Journal of Applied Mechanical Engineering

Comparison of analytical vortex models to experimentally modeled tornado-like vortices

Global Summit and Expo on Fluid Dynamics & Aerodynamics

August 15-16, 2016 London, UK

Stefanie Gillmeier, Hassan Hemida and Mark Sterling

University of Birmingham, UK

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Appl Mech Eng

Abstract:

The structure of a full-scale tornado is highly complex, showing a three-dimensional flow field, instabilities, singularities and non-linear effects. Mathematically a tornado is considered as a concentrated vortex. In the past, several simplified analytical models have been developed to represent concentrated vortices. Whether an idealized mathematical vortex model can represent the complexity of a real tornado depends on the similarity of the model solution to the full-scale case. However, data sets of full-scale tornadic events are very limited and for that reason tornado-like vortices are modeled experimentally in laboratories to provide a statistical representative validation data set for different vortex models. In this paper, a new physical vortex generator is tested to generate tornado-like vortices. The simulator consists of two chambers, a convection chamber and a convergence chamber. Angular momentum is imposed by guide vanes around the convergence chamber. Different vortex structures can be produced by changing the guide vane angle. The effect of different swirl ratios on the flow characteristics and a comparison study between different analytical tornado vortex models and the experimentally obtained results are presented in this paper. The similarity of both model solutions is discussed in detail.

Biography :

Email: sgg461@bham.ac.uk