MAE research explores how surface geometry influences vortex flows

Monday, August 17, 2026

Media Contact: Tanner Holubar | Communications Specialist | 405-744-2065 | tanner.holubarokstate.edu

Vortices are a fundamental feature of fluid motion and appear across a wide range of natural and engineered systems. They influence how fluids mix, how heat and momentum are transported, and how aerodynamic and hydrodynamic forces are generated.

A long-standing question in fluid mechanics is how vortices interact with solid surfaces. Much of the existing understanding comes from studies involving flat or smoothly curved walls. In many real systems, however, surfaces contain waves, ridges, corrugations and other complex features. How those surface features alter vortex-wall interactions remains much less understood.

Dr. Chitrarth Prasad, assistant professor in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Oklahoma State University, is collaborating with researchers at Auburn University on a National Science Foundation project titled “Collaborative Research: Three-Dimensional Vorticity Dynamics in Vortex-Ring Wavy-Wall Interactions.” Auburn University leads the collaborative project, while Prasad serves as principal investigator for the OSU portion.

The researchers will use vortex rings as a controlled model problem to study how surface geometry changes the underlying flow physics. By systematically varying the height and spacing of waves on a surface, they will examine how an incoming vortex deforms, reorganizes and interacts with the new vorticity generated near the wall.

“When a vortex approaches a surface, the wall is not simply a passive boundary,” Prasad said. “The interaction generates additional vorticity near the surface, and that secondary vorticity can strongly influence the original vortex. We want to understand how changing the geometry of the wall changes that entire process.”

Adding a wavy surface makes the interaction inherently three-dimensional. Different portions of the vortex encounter different parts of the surface, producing variations in pressure and in the generation and transport of vorticity. These effects can cause the vortex to stretch, distort, split or reorganize into new structures.

A central goal of the project is to determine how the geometry of the wall influences the interaction between the primary vortex and the secondary vorticity generated at the surface.

“By changing the size and spacing of the waves, we can isolate how surface geometry changes the interaction,” Prasad said. “The goal is not just to observe whether a vortex stays together or breaks apart, but to understand the physical mechanisms that determine why it behaves one way or another.”

The project combines complementary experimental and computational approaches. Researchers at Auburn University will conduct laboratory experiments using laser-based flow measurements and high-speed imaging to capture the three-dimensional evolution of the vortex rings. In the Flow Physics Simulation Laboratory at OSU, Prasad and his team will perform high-fidelity computer simulations of corresponding configurations.

“Experiments allow us to measure how the physical flow evolves, while simulations give us access to quantities such as pressure and vorticity throughout the flow that can be difficult to measure experimentally,” Prasad said. “When the two are used together, they give us a much more complete picture of the underlying physics.”

Undergraduate and graduate students at both universities will participate in the research and gain experience in experimental fluid mechanics, laser-based measurements, numerical simulation, high-performance computing, data analysis and scientific communication.

Understanding these interactions could have implications for a broad range of technologies in which vortices are used to transport heat, momentum or material, enhance mixing or generate forces.

One potential application is thermal management. Vortex rings and pulsed jets can transport hot fluid away from a surface and replace it with cooler surrounding fluid. If engineers can understand how surface geometry changes that transport, they may be able to design surfaces and flow systems that improve cooling performance while reducing the energy required to operate fans, pumps or other equipment.

But the applications extend well beyond cooling. Vortices play important roles in aircraft propulsion, aerodynamic force generation, gas turbines, chemical processing, additive manufacturing and biomedical flows. In each of these systems, the ability to influence how vortices form, move and interact could provide new ways to control fluid motion.

“The broader engineering question is whether surface geometry itself can become a tool for controlling vortical flows,” Prasad said. “Instead of only changing how a vortex is generated, we can ask whether the surface it encounters can be designed to redirect it, preserve it, reorganize it or enhance the transport it produces.”

Beyond its engineering applications, the research could also provide a way to explore broader evolutionary questions.

In the developing embryo, the heart forms internal ridges called trabeculae that interact with the surrounding blood flow. Evidence suggests that these structures play an important role during cardiac development, helping support blood transport and the delivery of oxygen and nutrients before the coronary circulation is fully developed. Trabeculation can also change as the adult heart adapts to increased physiological demands, such as during pregnancy or intensive athletic training.

Related questions arise in insect flight, where corrugated wing surfaces can influence the formation and persistence of vortices that contribute to aerodynamic forces and lift.

“These biological systems make the fundamental fluid-mechanics question especially interesting,” Prasad said. “We see complex surface geometries appearing in systems where vortices are important for pumping, transport or force generation. If we understand the relationship between surface shape and vortex behavior, we can begin to ask whether some of these geometrical features may have evolved, at least in part, because of the fluid-dynamic advantages they provide.”

The project does not attempt to reproduce any one biological system. Instead, by studying a carefully controlled vortex-wall interaction, the researchers can isolate the effects of surface geometry and develop a physical understanding that may apply across a wide range of natural and engineered flows. The resulting understanding could help engineers design surfaces that more effectively manipulate fluid motion while also providing new tools for examining how complex biological structures and fluid flows may have evolved together.