Time evolution of dimethyl carbinol in water vortex rings

Ioana - Laura Omoceaa, Iulia - Rodica Damiana, tefan - Mugur Simionescua, Corneliu Blana,
Mona Mihilescub
a
Reorom Laboratory, Department of Hydraulics, Hydraulic Machinery and Environmental
Engineering, Politehnica University of Bucharest, Romania
b
Physics Department, Politehnica University of Bucharest, Romania
ABSTRACT
The paper is concerned with the experimental study of the time evolution of a single laminar vortex ring generated at the
interface between water and dimethyl carbinol. The experiments were performed by the submerged injection with a
constant rate of dimethyl carbinol (isopropyl alcohol) in a water tank. The dynamics of the vortex formation was
recorded at 1000 fps with a Photron Fastcam SA1 camera, equipped with a microscopic Edmund Optics objective. A
symmetrical buoyant vortex ring with an elongated topology was observed at the interface between the two immiscible
liquids. The analyses of the time dependence of the vortex rings disclosed three regions for the evolution of the interface:
one dominated by inertia force, a transition region and a third region, dominated by buoyancy force.
Keywords: vortex ring, immiscible liquids, buoyancy, Reynolds number, flow visualization.

INTRODUCTION
Vortex rings are one of the fundamental phenomena that have been studied intensely by many authors, starting with H.
Helmholtz1, up to nowadays scientists.
The practical applications of the vortex ring formation are found in the field of hydrodynamics, such as flow control,
fluid mixing, heat transfer and propulsion, but also in the biological and biomedical field, like animal locomotion or
internal flows3.
Vortex rings belong to the category of fluid flow, fast swirling motions in miscible / immiscible fluids.
Vortical motions are characterizing almost all phenomena of fluid mechanics, starting with hurricanes, typhoons and
tornadoes and going to the whirlpools in kitchen and bathroom sinks6.
Vortex rings are particular vortical flows which are characterized by the impinging jet of one fluid in another fluid in an
open atmosphere or closed geometry.
Buoyant vortex rings form a different class of vortices where the density difference between the impinging jet and the
ambient fluid profoundly alters the flow dynamics7. A buoyant jet can be broadly classified as positively buoyant, if the
buoyancy force and momentum fluxes are aligned in the same direction or negatively buoyant if the buoyant force and
momentum flux are opposed2.
Buoyant intrusions are common in natural and engineered systems like volcanic eruptions, piston engine fuel injection
and microscale heat exchange in microelectromechanical systems.
In literature, the most representative studied cases are the following: (i) vortex ring is formed using the same fluid for the
impinging jet and as ambient fluid; (ii) the ejected fluid is more dense then the ambient one, with injection from the top
or the bottom of the tank and (iii) the case where the ejected fluid is less dense than the ambient one, and usually injected
from the bottom of the tank.
Almost all the previous studies were focused on vortex rings generation by immersed jets using the same liquids or
following up the impact of buoyancy force acting on the same direction as the velocity.

The present study investigates the influence of the buoyancy force acting in the opposite direction as the velocity, i. e.
the impinging jet has a lower density than the ambient fluid. The chosen case in this paper was the one of negative
buoyant vortex rings, imposing the buoyancy force to act in the opposite direction as the momentum flux.

EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
In order to obtain negative buoyant vortex rings, the chosen working fluids for the experiment were dimethyl carbinol,
having the chemical formula (CH3)2CHOH (a fluid used in biomedical applications, also called isopropyl alcohol) and
water, with the following properties: the densities of dimethyl carbinol and water are
kg/m3 and
kg/m3, the viscosities are
;
, respectively. The corresponding
number for the
experiment was 106.
The experiments were conducted in a water tank with the dimensions of
. The vortex rings were
generated by the submerged injection of dimethyl carbinol from a cylindrical nozzle, a needle with inner diameter
, into the surrounding uid, water. A constant flow rate,
ml/min, of dimethyl carbinol was
maintained using a PHD Ultra 4400 Syringe Pump. The dynamics of the vortex ring formation was recorded with a
Photron Fastcam SA1 camera, equipped with a microscopic Edmund Optics objective VZM Model 1000i, with a
magnification of 2.5x 10x.
The images with the dynamics of the vortex rings evolution were recorded at 1000 fps. The camera was placed
perpendicular to one of the tank's walls, so that the focus was made on the forming vortex ring, which is assumed to be
located in the middle of the water tank. The setup is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Experimental setup: Harvard Apparatus 4400 Ultra Syringe Pump, Photron Fastcam SA1, Edmund Microscopic Objective
VZM1000i, glass tank, flat needle tip with inner diameter 0.4 mm.

