Evolution of a vortex in gas-discharge plasma with allowance for gas compressibility

Abstract

The dynamics of a vortex tube in a compressible medium with the Rayleigh energy release mechanism has been considered theoretically. The analytic theory of this phenomenon is constructed and various approximations have been considered. The range of applicability conditions for the vortex formation theory has been extended substantially. It has been shown based on the model of a plasma as a Rayleigh medium that, for a certain relative orientation of the vortex axis and the electric field vector at an air pressure of tens of Torr, a vortex tube in the glow discharge plasma is destroyed over time intervals on the order of hundredths of a second. It has been found that allowance for the compressibility leads to an increase in the rate of vortex destruction. For this medium, the time dependences of the tangential velocity in a vortex tube have been calculated for various initial parameters. The similarity rules for the given phenomena and the universal dependence of the vortex tube dynamics have been obtained.