VORTEX RINGS IN A HELE-SHAW CELL.

NUMERICAL
SIMULATIONS AND EXPERIMENTS
TEFAN - MUGUR SIMIONESCU - PhD. Student, "Politehnica" University of Bucharest, Romania, Reorom
Laboratory, Faculty of Power Engineering, e-mail: stefan_simionescu@yahoo.com
CONSTANTIN - RZVAN ANTON - Student, "Politehnica" University of Bucharest, Romania, Reorom
Laboratory, Faculty of Power Engineering
NICOLETA - OCTAVIA TNASE - Assistant, PhD, "Politehnica" University of Bucharest, Romania, Reorom
Laboratory, Faculty of Power Engineering
Abstract: This study is focused on the numerical simulations regarding vortex rings formation
in a Hele-Shaw cell, due to the impinging water jet on a smooth obstacle. We investigated the
time evolution of the vortex ring and its impact on the surface. The wall shear stress and
pressure distribution graphics on the solid plate were computed too. For the validation of the
numerical results, an experimental setup was realized, consisting of a glass-made Hele-Shaw
cell with a 2 mm gap, immersed in a water tank. The experiment was performed by the injection
with a constant rate of dyed water through a needle in the Hele-Shaw cell. Flow characteristics:
needle inner diameter 1 mm; Reynolds number 100; ambient fluid: water; impinged fluid: dyed
water.
Keywords: Reynolds number, wall shear stress, solid interface, mesh.

1. Introduction
Vortex rings are one of the fundamental phenomena that have been studied intensely by many authors,
starting with H. Helmholtz, up to nowadays scientists. 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 sinks [1-6].
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 [7-9].
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
[6, 10].
The present study investigates the formation of the vortex rings in a horizontal Hele-Shaw cell, and the
influence on the jet of a smooth surface, placed perpendicular to the forming jet at a certain distance.
The chosen case in this paper was the one using the same fluid for both impinging and ambient fluid.
The vortex ring formation and collision with the plate were numerically simulated using the AnsysFluent code, on a 2D geometry. The dimensionless parameter used to evaluate the flow was the
Reynolds number, calculated at the needle outlet as ratio between inertia forces to viscous forces.
Simulations were made for =20 , =50 , =100 and =200 .
The aim of this article is to realize a numerical and experimental study on the formation of the vortex
rings in a horizontal Hele-Shaw cell, and the influence on the jet of a smooth surface, placed
perpendicular to the forming jet at a certain distance.

2. Numerical simulations and results

To achieve the numerical calculation using the Fluent code, a geometry that reproduces the actual flow
was built (Figure 1) and then a discretization of the domain into a spatial grid ("mesh") consisting of
finite elements was used.
The construction of the geometry and the mesh of the flow field have a great influence on the obtained
results. For the present study, the construction of the flow field and its mesh were carried out using the
pre-processor Gambit 2.4, which provides a common set of CAD functions for creating fields, and
features implemented specifically for rapid creation of predefined and structured/unstructured
geometries and meshes.
The time evolution of the water jet and the vortex ring formation were followed using the Viscous laminar model of Ansys-Fluent. This model can be used for low Reynolds numbers, such as the
current case.
a)

b)

Fig. 1. Hele-Shaw cell geometry and dimensions. a) experimental; b) numerical computed domain and mesh

In the studied case, the flow domain was divided into two areas, for a simplification of the meshing
process: the needle and the actual Hele-Shaw cell. The flow field mesh was built using squares for the
needle (Quad-Map scheme), and unstructured quadrilateral elements (Quad-Pave scheme), with a 4layer boundary layer on the walls and a size function with needle and obstacle edges as source and the
whole domain as attachment, for a smoother mesh in the most significant area.
All simulations were performed using the same mesh (with 96 893 cells and 195 125 faces) and ran on
a 64-bit computer with Dual 2.66 GHz processor and 16 GB RAM memory.
The numerical simulations were performed with laminar model and unsteady solver. For the model
discretization, the SIMPLE scheme was employed for pressure-velocity coupling, QUICK for the
momentum and the transport equations.
The initial distribution of the phases and the corresponding boundary conditions are as follows:
(i) at the inlet the condition of uniform and constant velocity ( v =const . ) was set;
(ii) the flow took place at atmospheric pressure, at the outlet the condition was p= p0 ;
(iii) adherence conditions on the walls: v =0 .
The measurements were performed for four different Reynolds numbers. The flow parameters
characteristics are given in Table 1.

