PIV analysis of near-wake behind a sphere at a subcritical Reynolds number

Abstract

The vortical structure of near-wake behind a sphere is investigated using a PIV technique in a circulating water channel at Re = 11,000. The measured velocity fields show a detailed vortical structure in the recirculation region such as recirculation vortices, reversed velocity zone, and out-of-plane vorticity distribution. The vorticity distribution of the sphere wake shows waviness in cross-sectional planes. The time-averaged turbulent structures are consistent with the visualized flow showing the onset of shear layer instability. The spatial distributions of turbulent intensities provide turbulent statistics for validating numerical predictions.