The Rio Salado Project began in the College of Architecture in the fall of 1966 when Dean James Elmore proposed to the studio faculty "Let's do something with the (Salt) River." This is a collection of videos describing the progress of the project since students presented their work over 50 years ago. The most prominent development is the Tempe Town Lake.
Eigenvalues of the 3D critical point equation (∇u)ν = λν are normally computed numerically. In the letter, we present analytic solutions for 3D swirling strength in both compressible and incompressible flows. The solutions expose functional dependencies that cannot be seen in numerical solutions. To illustrate, we study the difference between using fluctuating and total velocity gradient tensors for vortex identification. Results show that mean shear influences vortex detection and that distortion can occur, depending on the strength of mean shear relative to the vorticity at the vortex center.