Space–time imaging of a turbulent near-wake by high-image-density particle image cinematography

Abstract
A cinematographic system allows acquisition of high-image-density PIV images in the cross-flow plane of the near-wake of a cylinder at a Reynolds number of 10 000. Images were acquired at a temporal resolution corresponding to 1% of the period of formation of the large-scale spanwise (Kármán) vortices. Such a sequence of images leads to three-dimensional space–time representations, which show the relationship between the instantaneous concentrations of streamwise vorticity and the phase of formation of the large-scale Kármán vortices. The first spatial correlations of instantaneous streamwise vorticity, taken over the cross-flow plane, reveal that the predominant concentrations of streamwise vorticity maintain a spanwise wavelength of approximately one cylinder diameter.