Some observations of the vortex breakdown phenomenon

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Abstract
This paper describes an experiment in which a cylindrical vortex, formed in a long tube, was used to study the ‘vortex breakdown’ that has been previously reported in investigations of the flow over slender delta wings. By varying the amount of swirl that was imparted to the fluid before it entered the tube, it was found that the breakdown was the intermediate stage between the two basic types of rotating flows, that is, those that do and those that do not exhibit axial velocity reversal. In addition, it was shown that an unusual flow pattern was established after the breakdown and that certain features of this pointed to it being a ‘critical’ phenomenon. The tests were concluded by measuring the swirl angle distribution a short distance ahead of the breakdown and comparing these results with the prediction of Squire's theory (1960).

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