This waterspout video seems to support the laminar hypothesis. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN7ug1zoWWE
On Sun, Nov 27, 2011 at 10:02 AM, James Bowery <jabow...@gmail.com> wrote: > Chapter 5 (page 107) of the 2011 doctoral thesis Numerical Simulation of > Tornado-like > Vortices<http://vortexengine.ca/cfd/Diwakar_Natarajan_Full_thesis.pdf> by > Diwakar Natarajan concludes that cross-winds do not affect the power > generation capacity of the AVE, but it appears that this is only with > respect to ambient temperature. He specifically calls for further research > into the significance of temperature gradients with altitude. Is there any > further work that discounts the possible cross-wind induced loss of vortex > integrity at the altitudes required to achieve lower exhaust temperatures > required for higher Carnot efficiency? > > The AVE CFD page <http://vortexengine.ca/cfd.shtml> presents a > disagreement with Natarajan's use of turbulent mode simulation. This > disagreement is based on behavior of physical models showing laminar flow, > one of which was water-spouts and the other being a laboratory scale > model. The implication is that the adjoining photograph of a laboratory > scale model <http://www.vortexengine.ca/Physical_Models_LM-3.shtml> > demonstrates > a vortex that is in disagreement with Natarajan's application of turbulent > mode simulation at high Rayleigh numbers. Is anyone aware of further > resolution of this point of disagreement?
