Phys.org June 20, 2023
Material boundaries of the experimental apparatus developed to generate turbulence pose a challenge for understanding what the turbulence has been fed and how it would freely evolve. An international team of researchers (USA – University of Chicago, UC Santa Barbara, France) built and controlled a confined state of turbulence using vortex rings. The stationary and isolated blob of turbulence was sustained solely by vortex rings. Thus they assembled a full picture of its three-dimensional structure, onset, energy budget and tunability. The incoming vortex rings could be endowed with conserved quantities, such as helicity, which could be controllably transferred to the turbulent state. According to the researchers their one-eddy-at-a-time approach opens the possibility for sculpting turbulent flows much as a state of matter, placing the turbulent blob at the targeted position, localizing it, and ultimately harnessing it… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
Repeated collision of eight vortex rings forms an isolated blob of turbulence… Credit: Matsuzawa et al