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Tornado Vortex: Rankine Vortex Model (2D)

A Rankine combined-vortex velocity field — solid-body rotation inside the core, 1/r potential decay outside it — driving a spiral of dust particles you can tune with real wind-speed and core-radius controls.

Fluid Dynamics & Aerodynamics2DModerate60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 3D version

This 2D companion swaps the 3D original's decorative dust-particle funnel for a real Rankine combined-vortex velocity field: tangential speed rises linearly with radius inside a tunable core, then decays as 1/r outside it, so pulling the core radius in or the funnel top width down visibly tightens and accelerates the spiral near the top — the same vortex-stretching behaviour that makes real tornado funnels spin fastest where they are narrowest.

⚙ Under the hood

2D Rankine combined-vortex model: solid-body rotation inside a core radius, potential-vortex 1/r decay outside it, with a height-tapered funnel envelope and a live readout of tangential wind speed at the base, core and top.

tornadorankine vortexfluid dynamicsvortex stretchingangular momentum

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install