Vortex Models with a Twist: Including Core Details

Compact regions of vorticity are ubiquitous in fluid mechanics, including in turbulent flows, atmospheric weather systems, and the flow around aerodynamic surfaces. This has led to the development of simplified vortex point and filament models, which have a long history in fluid mechanics. However, current vortex filament methods treat vortex cores as infinitesimally thin and neglecting internal twist of the vortex tubes. As a result, they can not accurately model phenomena like vortex stretching and helicity transport. In this talk we introduce an improved vortex 'bundle' model which allows us to account for vortex cores of varying, finite thickness and/or twist. By incorporating these additional factors, our method enables the study of phenomena that could not previously be described by vortex filament models.