Exploring Reynolds Vortices: Fact or Fiction?

[stockzahn]

Dear all,

recently I read in a belletristic book about Reynolds Vortices. In the fictitious story the author writes about special (Reynolds) vortices generated in the whitewater, which can be passed in only one direction by objects of a "critical" density, which then will be kept in the vortex as long as it exists. Objects with densities deviating from this density can leave it (again).

I've never heard about this phenomenon until then and also after a quick search in the internet I couldn't find any information about these vortices. Does anybody know about these Reynolds vortices (maybe there is a different name) or is it just made up by the author in his story?

Thanks in advance,
stockzahn

 

[boneh3ad]

I can honestly say I've never heard of the concept over the course of my adventures in fluid mechanics. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist, but it's certainly not a very well-known phenomenon if it does.

 

[Klystron]

Literature requires different analytical tools from technical documents. While not familiar with this author, "whitewater" invokes both beauty and dynamism typical to belle lettres stories. The reader (or characters, the post is limited) exist poised at the interface of water and atmosphere presumably at the surface.

Reynolds (number) is a convenient indicator of smooth, potentially guiding fluid flow, becoming turbulent "whitewater", thus a dimensionless symbol of movement, change. The vortices could refer to von Karman vortex streets that represent difficulties or obstructions that arise in the flow as the plot progresses. "Critical density" could refer to knowledge and reasoning overcoming perceived obstacles (vortices) to smooth flow. I'd need to read the book for further analysis.

Generally, writers like to borrow terms and names from physics then concatenate them for literary effect. Einstein intersection (Chip Delaney), Von Neumann machines (Arthur Clark), and now Reynolds vortex (uncited).

 

[stockzahn]

Thank you very much for your responses. Since nobody seemed to know about Reynolds Vortices, I wrote an e-mail to the author of the book and he, quite surprisingly, promptly replied. He admitted that he made up this kind of vortices he "needed" for his story.

@Klystron: For sake of completeness of your list: Reynolds Vortex (Joerg Maurer).

 

[A.T.]

Thank you very much for your responses. Since nobody seemed to know about Reynolds Vortices, I wrote an e-mail to the author of the book and he, quite surprisingly, promptly replied. He admitted that he made up this kind of vortices he "needed" for his story.

To get really known as a scientist, you need to have cool sci-fi stuff named after you, not just some number.

 

[Klystron]

Thank you very much for your responses. Since nobody seemed to know about Reynolds Vortices, I wrote an e-mail to the author of the book and he, quite surprisingly, promptly replied. He admitted that he made up this kind of vortices he "needed" for his story.

@Klystron: For sake of completeness of your list: Reynolds Vortex (Joerg Maurer).

Thanks for the information. It seems as if the author succeeded as a writer in that you were motivated to ask the question. I chose von Karman vortices as an example in part because of the beauty in their representation on screen. Unlike the classical whirlpool representation "Scylla and Charybdis" from Homer's Odyssey, a vortex street appears in a fluid when physical conditions lead to that formation not only above rock formations as in the Straits of Messina.