Velocity Perturbations Induced by the Longitudinal Vortices in a Cylinder Wake

Abstract

This paper presents data showing the three-dimensional vortical structures in the near wake region of circular cylinders. The in-plane velocity field was measured using a digital Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) technique. The vortical structures are found to include inclined counter-rotating longitudinal vortices in the braids joining consecutive Kármán vortices. A simple vortex-pair model is proposed to estimate velocity perturbation induced by the longitudinal vortices in the near wake region. The perturbation resulting from the longitudinal vortices is shown to induce spanwise velocity modulation and a velocity spike of a nominally two-dimensional vortex street.