ELSEVIER

Three-Dimensional Vortex Dynamics in Bluff

Body Wakes
C. H. K. Williamson • Over the last few years, there has been a surge of activity concerning
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, wake flows, in particular regarding 3-D aspects of flows that are nominally
Cornell University, two-dimensional. In the laminar shedding regime, it has become evident
Ithaca, New York that end boundary conditions can control the three-dimensional wake
pattern over long spans. These end conditions can be manipulated to
produce oblique shedding, chevron patterns, parallel shedding, cellular
shedding, and vortex dislocations. Transient patterns known as phase
shocks and phase expansions can be induced by temporal control of end
conditions by using variable suction. These experimental patterns may
be modeled analytically using Guinzburg-Landau equations. The long-
standing controversy regarding discontinuities in the Strouhal-Reynolds
number relationship is caused by the phenomenon of oblique shedding, in
turn dependent on end conditions. The original scatter of around 20% in
the measurement of this relationship between different laboratories, up to
1988, has been reduced to 1% when parallel shedding is induced. In the
wake transition regime, the large discrepancy in reported critical Reynolds
numbers (Re = 140-190) over the last 40 years has been found to be due
to contamination from end conditions. Indeed, remarkably "clean" end
conditions can extend the laminar regime to Re = 194. The wake transition
is shown to involve two successive stages, each corresponding to a disconti-
nuity in both the character of wake formation and the S - R e relationship.
The first discontinuity (Re = 180-194) is associated with the inception of
vortex loops and is hysteretic. The second discontinuity (Re = 230-260)
corresponds to a change to a finer scale streamwise vortex structure. The
wake can exhibit enormous vortical structures, "vortex dislocations," which
explain the origin of the low-frequency velocity irregularities first observed
by Roshko in 1954. Such dislocations, which cause surprisingly large fluc-
tuation energy downstream, are conceivably an intrinsic feature of transi-
tion of shear flows in general. In the far wake, the honeycomb-like
three-dimensional pattern first observed by Cimbala et al. in 1988, is found
to be due to interactions between oblique shedding waves formed upstream
with growing 2D waves amplified in the far wake from free-stream distur-
bances. Previous observations may now be explained in terms of these wave
interactions. With these deductions as the starting point, we have gone on
to discover a new mechanism of "oblique wave resonance," whereby the
two wave systems above interact nonlinearly to produce a third "oblique
resonance wave," which is then preferentially amplified (by up to two
orders of magnitude over the 2-D waves). This single oblique wave reso-
nance can be visualized remarkably clearly and is distinctly different from
the models hitherto proposed for the far wake.

Keywords: vortex shedding, wake, cylinder wake, Guinzburg-Landau

equations, wake transition, streamwise vortices, vortex loop, vortex
dynamics, oblique wave resonance, phase shock, phase expansion,
vortex dislocation, oblique shedding, parallel shedding

Address correspondence to Professor C. H. K. Williamson, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Upson Hall, Comell University, Ithaca, NY
14853.
Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 1996; 12:150 168
© Elsevier Science Inc., 1996 0894-1777/96/$15.00
655 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10010 SSDI 0894-1777(95)00085-2

