Home▸Physics & Mechanics▸Taylor-Green Vortex Decay Simulator

🌀 Taylor-Green Vortex Decay

Interactive 3D vortex field where adjusting Reynolds number shows the classic Taylor-Green vortex pattern swirling, stretching and decaying into turbulence over simulated time.

Physics & Mechanics3DModerate60 FPS

A cube of tracer particles seeded in the classic Taylor-Green vortex pattern — a periodic array of counter-rotating swirls — advected in real time so you can watch it stretch, tangle and decay under adjustable Reynolds number.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

The Taylor-Green initial condition decays exponentially through viscosity, but at higher Reynolds number nonlinear vortex stretching first amplifies small-scale motion into a genuine turbulent breakdown before viscosity finally wins.

🎮 How to Use

Raise the Reynolds number to push the flow from clean laminar decay toward turbulent breakdown, speed up simulated time to see the full life cycle faster, and toggle the vortex-cell grid or tracer count to taste.

💡 Did You Know?

The Taylor-Green vortex is a standard benchmark for supercomputer CFD solvers precisely because it starts from one clean formula yet still develops a full three-dimensional turbulent energy cascade.

⚙ Under the hood

Interactive 3D velocity field where adjusting Reynolds number shows how an initially ordered array of vortices breaks down into turbulence and decays.

taylor-green-vortexturbulencefluid-dynamicsreynolds-numbervortex-dynamicscomputational-fluid-dynamicsphysics

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install