Organization Of Coherent Structures Research Articles

On the motion of hairpin filaments in the atmospheric boundary layer

A recent work of Harikrishnan et al. [“Geometry and organization of coherent structures in stably stratified atmospheric boundary layers,” arXiv:2110.02253 (2021)] has revealed an abundance of hairpin-like vortex structures, oriented in a similar direction, in the turbulent patches of a stably stratified Ekman flow. In this study, hairpin-like structures are investigated by treating them as slender vortex filaments, i.e., a vortex filament whose diameter d is small when compared to its radius of curvature R. The corrected thin-tube model of Klein and Knio [“Asymptotic vorticity structure and numerical simulation of slender vortex filaments,” J. Fluid Mech. 284, 275 (1995)] is used to compute the motion of these filaments with the atmospheric boundary layer as a background flow. Our results suggest that the orientation of the hairpin filament in the spanwise direction is linked to its initial starting height under stable stratification, whereas no such dependency can be observed with the neutrally stratified background flow. An improved feature tracking scheme based on spatial overlap for tracking Q-criterion vortex structures on the direct numerical simulation data is also developed. It overcomes the limitation of using a constant threshold in time by dynamically adjusting the thresholds to accommodate the growth or deterioration of a feature. A comparison between the feature tracking and the filament simulation reveals qualitatively similar temporal developments. Finally, an extension of the asymptotic analysis of Callegari and Ting [“Motion of a curved vortex filament with decaying vortical core and axial velocity,” J. Appl. Math. 35, 148–175 (1978)] is carried out to include the effect of gravity. The results show that, in the regime considered here, a contribution from the gravity term occurs only when the tail of an infinitely long filament is tilted at an angle relative to the wall.

Experimental Study of Body-Fin Interaction and Vortex Dynamics Generated by a Two Degree-Of-Freedom Fish Model.

Oscillatory modes of swimming are used by a majority of aquatic swimmers to generate thrust. This work seeks to understand the phenomenological relationship between the body and caudal fin for fast and efficient thunniform swimming. Phase-averaged velocity data was collected and analyzed in order to understand the effects of body-fin kinematics on the wake behind a two degree-of-freedom fish model. The model is based on the yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) which is known to be both fast and efficient. Velocity data was obtained along the side of the tail and caudal fin region as well as in the wake downstream of the caudal fin. Body-generated vortices were found to be small and have an insignificant effect on the caudal fin wake. The evolution of leading edge vortices formed on the caudal fin varied depending on the body-fin kinematics. The circulation produced at the trailing edge during each half-cycle was found to be relatively insensitive to the freestream velocity, but also varied with body-fin kinematics. Overall, the generation of vorticity in the wake was found to dependent on the trailing edge motion profile and velocity. Even relatively minor deviations from the commonly used model of sinusoidal motion is shown to change the strength and organization of coherent structures in the wake, which have been shown in the literature to be related to performance metrics such as thrust and efficiency.