{"title":"Variational construction of tubular and toroidal streamsurfaces for flow visualization","authors":"Mingwu Li, Bálint Kaszás, George Haller","doi":"10.1098/rspa.2023.0951","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Approximate streamsurfaces of a three-dimensional velocity field have recently been constructed as isosurfaces of the closest first integral of the velocity field. Such approximate streamsurfaces enable effective and efficient visualization of vortical regions in three-dimensional flows. Here we propose a variational construction of these approximate streamsurfaces to remove the limitation of Fourier series representation of the first integral in earlier work. Specifically, we use finite-element methods to solve a partial differential equation that describes the best approximate first integral for a given velocity field. We use several examples to demonstrate the power of our approach for three-dimensional flows in domains with arbitrary geometries and boundary conditions. These include generalized axisymmetric flows in the domains of a sphere (spherical vortex), a cylinder (cylindrical vortex) and a hollow cylinder (Taylor–Couette flow) as benchmark studies for various computational domains, non-integrable periodic flows (ABC and Euler flows) and Rayleigh–Bénard convection flows. We also illustrate the use of the variational construction in extracting momentum barriers in Rayleigh–Bénard convection.</p>","PeriodicalId":20716,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences","volume":"2011 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences","FirstCategoryId":"103","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2023.0951","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Approximate streamsurfaces of a three-dimensional velocity field have recently been constructed as isosurfaces of the closest first integral of the velocity field. Such approximate streamsurfaces enable effective and efficient visualization of vortical regions in three-dimensional flows. Here we propose a variational construction of these approximate streamsurfaces to remove the limitation of Fourier series representation of the first integral in earlier work. Specifically, we use finite-element methods to solve a partial differential equation that describes the best approximate first integral for a given velocity field. We use several examples to demonstrate the power of our approach for three-dimensional flows in domains with arbitrary geometries and boundary conditions. These include generalized axisymmetric flows in the domains of a sphere (spherical vortex), a cylinder (cylindrical vortex) and a hollow cylinder (Taylor–Couette flow) as benchmark studies for various computational domains, non-integrable periodic flows (ABC and Euler flows) and Rayleigh–Bénard convection flows. We also illustrate the use of the variational construction in extracting momentum barriers in Rayleigh–Bénard convection.
期刊介绍:
Proceedings A has an illustrious history of publishing pioneering and influential research articles across the entire range of the physical and mathematical sciences. These have included Maxwell"s electromagnetic theory, the Braggs" first account of X-ray crystallography, Dirac"s relativistic theory of the electron, and Watson and Crick"s detailed description of the structure of DNA.