Reorganization of coherent vortices in shear layers under the action of solid-body rotation (Q4336892)

The authors examine the effects of solid-body rotation (characterized by angular velocity \(\vec\Omega\)) on a mixing layer and a plane wake (in a plane perpendicular to \(\vec\Omega\)), upon which is superposed a small three-dimensional random perturbation. Using Kelvin's theorem in a frame rotating with \(\vec\Omega\), and with the aid of arguments based either on the straining of absolute vortex filaments by the ambient shear, or an introducing in a simplified case an exact solution whose results are close to a three-dimensional linear stability analysis, the authors show that rotation is always stabilizing (with respect to the nonrotating situation) in the cyclonic case. In the anticyclonic case, a slight rotation is destabilizing, with an intensification of the stretching of longitudinal hairpin vortices. At high rotation rates (low Rossby numbers), both cyclonic and anticyclonic vortices are stabilized, in agreement with the Taylor-Proudman theorem. In order to assess the theoretical results predicted by former studies, three-dimensional numerical simulations are performed. A critical Rossby number is found at which maximum three-dimensional anticyclonic destabilization is achieved. In this case, a detailed examination of the structures shows that the flow is highly anisotropic with very elongated streamwise hairpin vortices of small spanwise wavelength. Finally, the same theoretical considerations applied to rotating developed turbulence permit to infer that, for turbulent Rossby numbers of the order of one, cyclonic vortices with axis parallel to \(\vec\Omega\) are reinforced, while anticyclonic vorticity is disrupted. The authors present computations which support this conjecture in the case of initially quasi two-dimensional turbulence, and discuss applications to geophysical or engineering flows. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0842.00048].