Table 1
Flow conditions for numerical simulations
No.
1
2
3
4

[-]

[m/s]

[m3/s]

20
50
100
200

0.02
0.05
0.1
0.2

1.571 e-8
3.927 e-8
7.854 e-8
15.708 e-8

Q
[ml/min
]
0.942
2.356
4.712
9.424

d
[mm]
1
1
1
1

[kg/m3]
1000
1000
1000
1000

[Pas]
10-3
10-3
10-3
10-3

Fig. 2. Numerical working domain, Hele-Shaw cell boundary conditions

In Figure 3 the stream lines spectrum for the flow in the Hele-Shaw cell are presented.

Re = 20

Re = 50

Re = 100

Re = 200

Fig. 3. Stream lines in the flow domain for various Reynolds numbers

The pressure distribution along the 10 cm long upper wall of the obstacle was studied for each of the
four numerical cases studied. A graph was computed (Figure 4 a), showing the pressure to position on
the obstacle. For Reynolds numbers less or equal to 100, the stability and symmetry of the jet are
almost perfect, while with the increase in Reynolds number a transition to a turbulent flow occurs.

a)

b)

Re 20
Re 50
Re 100
Re 200

8
7

Re 20
Re 50
Re 100
Re 200

0,300
0,225

Wall Shear Stress (P a)

6
5

Pressure (P a)

0,375

4
3
2
1

0,150
0,075
0,000
-0,075
-0,150
-0,225

0
-0,300

-1
-0,375

-2
-0,06

-0,04

-0,02

0,00

0,02

0,04

0,06

-0,06

-0,04

-0,02

0,00

0,02

0,04

0,06

Obstacle Length (m)

Obstacle Length (m)

Fig. 4. Pressure (a) and Wall shear stress (b) distribution on obstacle's upper surface

The pressure has a maximum in the impact point of the jet, while on the rest of the obstacle surface it
varies between positive and negative values.

3. Experimental set-up
The experiments are conducted in the horizontal Hele-Shaw cell sketched in Figure 1 a). Two glass
plates of 28 cm long and 22.5 cm wide are held together by clamps which are regularly spaced in order
to maintain a uniform gap. The gap thickness is fixed by aluminum shims (2 cm wide), 2 mm thick,
placed between the plates at three borders. We immerse the cell horizontally in a water tank with 60
cm length, 30 cm width and 6 cm depth. The experiment was performed by the injection with a
constant rate of dyed water, through a needle with 1 mm inner diameter, in the Hele-Shaw cell. A PHD
Ultra 4400 Syringe Pump was used, which maintained a constant given flowrate. The experimental
setup is presented in Figure 5.

A
B

Fig. 5. Experimental setup: A. Sony Camera + Edmund Optics VZM 1000i Objective; B. light source,
C. Hele-Shaw cell 24 x 27 cm; D. Water tank 60 x 30 cm; E. PHD Ultra 4400 Syringe Pump

The same fluid, water, was chosen for the experimental study. The Reynolds number for the
experiment was =100 , the same with one of the studied numerical cases. Two types of dye were
used: food coloring (red) and methylene blue, see fig. 6 a and b.
After performing one set of experiments of impinging jets through the Hele-Shaw cell, we observed
the results and the correspondent numerical simulation. By qualitatively comparing the stream lines of
dyed water with the velocity contours from the simulation, a symmetrical vortex ring was observed
since the appearance of the jet, till its collision with the plate.

Fig. 6. Qualitative comparison between the experimental: a. water colored by food coloring (red),
b. water colored by methylene blue and c. numerical results

4. Conclusions
The paper was dedicated to the experimental and numerical investigations of the formation of the
vortex rings in a horizontal Hele-Shaw cell, and the influence on the jet of a smooth surface, placed
perpendicular to the forming jet at a certain distance. Measurements regarding the pressure and wall
shear stress distributions on the upper surface of the obstacle were conducted.
The experimental investigations were limited up to now only to the direct visualization of the vortex
rings.
The present result is very promising and offers possibilities to investigate in more details the vortex
ring formation and its collision with the plate.

Acknowledgement
The work of Stefan Mugur Simionescu and Nicoleta - Octavia Tanase 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/132395.
The authors acknowledge the support and advice of professor Corneliu Blan (Reorom Laboratory,
Politehnica University of Bucharest, Power Engineering Faculty), and also the financial support
from the grants of the Ministry of National Education CNCS-UEFISCDI: PN-II-ID-PCE-2012-40245.

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