Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Steady Boundary Layer Due To A Fast Vortex, Andrew J. Bernoff, Harald J. H. M. Van Dongen, Seth Lichter

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A point vortex located above and convected parallel to a wall is an important model of the process by which a boundary layer becomes unstable due to external disturbances. Often it has been assumed that the boundary layer due to the passage of the vortex is inherently unsteady. Here we show that for a vortex convected by a uniform shear flow, there is a steady solution when the speed of the vortex c_v is sufficiently fast. The existence of the steady solution is demonstrated analytically in the limit of large vortex velocity (c_v→∞) and numerically …