Two Vortex Rings Colliding

It must be nice to have the resources to fiddle with something for 3 years.

Bada Boom!

These guys are the vortex ring experts.

Wrong Place, Wrong Time.

A lot of cool ones here, but man-made.

The Lovin' Spoonful of Successively More Dramatic Variations[a phased plan]

"Do you believe in magic ?" OK... so kick this up a notch.... Leave out the dyes. Use an acidic Phenolphthalein solution in one cylinder, some stronger basic solution in the other cylinder, and a neutral(ph7) aquarium fill. Voila, a vortex of pink swirls appear from nowhere at the center. Choose vinegar and baking soda and your pink swirls also produce fine bubbles. Light it orthogonally and the abruptly forming bubbles diffuse the light from within the pink swirls. [Note: this trick will be somewhat harder than the dyes since you need to be careful of modifying the densities of your liquids among other concerns.]

Kick it up another notch... Drop the liquids and the aquarium. Use the air and fill your cylinders with some gaseous hydrocarbon and oxygen tuned to spontaneously combust at the concentrations used at one atmosphere. Go stealth pyrotechnic. [Woo-Hoo, harder still and way more dangerous]

One more notch... Use simulated dolphins to do the pyrotechnics underwater.

I eagerly await someone else's(Homer Simpson "Let someone else do it.") utube videos of these extensions of the basic setup. I have decided not to try them myself at home. My official statement is that you shouldn't either beyond the vinegar/bicarbonate but whatever you do, I want to see the videos. Sounds like good fodder for a Mythbusters season finale since they claim to have many years of safety experience and are professionals(they do it for money.) Besides, they probably already have ballistic jell dolphins and underwater shock sensors.

thewildotter

External Combustion Engine was my Original Interest

A fuel vortex injector might be a good way to create a highly efficient external combustion engine for a very lightweight, very efficient flying machine. Oxygen vortex perhaps eliminated in favor of atmospheric oxygen. A spark plug mounted strategically would control ignition. This might be a very practical spin off of this "research" into fluid vortices. I challenge this community to come up with the cannonically most efficient version of such a craft. So far, a hollow buzz bomb style jet is the likely leader. It is a ducted fan engine with the problematic fan removed. Studying the flows using these vortex collisions might contribute to the necessary understanding. The combusting vortex can be perceived as a mass thrust out the exhaust of the craft. Viewing the exhaust vortex as having a fractal bearing of smaller vortices(as evident in this demonstration) might be useful. The fractal bearing whirls might be the place to initiate combustion. As they expand they might be used to form a larger vortex of available mass(the air) to accelerate to the rear.

thewildotter