Remark on a result of D. Dritschel

Abstract

A hypothesis put forward by D. Dritschel [J. Fluid Mech. 94, 511 (1988)], namely that an isolated symmetrical disturbance on a uniform vortex patch will filament in time proportional to the inverse square of the disturbance amplitude, is subject to independent testing using a nonintrusive numerical method. The hypothesis that the trend is maintained to substantially smaller amplitudes than were originally considered by Dritschel is both supported and verified. The results may be interpreted as providing limited evidence that contour smoothness is maintained in filamentation and that corner formation does not occur up to the time of wave overturning.