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A Compact Eulerian Representation of Axisymmetric Inviscid Vortex Sheet Dynamics

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Pesci, AI 
Goldstein, RE 
Shelley, MJ 

Abstract

A classical problem in fluid mechanics is the motion of an axisymmetric vortex sheet evolving under the action of surface tension, surrounded by an inviscid fluid. Lagrangian descriptions of these dynamics are well-known, involving complex nonlocal expressions for the radial and longitudinal velocities in terms of elliptic integrals. Here we use these prior results to arrive at a remarkably compact and exact Eulerian evolution equation for the sheet radius r(z,t) in an explicit flux form associated with the conservation of enclosed volume. The flux appears as an integral involving the pairwise mutual induction formula for vortex loop pairs first derived by Helmholtz and Maxwell. We show how the well-known linear stability results for cylindrical vortex sheets in the presence of surface tension and streaming flows [A.M. Sterling and C.A. Sleicher, JFluid Mech. 68, 477 (1975)] can be obtained directly from this formulation. Furthermore, the inviscid limit of the empirical model of Eggers and Dupont [JFluid Mech. 262 205 (1994); SIAM JApplMath. 60, 1997 (2000)], which has served as the basis for understanding singularity formation in droplet pinchoff, is derived within the present formalism as the leading order term in an asymptotic analysis for long slender axisymmetric vortex sheets, and should provide the starting point for a rigorous analysis of singularity formation.

Description

Keywords

physics.flu-dyn, physics.flu-dyn

Journal Title

Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0010-3640
1097-0312

Volume Title

73

Publisher

Wiley
Sponsorship
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/M017982/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/I036060/1)
This work was supported in part by Established Career Fellowship EP/M017982/1 from the EPSRC (REG & AIP). REG and AIP are grateful to the I.H.E.S., and especially Patrick Gourdon, for hospitality during an extended visit supported by the Schlumberger Visiting Professorship (REG).