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Decay of the drag wake of a sphere at Reynolds number \(10^5\)

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Abstract

The drag wake of a dimpled sphere with \(Re = 10^5\) is studied experimentally using Stereo Particle Image Velocimetry to a downstream distance of \(\sim 90\) diameters. The wake growth and velocity decay are analyzed and compared with previous dimpled sphere data for \(Re = 5 \cdot 10^4\). Self-similar decay was observed with the ensemble mean axial velocity defect decaying as \(x^{-1}\) and the wake size growing as \(x^{1/2}\). Due to the difference in Reynolds number, the two spheres have different drag coefficients (0.13 and 0.25, respectively), but these self-similar decay exponents were not observed to depend on drag coefficient or Reynolds number. The results suggest that the self-similar drag wake decay observed at laboratory scales may extrapolate to the larger Reynolds numbers typical of engineering and geophysical flows.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the JHU/APL IRAD program. The able assistance of Gary Frederick in the data collection is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, USA

    D. Curtis Saunders, Justen A. Britt & Scott Wunsch

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  1. D. Curtis Saunders
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  2. Justen A. Britt
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  3. Scott Wunsch
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Contributions

Curtis Saunders contributed to the experimental setup, data collection, data processing and analysis. Justen Britt contributed to the experimental setup and data collection. Scott Wunsch contributed to the experimental design, data processing and analysis.

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Correspondence to D. Curtis Saunders.

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Saunders, D.C., Britt, J.A. & Wunsch, S. Decay of the drag wake of a sphere at Reynolds number \(10^5\). Exp Fluids 63, 71 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-022-03414-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-022-03414-9

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