is derived and solved using the no-slip condition reformulated in terms of vorticity. Additional conditions on this intensity are determined to avoid the many-valuedness of the pressure in a multi-connected flow domain. This intensity depends on the vorticity in the flow and the boundary velocity at every time instant, together with boundary acceleration.As a result, the successive and accurate application of the product-integral method allows the study of vortex dynamics in a viscous fluid according to the concepts of Helmholtz and Kelvin.