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On the Lamb vector and the hydrodynamic charge

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Abstract

This work is an attempt to test the concept of the hydrodynamic charge (analogous to the electric charge in electromagnetism) in the simple case of a coherent structure such as the Burgers vortex. We provide experimental measurements of both the so-called Lamb vector and its divergence (the charge) by two-dimensional particles images velocimetry. In addition, we perform a Helmholtz–Hodge decomposition of the Lamb vector in order to explore its topological features. We compare the charge with the well-known Q-criterion in order to assess its interest in detecting and characterizing coherent structure. Usefulness of this concept in studies of vortex dynamics is demonstrated.

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Notes

  1. To avoid confusion, note that all figures show only a cut-out of the whole field. The boundary is not shown.

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Acknowledgments

Two of us (Sh. S. and V. S.) are grateful to E. Segre for providing us a multi-pass correlation algorithm and for his help in software support. This work is partially supported by grants from Israel Science Foundation, Binational US–Israel Foundation, and by the Minerva Centre for Nonlinear Physics of Complex Systems. G.R. was financially supported by a grant “post-doc CNRS” (S.P.M. section 02) during his post-doctoral stay in Nice. A.W. was supported by DFG grant SCHE 663/3-7.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut Non-Linéaire de Nice, UMR 6618 CNRS-UNICE, Université de Nice-Sophia Antipolis, 1361 route des Lucioles, 06560, Valbonne, France

    Germain Rousseaux

  2. Department of Physics of Complex Systems, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100, Rehovot, Israel

    Shahar Seifer & Victor Steinberg

  3. Institut für Informatik, Universität Leipzig, PF 100920, 04009, Leipzig, Germany

    Alexander Wiebel

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  1. Germain Rousseaux
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  2. Shahar Seifer
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  3. Victor Steinberg
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  4. Alexander Wiebel
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Correspondence to Germain Rousseaux.

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Rousseaux, G., Seifer, S., Steinberg, V. et al. On the Lamb vector and the hydrodynamic charge. Exp Fluids 42, 291–299 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-006-0238-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-006-0238-2

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