The interaction of counter-rotating strained vortex pairs with a third vortex

Abstract

The vortex dynamics caused by the interaction of counter-rotating Burgers vortex pairs with a third Burgers vortex in a straining flow is investigated numerically. These interactions blend vortex merging and cancellation effects, and the aim is to investigate how the third vortex might influence the evolution of the vortex pair. Many different choices of initial conditions for the pair and third vortex exist, so attention is restricted to a class of initial conditions in which the vortex pair initially moves in the general direction of vortex3, and the distance from vortex3 to the line of free propagation of the vortex pair is the 'offset' parameter δ. A series of calculations with 0≤δ≤4 rev..