Interacting two-dimensional vortex structures: Point vortices, contour kinematics and stirring properties (Q1890846)

Two-dimensional inviscid flows governed by a vortex pair in the presence of another point vortex or another vortex pair in an unbounded plane are studied both analytically and numerically. Attention is focussed mainly on the induced advection of passive scalars, and, in particular, on the stirring process for some integrable cases of point-vortex motion. For example, by tracing the deformations of the separatrix enclosing the ``atmosphere'' of a point-vortex dipole during the interaction with another single point vortex or vortex pair, the contour kinematics method provides information about the processes of entrainment and detrainment that take place during the interaction. The results obtained by contour kinematics techniques have been compared for a few cases with both full numerical solutions of the two-dimensional Euler equations and dye- visualised laboratory observations of interacting vortex structures; the contour kinematics calculations show a good qualitative agreement.