Computational simulations of vorticity enhanced diffusion

Computer simulations are used to investigate a phenomenon of vorticity enhanced diffusion (VED), a net transport and mixing of a passive scalar across a prescribed vortex flow field driven by a background gradient in the scalar quantity. The central issue under study here is the increase in scalar flux down the gradient and across the vortex field. The numerical scheme uses cylindrical coordinates centered with the vortex flow which allows an exact advective solution and 1D or 2D diffusion using simple numerical methods. In the results, the ratio of transport across a localized vortex region in the presence of the vortex flow over that expected for diffusion alone is evaluated as a measure of VED. This ratio is seen to increase dramatically while the absolute flux across the vortex decreases slowly as the diffusion coefficient is decreased. Similar results are found and compared for varying diffusion coefficient, D, or vortex rotation time, τv, for a constant background gradient in the transported scalar vs an interface in the transported quantity, and for vortex flow fields constant in time vs flow which evolves in time from an initial state and with a Schmidt number of order unity. A simple analysis shows that for a small diffusion coefficient, the flux ratio measure of VED scales as the vortex radius over the thickness for mass diffusion in a viscous shear layer within the vortex characterized by (Dτv)1/2. The phenomenon is linear as investigated here and suggests that a significant enhancement of mixing in fluids may be a relatively simple linear process. Discussion touches on how this vorticity enhanced diffusion may be related to mixing in nonlinear turbulent flows. copyright 1999 American Institute of Physics