Free surface of a Rankine vortex 2026-10-31
For a steady Rankine vortex in a fluid of constant density with gravity , the Euler equations give and . Integrating on the two sides and matching pressure at givesSetting a constant surface pressure yieldsThus the free surface and its radial slope match at the core edge. The central depression is , twice the depression at . Bernoulli's theorem applies throughout the exterior; the rotational core instead uses the radial momentum balance above.
This is a Rankine vortex. Write . Inside the core the velocity is , soThis is the core value obtained from the inner formula; outside, the given irrotationality makes the vorticity zero. For nonzero , the sharp boundary has different one-sided velocity gradients, so a single classical vorticity is not defined exactly on that edge; the inner trace is the boxed value and the outer trace is zero.
Inside the core, direct differentiation gives . The steady Euler equations therefore give and . Integrating,Outside, , so part (a) givesMatching pressure at the core edge yields . Hence the complete pressure field, up to one additive constant , isBoth the velocity and pressure are continuous at . The inside expression has been derived from the momentum equation because the core is rotational.
Rankine vortex 2026-10-31
A Rankine vortex models a finite rotating core joined continuously to an irrotational exterior. In cylindrical polar coordinates, its radial and vertical velocities vanish and its azimuthal velocity has the displayed form, where is the core radius and is a signed angular velocity. The axial vorticity is , equal to inside and zero outside. The velocity is continuous at , although its first radial derivative has different one-sided values. The circulation outside the core is .