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Updated: Mar 21, 2026

High-speed Particle Image Velocimetry Near Surfaces
Published on: June 24, 2013
Velocity statistics for nonuniform configurations of point vortices
Audun Skaugen1, Luiza Angheluta1
1Department of Physics, University of Oslo, P.O. 1048 Blindern, 0316 Oslo, Norway.
Abstract:
Within the point-vortex model, we compute the probability distribution function of the velocity fluctuations induced by same-sign vortices scattered within a disk according to a fractal distribution of distances to the origin ∼r^{-α}. We show that the different random configurations of vortices induce velocity fluctuations that are broadly distributed and follow a power-law tail distribution P(V)∼V^{α-2} with a scaling exponent determined by the α exponent of the spatial distribution. We also show that the range of the power-law scaling regime in the velocity distribution is set by the mean density of vortices and the exponent α of the vortex density distribution.
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