Starting vortices generated by an arbitrary solid body with any number of edges

Abstract

The starting vortex generated at the trailing edge of a flat plate, that is impulsively translated at fixed angle of attack, is a widely studied canonical problem. Recent work that examined the effect of plate rotation on this starting vortex found that two new and distinct vortex sheet types can arise. We generalise this work to study the starting vortex generated at any sharp and straight edge of an arbitrary body under a general time-dependent two-dimensional motion. The dimensionless velocity field of the attached flow near any sharp edge is assumed to take the form, ẑ−1/2f(T)+ g(T)+ o(1), where ẑ is the dimensionless position referenced to the edge, f(T) and g(T) are functions of dimens..