Three-dimensional Structure of Straight and Curved Plane Wakes

Although the plane wake is marked by the formation of strong spanwise vortices, the initially two-dimensional Karman-like vortices soon develop a three-dimensional structure in the form of secondary streamwise vortices. So far, this streamwise vortex structure has been studied mostly through flow visualization and at relatively low Reynolds numbers. The primary objective of the present program was to investigate the origin and evolution of the three-dimensional structure of straight and curved plane wakes at relatively high Reynolds numbers (Re(sub b) = 28,000) through detailed measurements of the mean and turbulent properties at several streamwise locations. The experiments were conducted in three phases. In the first phase, the development of a straight plane wake was investigated. In the second phase, the effects of imposed streamwise curvature on the wake development were examined. The streamwise curvature was of constant radius and very mild in terms of the curvature ratio (b/(square root of R) is less than 2 percent). In both the first and second phases, the role of initial conditions was examined in wakes generated from both untripped (laminar) and tripped (turbulent) initial boundany layers. In the third phase, the effects of injecting streamwise vorticity and the effects of increased Reynolds number on the tripped wake structure and development were investigated.