AN INTRODUCTORY INVESTIGATION OF DUST DEVILS ON MARS: COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS MODELING

This report investigates the flow characteristics of tornado like vortices which can be used to describe an array of axisymmetric rotating vertical columns of fluid such as dust devils, steam devils and tornadoes. These vortices have been recreated within vortex chambers in research facilities, but in focus of this report the investigation is conducted through numerical simulations using the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software package provided by ANSYS. By varying the main governing nondimensional parameter of swirl ratio through the computational domain’s boundary conditions, different flow characteristics appear which confirm theories presented in previous papers. This enables the research conducted in this report to be used as a template for further, more in-depth, investigations for different circumstances such as dust devils on Mars with their associated different conditions including gas composition, presence of possible liquid and solid phases, pressure, and temperature.