A full simulation of a vortex ring

Abstract

A three-dimensional spectral method is developed for the solution to the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in an unbounded domain. The spectral method relies on divergence-free basis functions as proposed by Leonard (1981). The basis functions are formed using vector spherical harmonics and Jacobi polynomials together with a mapping in the radial direction. An axisymmetric code was written and is verified using an exact solution of the Stokes equations. Preliminary results for the evolution of a vortex ring according to the Navier-Stokes equations are presented.