High-speed schlieren videography of vortex-ring impact on a wall

Ring vortices of approximately 20 cm diameter are generated through the use of an Airzooka toy. To make the vortex visible, it is seeded with difluoroethane gas, producing a refractive-index difference with the air. A 1-meter-diameter, single-mirror, double-pass schlieren system is used to visualize the ring-vortex motion, and also to provide the wall with which the vortex collides. High-speed imaging is provided by a Photron SA-1 digital video camera. The Airzooka is fired toward the mirror almost along the optical axis of the schlieren system, so that the view of the vortex-mirror collision is normal to the path of vortex motion. Vortex-wall interactions similar to those first observed by Walker et al. (JFM 181, 1987) are recorded at high speed. The presentation will consist of a screening and discussion of these video results.