INTRODUCTION
Two-dimensional and three-dimensional vortical instabili-
ties in wakes have been a subject of interest to engineers
as well as to scientists for a great many years. Although
the problem of an unseparated wake behind a splitter
plate or symmetric airfoil is amenable to analytical studies
(e.g., stability analysis), the wake of a nominally two-
dimensional (2-D) or three-dimensional (3-D) bluff body
poses rather a greater analytical challenge. Approaches to
this problem have been principally experimental, although
there has recently been vigorous activity in numerical
simulation and analysis. In this paper, an overview is
presented of the vortex dynamics phenomena in the wake
of a circular cylinder at low to medium Reynolds numbers.
The classical view of a "vortex street" in cross section is
shown in Fig. 1. Interestingly, it will be shown later that
such cross-sectional photographs actually contain useful
information regarding the distribution of three-dimen-
Re-'iS0
Vortex Dynamics in Bluff Body Wakes 151
sional vortex structure. However, in the two-dimensional
view of the flow behind a bluff body, regions of concen-
trated vorticity are "shed" into the downstream flow from
alternate sides of the body (and with alternate senses of
rotation), giving the appearance of an upper row of nega-
tive vortices and a lower row of positive vortices, often
observed in an ordered arrangement as in Fig. 1. Such
formations of vortices were the origin of Strouhal's [1]
classical measurements in 1878 of the sound frequency
produced by translating cylindrical rods through air, and
for the Aeolian tones that are produced by the wind
blowing over a wire or a string in an Aeolian harp. In a
1992 review, Rott [2] discusses the later contributions of
Lord Rayleigh in normalizing Strouhal's frequency data
using the Strouhal number (fD/U, where f is frequency,
D is diameter, and U is flow velocity) versus Reynolds
number. We later (Fig. 3) compare these original data
with modern measurements, which have the advantage of
Figure 1. Visualization of laminar
and turbulent vortex streets. A
Karman vortex street consists of a
sequence of alternate-sign vortices
arranged in two rows, traveling
downstream in the wake of a body.
The vortices in the upper row are
rotating clockwise, while the lower
vortices rotate counter clockwise.
As the free stream flows from left
to right past the circular cylinder
(at the left-hand edge of the pic-
tures), the separating boundary lay-
ers from the sides of the body roll
up into discrete vortices. These
vortices are laminar in the case of
low Reynolds numbers, Re = 150,
and turbulent for higher Reynolds
numbers, Re = 300 and 700. This
aluminum flake visualization tech-
nique indicates white regions prin-
cipally where there is streamwise
vorticity and where the vortices are
turbulent rather than laminar.
(Photographs from Williamson
[34].)
152 C . H . K . Williamson

hot-wire anemometry, spectrum analyzers, and wind tun-
nels. Taking this into account, the agreement in the mea-
surement of vortex shedding frequency, after 100 years, is
quite remarkable!
The first definition of flow regimes based on measure-
ments of velocity fluctuation, spectra, and frequency was
given by Roshko [3] in 1954. He found a "stable" (peri-
odic) laminar vortex-shedding regime for Re = 40-150, a
transition regime in the range Re = 150-300, with an
"irregular" regime for Re = 300-10,000 + , where velocity
fluctuations showed distinct irregularities. Similar regimes
were confirmed by Bioor [3] in 1964. A surge of recent
work has shed further light on phenomena occurring in
these regimes and their precise Reynolds number ranges.
In more recent experiments, significant steps forward in
our understanding of wake vortex dynamics have come
from the many studies of three-dimensional phenomena,
which have led to some new explanations of long-standing
controversies that were hitherto assumed to have two-
dimensional origins. Our focus in this paper is on these
new discoveries. An overview of the different vortex insta-
bilities that are found to appear as the Reynolds number
is increased are shown schematically in Fig. 2. We shall
discuss 3-D wake patterns in the laminar regime, fine-scale
3-D spanwise instabilities, and also the appearance of
relatively enormous "vortex dislocations" in the wake
transition regime, and finally we will demonstrate a new
oblique wave resonance mechanism that has been discov-
ered in the far wake.
THREE-DIMENSIONAL VORTEX DYNAMICS
1N T H E L A M I N A R R E G I M E
Oblique and Parallel Modes of Vortex Shedding
Prior to 1988, a number of (sporadic) observations and
measurements had been made within the laminar vortex
shedding regime that showed that vortices can shed at

Primary Karmsm
vortel 8heddJltj

Small scales I Large scales]

12trse-scaJe $-D distort|oun

Mo4e A
VOl~eZ |oops

J
~ortcx Dish

Figure 2. Instabilities involved in the de-

Mode B
velopment of turbulence in the wake. As
the Reynolds numbers increase (down voytel[ pairl
the page), the formation of wake turbu-
lence is characterized by the following
principal instabilities: (1) The formation
of primary Karman vortices; (2) the in-
ception of small-scale streamwise vortex
structures (modes A and B to be defined
later); (3) the formation of very large
scale three-dimensional structures, now
known as vortex dislocations; and (4) the
development of shear-layer instability Shear |lJyer iltsutbilities
vortices, which are themselves prone to st bigkar
Reyuoids l U i b e r l
three-dimensional instability of small
scale. For supercritical Reynolds num-
bers, the boundary layer on the body
itself becomes turbulent before separa-
tion.
 Vortex Dynamics in Bluff Body Wakes 153

