Particle simulation of swirling flows

The vortex particle method has been applied to the axisymmetric swirling flow of a viscous fluid. The formulation used yields two transport equations which have been solved within the lagrangian framework of particle method. The diffusion operator for both equations has been approximated by means of a Particle Strength Exchange scheme. Applications to the cases of one isolated vortex ring and two co-rotating vortex rings illustrate the interest of this new method. Special attention has been devoted to the vorticity production resulting from the interaction between the azimuthal components of vorticity and velocity. The generation of small eddies at the boundary of the vortex ring cross-section has been particularly investigated.