Vortex methods and their application to trailing wake vortex simulations

Vortex methods are competitive for simulating incompressible unsteady flows, because they have negligible dispersion error and good energy conservation. The various methods are presented, including the recent developments: particle redistribution, diffusion, relaxation (by projection), efficient solvers (fast multipole method, vortex-in-cell method, hybrid method) and parallel computer implementations. Examples relating to wing/aircraft trailing wake vortices are presented: 2-D and 3-D, inviscid and viscous, direct numerical simulation and large eddy simulation. We consider wake roll-ups, vortex tube dynamics, 3-D instabilities and the complexity/turbulence they produce. A vortex system in ground effects is also presented. To cite this article: G. Winckelmans et al., C. R. Physique 6 (2005).