Base suction, entrainment flux, and wake modes in the vortex formation region at the rear of a three-dimensional blunt bluff body.

A slitted base cavity of constant depth with a varying filling ratio 0≤R_{f}≤100% is experimentally investigated to reduce the form drag of a three-dimensional blunt body (the so-called squareback Ahmed body) at a Reynolds number Re=2.89×10^{5}. The drag reduction is achieved by a decrease of base suction (or, equivalently, the increase of pressure at the base).

Reynolds number effect on the bistable dynamic of a blunt-base bluff body.

A three-dimensional blunt-base bluff body in a uniform flow is subjected to long-time stochastic dynamics of switching between two opposite wake states. This dynamic is investigated experimentally within the Reynolds number range Re ≃10^{4}-10^{5}. Long-time statistics coupled to a sensitivity analysis to the body attitude (defined as the pitch angle of the body with respect to the incoming flow) show that the wake switching rate decreases as Re increases.

Drag reduction of three-dimensional bodies by base blowing with various gas densities.

This study reveals that injecting a light fluid of density ρ_{b} in the recirculating bubble of a bluff body at Re≈6.4×10^{4} has a greater drag reduction potential than blowing fluid of a density greater than or equal to that of the free stream ρ. It is found that the maximum drag reduction scales as (ρ_{b}/ρ)^{-1/6}.

Imperfect supercritical bifurcation in a three-dimensional turbulent wake.

The turbulent wake of a square-back body exhibits a strong bimodal behavior. The wake randomly undergoes symmetry-breaking reversals between two mirror asymmetric steady modes [reflectional symmetry-breaking (RSB) modes]. The characteristic time for reversals is about 2 or 3 orders of magnitude larger than the natural time for vortex shedding.

Reflectional symmetry breaking of the separated flow over three-dimensional bluff bodies.

Experimental observation of a permanent reflectional symmetry breaking (RSB) is reported for a laminar three-dimensional wake. Based on flow visualizations, a first bifurcation from the trivial steady symmetric state to a steady RSB state is characterized at Re=340. The RSB state becomes unsteady after a second bifurcation at Re=410.