Clustering and chaotic motion of heavy inertial particles in an isolated non-axisymmetric vortex

We investigate the dynamics of heavy inertial particles in a flow field due to an isolated, non-axisymmetric vortex. For our study, we consider a canonical elliptical vortex – the Kirchhoff vortex and its strained variant, the Kida vortex. Contrary to the anticipated centrifugal dispersion of inertial particles, which is typical in open vortical flows, we observe the clustering of particles around co-rotating attractors near the Kirchhoff vortex due to its non-axisymmetric nature. We analyse the inertia-modified stability characteristics of the fixed points, highlighting how some of the fixed points migrate in physical space, collide and then annihilate with increasing particle inertia. The introduction of external straining, the Kida vortex being an example, introduces chaotic tracer transport. Using a Melnikov analysis, we show that particle inertia and external straining can compete, where chaotic transport can be suppressed beyond a critical value of particle inertia.