Multi-scale analysis on wake structures of asymmetric cylinders with different aspect ratios

The wake flow originated by three-dimensional bluff bodies having the different aspect ratio is experimentally studied in this paper. The turbulent wakes generated by asymmetric- and semi-cylinders were first measured by the high-speed PIV. The time-averaged and instantaneous flow structures were analyzed in various planes. Then, the orthogonal wavelet multi-resolution technique was used to analyze the multi-scale flow structures. The instantaneous vorticity and Reynolds shear stresses of various frequencies were evaluated and compared among the different aspect ratio and body shape. It was found that the asymmetric-cylinder produces the aerodynamic downforce and its separation region is smaller than that of semi-cylinder. The large-scale structure makes the most contribution to vorticities, and the intermediate-scale structure dominates the flow structures near the tip of body. The large-scale structure makes the most contribution to Reynolds shear stress except the tip of body, accounting for about 55.9–79.2%. The maximum value of large-scale Reynolds shear stress appears at the end of separation region, and the small-scale Reynolds shear stress exhibits the maximum value in the shear layer of the body surface.