Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The relative vorticity is the vorticity relative to the Earth induced by the air velocity field. This air velocity field is often modeled as a two-dimensional flow parallel to the ground, so that the relative vorticity vector is generally scalar rotation quantity perpendicular to the ground.
A turbulent flow is a flow regime in fluid dynamics where fluid velocity varies significantly and irregularly in both position and time. [3] Furthermore, a coherent structure is defined as a turbulent flow whose vorticity expression, which is usually stochastic, contains orderly components that can be described as being instantaneously coherent over the spatial extent of the flow structure.
In meteorology, [2] helicity corresponds to the transfer of vorticity from the environment to an air parcel in convective motion. Here the definition of helicity is simplified to only use the horizontal component of wind and vorticity, and to only integrate in the vertical direction, replacing the volume integral with a one-dimensional definite integral or line integral:
For example, a spinning ice skater with her arms spread out laterally can accelerate her rate of spin by contracting her arms. Similarly, when a vortex of air is broadened, it in turn spins more slowly. When the air converges horizontally, the air speed increases to maintain potential vorticity, and the vertical extent increases to conserve mass.
The vorticity equation of fluid dynamics describes the evolution of the vorticity ω of a particle of a fluid as it moves with its flow; that is, the local rotation of the fluid (in terms of vector calculus this is the curl of the flow velocity). The governing equation is:
Turbulent flows have non-zero vorticity and are characterized by a strong three-dimensional vortex generation mechanism known as vortex stretching. In fluid dynamics, they are essentially vortices subjected to stretching associated with a corresponding increase of the component of vorticity in the stretching direction—due to the conservation ...
Circulation can be related to curl of a vector field V and, more specifically, to vorticity if the field is a fluid velocity field, =.. By Stokes' theorem, the flux of curl or vorticity vectors through a surface S is equal to the circulation around its perimeter, [4] = = =
Animation of a Rankine vortex. Free-floating test particles reveal the velocity and vorticity pattern. The Rankine vortex is a simple mathematical model of a vortex in a viscous fluid. It is named after its discoverer, William John Macquorn Rankine. The vortices observed in nature are usually modelled with an irrotational (potential or free ...