Publications

Can symmetry transitions of complex fields enable 3-d control of fluid vorticity?

Martin, James E.; Solis, Kyle J.

Methods of inducing vigorous noncontact fluid flow are important to technologies involving heat and mass transfer and fluid mixing, since they eliminate the need for moving parts, pipes and seals, all of which compromise system reliability. Unfortunately, traditional noncontact flow methods are few, and have limitations of their own. We have discovered two classes of fields that can induce fluid vorticity without requiring either gravity or a thermal gradient. The first class we call Symmetry-Breaking Rational Fields. These are triaxial fields comprised of three orthogonal components, two ac and one dc. The second class is Rational Triad Fields, which differ in that all three components are alternating. In this report we quantify the induced vorticity for a wide variety of fields and consider symmetry transitions between these field types. These transitions give rise to orbiting vorticity vectors, a technology for non-contact, non-stationary fluid mixing.