Motion of a vortex ring in a simple shear flow

The motion and deformation of a vortex ring in a linear or simple shear flow have been simulated numerically by using the lattice Boltzmann method with multiple relaxation times. The study is motivated by a recent experiment [T. T. Lim, K. B. Lua, and K. Thet, Phys. Fluids 20, 051701 (2008)], which shows that a vortex ring propagating in a uniform cross flow does not experience Kutta lift and undergo tilting and deformation. The focus of the present study is to examine the effect of a simple shear in a cross flow on the motion of a vortex ring. Numerical approach is adopted here because a truly simple shear flow is difficult to generate experimentally. Our computation shows that a vortex ring tilts and deforms in a simple shear flow, and the tilting can be attributed to the modification of the vorticity distribution of the vortex ring as a result of the entrainment of background vorticity by the vortex core. It is further shown that although the shear in the flow has the tendency to elongate the vortex ring, the tilting angle of the ring increases with the shear ratio. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3196903]