Identification and analysis of vortical structures

Various identification and visualization methods of vortical structures, especially of slender vortices, are critically reviewed with a special attention to their objectivity. The sectional-swirl-and-pressure-minimum scheme is presented as a new identification method and applied to homogeneous turbulence. Since the physical quantities associated with an individual vortex can be analyzed separately, this new scheme enables us to investigate quantitatively various physical characteristics related to vortices, such as the variations of the core shape, the circulation and the vorticity vector along a vortex and the temporal evolution of arbitrarily selected vortices. (C) Elsevier, Paris.