RESULTS
The structure of the vortex ring immersed in the tank, generated by the jet is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. The structure of the vortex ring immersed in the tank

From the nozzle is ejected the primary fluid, the less dense fluid, dimethyl carbinol, at a constant rate of 2 ml/min. The
laminar vortex ring is initially stable and its diameter is increasing during the initial roll up of the dimethyl carbinol.
The vortex rings are generated by a Kelvin - Helmholtz instability at the separation surface between the impinging jet
and the ambient fluid, being relevant in mixing phenomena and shear layer flows.
The important parameters of the dynamics of the phenomena are the viscous ratio between the ambient fluid (water) and
the injected fluid (dimethyl carbinol),
, the density ratio,
, and the corresponding interfacial
tension, respectively.
In other studies, it has been investigated the motion in the vortex as a function of dimensional parameters: radius , core
size , circulation , and non-dimensional parameters 1, 8, 9: In our case, the dimensional and the non - dimensional
parameters are the following:

mm is the inner orifice diameter;

The corresponding Reynolds number

, where

is the velocity of the injected fluid,

Figure 3. Vortex ring evolution in 1800 ms with a time step

ms (from left to right and from top to bottom) at Re=106

After the PHD Ultra 4400 Syringe Pump was turned on and started to inject the fluid, the stream of dimethyl carbinol
(isopropyl alcohol) slowly separated and started to roll up. Downstream the needle, it is observed a symmetrical buoyant
vortex ring with an elongated topology (see Figure 3).
In the early stages, in the vicinity if the needle, the jet of dimethyl carbinol rised without forming a vortex, due to the
buoyancy. Then, the stream slowly separated and started to roll-up. The ejected fluid entered the ambient fluid (water),
during vortex formation, due to Biot-Savart induction 4.

4.0

Vortex ring length [mm]

3.5

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0
0

500

1000

1500

2000

Time [ms]

Figure 4. Dynamics of vortex topology and vortex length evolution in time

0.0075

Vortex ring velocity [m/s]

0.0050

0.0025

0.0000

-0.0025

-0.0050
0

500

1000

1500

2000

Time [ms]

Figure 5. Vortex velocity evolution in time, corresponding to the three regions (see Fig. 4)

Flow visualization was performed with the normal shadow graph technique, using the naturally occurring index of
refraction variations produced by the varying density. This technique generates good visualization of the vortex core,
which can be recorded easily by the camera. The evolution of the vortex rings length, , was measured from the
analyses of the pictures shown in Fig. 3.
Following this procedure, we can compute also the velocity of the vortex tip (the velocity was calculated by the
derivative of time dependence of the length). The influence of buoyancy can be clearly seen in the images.
From the time analyze on the length and velocity of the vortex rings (Fig. 4 and Fig. 5), there were distinguished three
different regions that describe their behavior:

first region - dominated by the inertia force, where the evolution of the length is linear in time and the velocity
is almost constant;
a second region (a transition one) - both length dependence in time and velocity disclose oscillatory
characteristics, taking also some negative values (this region is associated with the onset of instability of the
laminar vortex ring)
a third region - dominated by the buoyancy force; the core of the vortex is elongated and the tendency of the
liquid is to follow the immersed needle, the vortex ring length seems to increase again, also its velocity.

When the instability develops (second region), a deformation of the vortex boundaries are observed (the vortex ring core
starts to be elongated).

CONCLUSIONS
Flow visualization with the normal shadow graph technique from index of refraction variations produced by the varying
density is a good method of visualization.
We investigate, from the experimental point of view, vortex rings, analyzing the influence of the negative buoyancy.
The analyses of the time evolution of vortex ring's length and velocity disclose three regions of the vortex dynamics.
After the first region, with linear evolution, we observe instabilities due to the buoyant force. The visualizations also put
in evidence the topology of the vortex rings.
The present results are promising and offer possibilities to further investigate fast forming vortex ring between miscible /
immiscible fluids. We are looking forward to study the influence of the buoyancy on the vortex ring formation, using
impinging jet and drop coalescence at the interface.
This is a first study and it is limited to experimental investigations. We intend, also, to perform numerical simulations,
using the ANSYS Fluent code, and to calibrate the results with more accurate experimental data.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The work of Ioana Laura Omocea has been funded by the Sectoral Operational Programme Human Resources
Development 2007-2013 of the Ministry of European Funds through the Financial Agreement
POSDRU/159/1.5/S/134398.
The work of Iulia Rodica Damian has been funded by the Sectoral Operational Programme Human Resources
Development 2007-2013 of the Ministry of European Funds through the Financial Agreement
POSDRU/159/1.5/S/134397.
The work of tefan Mugur Simionescu has been funded by the Sectoral Operational Programme Human Resources
Development 2007-2013 of the Ministry of European Funds through the Financial Agreement
POSDRU/159/1.5/S/134395.

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