Output details

Vortex-speed selection within the boundary-layer flow over a rotating sphere placed in an enforced axial flow.

The paper explains the existence of slow vortices within the transitional region of flow over rotating hemispheres that had remained unexplained since their observation in the 1980s. The novel techniques developed in this paper have since been applied to alternative geometries relevant to rotating components in turbo-machinery and aerospace technologies. This has enabled the author to show that slow vortices are a universal property of rotating boundary layers [doi:10.1088/0169-5983/42/2/025504, doi:10.1260/1748-3018.4.1.71, doi:10.2514/MFD11]. The possible connection to compressor stall was debated at the AIAA Fluids Conference in 2011 and prompts further academic study of industrial significance.