Re-Circulating Flows Associated with Two-Dimensional Steps

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Abstract
This paper describes measurements made in the regions of separated flow associated with three simple sharpedged two-dimensional geometries, a rear-facing step, a front-facing step and a rectangular block. The use of the pulsed-wire anemometer made possible the measurement of the three components of mean velocity and turbulence; earlier techniques, such as the hot-wire anemometer, were not well suited to the accurate determination of these quantities either in regions of continually reversing flows such as the re-circulatory zone or in regions of very high turbulence such as the shear layers bounding these zones. Supplementary measurements of surface pressure and shear stresses are also presented and comparison is made between these shear layers and the plane mixing layer. The work forms the first part of an extended programme for the investigation of bluff body flows but its principal immediate value will probably help in providing data with which to test the validity of mathematical models of turbulence as applied to re-circulating flows.