English

A Computational Study of the Dynamics of the Critical Points in a Simple Fluid Flow

Fluid Dynamics 2010-03-25 v2

Abstract

We carry out a computational experiment inspired by a physical experiment by Ouellette and Gollub (PRL 99, 194502 (2007)) where a topological transition of the velocity field in a fluid flow is generated by a grid of magnets. At a well-defined Reynolds number Re the motion of the stagnation points becomes so strong that they may merge and annihilate. Replacing the magnets by a grid of stirrers we obtain the same essential features of the transition, but the resolution allows us to identify two different stages of the process: A range of Re where the annihilation rate of the stagnation points is low but non-zero is followed by a narrow interval where the rate jumps to a high level.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0806.4757,
  title  = {A Computational Study of the Dynamics of the Critical Points in a Simple Fluid Flow},
  author = {Morten Brøns and Anders Skajaa and Ove Skovgaard},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0806.4757},
  year   = {2010}
}

Comments

This paper has been withdrawn by the authors, as it has not been accepted for publication