EAGER: Time-Resolved Measurements and Control of Vortex Breakdown via Heat Addition

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This project was inspired by the discovery and ongoing study of the blue whirl, an apparent breakdown mode of a fire whirl in which it unexpectedly transitions to a small and seemingly benign blue flame. The blue whirl produces no soot and minimal pollutants, suggesting optimal burning and a potential source of clean energy. Creating a blue whirl without having to pass through the fire whirl state would enable a safe and clean form of hydrocarbon combustion that could be used in combustors, for propulsion, or for controlled burns (e.g., oil spill clean-up). More broadly, because vortex breakdown occurs in a wide variety of applications, a better understanding and ability to control and predict its dynamics has broad implications for many fluid dynamics systems affected by this instability. Controlling vortex breakdown would enable higher force production and enhance aerodynamic stability on wings and blades ranging from small-scale micro air vehicles to large-scale wind turbines, as well as more robust pump operation in cooling and emergency operations. This project aims to characterize and quantify the process of vortex breakdown in an incompressible non-reacting flow, and to identify mechanisms by which breakdown might be controlled via a new type of experiment wherein energy (in the form of heat) is introduced into the core of a vortex flow. The objective of this project is to experimentally demonstrate the effect of heat injection on vortex breakdown in a non-reacting incompressible flow, and to evaluate the parameter space over which heat addition has a measurable effect on the breakdown process and final state of the flow. A new type of vortex breakdown experiment will be developed to enable time-resolved velocity field measurements in a swirling flow with variable temperature (and thereby density) gradients. Complementary numerical simulations (performed by collaborators X. Zhang and E. Oran) will provide guidance in the development of the experimental facility and test matrix, and will make it possible to explore regions of the parameter space not easily achieved in the laboratory. Results from these experiments will include quantitative time-resolved measurements of the changes in flow structure during the process of vortex breakdown, with and without heat injection. The proposed experiments are expected to provide new physical insight into the process and mechanisms of vortex breakdown to inform theories and scaling laws, allowing for a generalization of the results gained here towards new methods of vortex control.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.