Physics of Vortices and Vorticity in Flow Control

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About this Research Topic

Submission deadlines

  1. Manuscript Summary Submission Deadline 18 February 2025 | Manuscript Submission Deadline 18 June 2025

  2. This Research Topic is still accepting articles.

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Background

Vortex is a natural fluid phenomenon that is often of great consequence in almost any practical flow, such as shear layers, wakes, jets, plumes, and multi-phase or multi-physics interfaces. In fluid mechanics, vortices have been described as the "sinews" and "muscles" of flow that transmit forces and act as carriers in transporting momentum. The generation and ensuing dynamics of vortices entail many interesting mechanisms, such as boundary acceleration, baroclinic torque, stretching, and hydrodynamic instability. Vortices can also serve as sources of unsteady and unstable flows and play a crucial role in the formation of turbulence. The dynamics of vortices has been primarily understood through the vector field theories of vorticity, for example the Helmholtz laws which preserves physical insight, including the Lagrangian property and coherence of vortical structures, meanwhile, enabling the development of theories and analytical models for vortices and vortical flows.

Modern flow control techniques based on vortex generation and manipulation have demonstrated great promises in pursuing optimizations of aerodynamic performance, enhancements in mixing or cooling, and mitigations of instabilities or noises. Yet, the fundamental physics of vortices and vorticity involved in the relevant processes remain to be unraveled. Among the many queries, the most basic ones are how vortices form and where the source of vorticity is. Although insights have been offered for simple canonical flows, the mystery holds for various situations that involve the interplays of complex geometries, varying fluid properties, thermodynamics, chemical reactions, and other multi-physical effects. Another important issue concerns the evolution and interaction of large-scale or coherent vortices, which play a pivotal role in dictating the dynamics and periodicity of various unsteady and unstable flows. Recent advancements have shown success in reduced-order modeling of unsteady flows based on vortex methods, enabling fast yet accurate predictions of the transient flow field and aerodynamic/hydrodynamic forces; still, the efficacy needs to be testified in practical flow control applications.

This Research Topic aims to offer a featured collection of research showcasing the state-of-art progress in the physics of vortices and vorticity, with a special focus on the formation, evolution, and interaction of coherent vortices relating to flow control. These may involve the fundamental theories, models, and mechanisms of unsteady aerodynamics/hydrodynamics and instability, as well as the methods and techniques developed for the relevant applications. We welcome contributions of original research articles of theoretical, experimental, numerical approaches or combinations thereof, with relevance to the following sub-topics:
- vortex/vorticity dynamics in flapping/swimming, jet/wake, boundary layer, separation flow, multi-phase flow, thermofluids, combustion, etc.
- vortex methods and models for unsteady flow
- vortex, flow instability, and turbulence
- vortex and AI

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

  • Brief Research Report
  • Data Report
  • Editorial
  • General Commentary
  • Hypothesis and Theory
  • Methods
  • Mini Review
  • Opinion
  • Original Research

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

  • Brief Research Report
  • Data Report
  • Editorial
  • General Commentary
  • Hypothesis and Theory
  • Methods
  • Mini Review
  • Opinion
  • Original Research
  • Perspective
  • Review
  • Technology and Code

Keywords: Vortex/vorticity dynamics, Vortex method, Vortex model, Vortex formation, Vorticity generation, Vortex evolution, Vortex interaction, Vortex shedding, Vortex dissipation

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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