Mars exploration has revealed evidence on the past and present cycle of water. This provides a compelling reason to study the movement of water through the atmosphere. It is believed that dust devils play an important role in the Martian climate by injecting dust into the atmosphere in addition to influencing the transfer of water vapor between the regolith and the atmosphere. The study of dust devil dynamics is significant to the broader climate because it is believed that suspended dust drives the climate.

Recent research has indicated that thermal gradients present on Mars can concentrate ambient vorticity to form highly swirling flow with a low pressure core that exhibits local kinematics similar to tornadoes and dust devils observed on Earth. A topic of primary interest is the near surface inner region exhibiting the highest wind speeds and lowest pressures. UofA's CFD Group is developing a three-dimensional numerical model capturing the local kinematics of Martian dust devils. This model can be used to evaluate mass transport of water vapour from the regolith and characterize meteorological measurements available from the Phoenix Lander.

This project contributes to the validation of the numerical model as well as evaluates optimal geometry for a planned laboratory vortex generator. This study focuses on highly swirling flows subject to Earth's ambient conditions, because numerical and laboratory model development is much more cost effective using Earth's atmosphere. Future work will consider the atmospheric pressure on Mars (approximately 1% of Earth's) and as a consequence, the validity of the continuum assumption will be questioned.