Comparison between an experimental turbulent vortex and the Lundgren vortex

Abstract

In a recent letter (Cuypers Y et al 2003 Phys. Rev. Lett. 91 194502), the authors presented experimental results on a structure resulting from a vortex burst. The temporal evolution of this structure results in the k ^− 5/3 Kolmogorov spectrum and some common features with the Lundgren theoretical vortex have been shown. The purpose of the present paper is to go further in the comparison with the Lundgren model by a parallel analysis of the experimental structure and of a Lundgren single spiral vortex, whose evolution is numerically obtained based on the calculations of Pullin et al (1993 Phys. Fluids A 5 126; 1994 Phys. Fluids 6 3010).