A study of the interactions between uniform and pointwise vortices in an inviscid fluid

Abstract The planar interactions between pair of vortices in an inviscid fluid are analytically investigated, by assuming one of the two vortices pointwise and the other one uniform. A novel approach using the Schwarz function of the boundary of the uniform vortex is adopted. It is based on a new integral relation between the (complex) velocity induced by the uniform vortex and its Schwarz function and on the time evolution equation of this function. They lead to a singular integrodifferential problem. Even if this problem is strongly nonlinear, its nonlinearities are confined inside two terms, only. As a consequence, its solution can be analytically approached by means of successive approximations. The ones at 0th (nonlinear terms neglected) and 1st (nonlinear terms evaluated on the 0-order solution) orders are calculated and compared with contour dynamics simulations of the vortex motion. A satisfactory agreement is keept for times which are small with respect to the turn-over time of the vortex pair.