Transition waves and nonlinear interactions in the near wake of a circular cylinder

Transition waves and interactions between two kinds of instability-vortex shedding and transition wave in the near wake of a circular cylinder in the Reynolds number range 3 000-10 000 are studied by a domain decomposition hybrid numerical method.Based on high resolution power spectral analyses for velocity new results on the Reynolds-number dependence of the transition wave frequency,i.e.ft/fa~Re0.87 are obtained.The new predictions are in good agreement with the experimental results of Wei and Smith but different from Braza’s prediction and some early experimental results ft/fa-Re0.5 given by Bloor et al.The multi-interactions between two kinds of vortex are clearly visualized numerically.The strong nonlinear interactions between the two independent frequencies (ft,fa) leading to spectra broadening to form the coupling mfs±nft are predicted and analyzed numerically,and the characteristics of the transition are described.Longitudinal variations of the transition wave and its coupling are reported.Deta