Experiment on the jet/trailing vortex interaction during the wake roll-up phase

A wind-tunnel experiment mimicking an airplane in cruise flight reveals how a wingtip vortex interacts with the nearby parallel jet depending on their mutual spacing. By tracking the wake up to 20 wingspans, the work clarifies how jet placement governs entrainment, spiraling mixing, or even trapping by the vortex core, while the vortex itself remains largely resilient. The findings show increased vortex motion downstream and the influence of the deteriorated central part of the wake on this dynamic. Besides the jet is shown to sustain increased dispersion with vortex proximity. The dataset also offers valuable benchmarks for validating numerical simulations of vortex wakes.