Three-dimensional impulsive vortex formation from slender orifices

The vortex formation behind an orifice is a widely investigated phenomenon, which has been recently studied in several problems of biological relevance. In the case of a circular opening, several works in the literature have shown the existence of a limiting process for vortex ring formation that leads to the concept of critical formation time. In the different geometric arrangement of a planar flow, which corresponds to an opening with straight edges, it has been recently outlined that such a concept does not apply. This discrepancy opens the question about the presence of limiting conditions when apertures with irregular shape are considered. In this paper, the three-dimensional vortex formation due to the impulsively started flow through slender openings is studied with the numerical solution of the Navier Stokes equations, at values of the Reynolds number that allow the comparison with previous two-dimensional findings. The analysis of the three-dimensional results reveals the two-dimensional nature of the early vortex formation phase. During an intermediate phase, the flow evolution appears to be driven by the local curvature of the orifice edge, and the time scale of the phenomena exhibits a surprisingly good agreement with those found in axisymmetric problems with the same curvature. The long-time evolution shows the complete development of the three-dimensional vorticity dynamics, which does not allow the definition of further unifying concepts.