some oblique angle to the axis of the cylinder in what we 0.~'2

now term oblique shedding. Some of these early measure-

/
ments are discussed in the 1972 review paper of Berger S
and Wille [5], who show that typical oblique angles of
15-20 ° were found. An example of slantwise shedding was
photographed in 1964 by Berger [6], using smoke in a wind
0.18
tunnel, although contrary observations in 1957 by H a m a
[7], who used a towing tank, demonstrated only parallel
shedding. These contradictory reports remained unex-
plained.
A further phenomenon, which we shall show to be
directly related to the above, is that of discontinuities in 0.14
the relationship between Strouhal number and Reynolds
number in the laminar shedding regime, as first detected / ~ STIROUH(A1L87S1
very clearly in 1959 by Tritton [8] near Re = 75, and
subsequently the source of a great deal of debate over a
period of 30 years, beginning with a series of papers by
Tritton and Gaster (see, e.g., Gaster [9]). Some idea of the 0.1~
/
, Re

ensuing scatter among experimental measurements of a

Strouhal frequency over the period 1878-1978 is given in 0.20 , r F
Fig. 3a, in a plot adapted from Gerrard [10], showing - - Eisenlohr & Eckelmann (198g) WT 60
----~ Hammache & Gharib (1989) WT 265 ~ o
scatter on the order of 20% e v e n among the modern ....... S t ~
experiments. This scatter was present despite the fact, as O.IB
pointed out by Roshko [11], that "the quantities involved
(U, D, v, and f ) could be rather easily measured to better 0.16
than 1% accuracy." (v is kinematic viscosity.) Many expla-
S
nations were put forward over the years: Different modes
of vortex shedding have been attributed to different forms 0.14 /~le'* -'--- Norberg (1994) WT 2000
/ ~ w t a m , o n (1993) rr zoo
of 2-D wake instability [8], to shear in the oncoming free A/~" ° Williamson (1988a} WT 90
stream [9], to differences in free-stream turbulence [5], to ¢~ • WT 115
0.12 WT 250
changes in the influence of vorticity diffusion in the near o ~ 70
wake [10], and more recently to a scenario involving a XYTT 140

"route to chaos" in the cylinder wake [12]. A convincing 0.10 I h I I I I

case was offered in 1987 by Van Atta and Gharib [13] that
flow-induced vibration could cause discontinuities in the
S - R e relation, and their meticulous work was subse-
quently supported by the computations of Karniadakis
and Triantafyllou [14]. However, it can be shown that in
the absence of certain effects, such as free-stream shear
and cylinder vibration, a discontinuity in the S - R e rela-
tion can be caused by the unexplained phenomenon de-
scribed earlier, namely oblique shedding. In other words,
we now know that the frequency measurements are influ-
enced by three-dimensional flow phenomena, as described
below.
In a new understanding of the above problem, it has
recently been shown that the S - R e discontinuity originally
observed by Tritton [8], and subsequently in different
forms by many others, is caused by a changeover from one
mode of oblique shedding to another oblique mode, as Re
is increased [15-19]. We may thereby link these two
hitherto unexplained phenomena. It is shown that the
particular boundary conditions at the spanwise ends of the
cylinder dictate the angle of shedding over the whole
span, even for a cylinder that is hundreds of diameters in
length, by what is termed "indirect" influence [16]. Gerich
and Eckelmann [20] had earlier shown that a region close
to the ends of a cylinder (about 10 diameters in length)
can be influenced in a direct manner, causing a cell of
lower frequency shedding to appear near the ends.
In the towing tank and wind tunnel experiments of
Williamson [15, 16] in 1988-1989, it was found that the
oblique vortices formed a periodic chevron pattern as
shown in Fig. 4a. Over each half-span, the oblique angle is
40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
Re
b
Figure 3. (a) Strouhal-Reynolds number relationship
(1878-1978). Over a period of 100 years, beginning with the
vortex frequency measurements of Strouhal [1], there has
existed on the order of 20% disparity among the many
measurements of Strouhal number versus Reynolds number
in the laminar shedding regime. The data shown come from
several of these past investigations (which were collected by
Gerrard [10], from which many of these curves may be
found). The curves presented here include the original data
from Strouhal. A concise and interesting discussion of some
of the history of the Strouhal number measurements can be
found in Rott [2]. (b) Strouhal-Reynolds number relation-
ships. Agreement to the 1% level of the S-Re relationship
for laminar parallel shedding using different techniques (in
several different laboratories). WT indicates wind tunnel
facility; XYTF, a water facility known as the XY Towing
Tank. The numbers at the end of each reference indicate the
values of the length/diameter ratio (or aspect ratio) for the
cylinders.
dictated by the end conditions in that half. Below a critical
Re for the Strouhal number discontinuity (Re = 64), a
quasi-periodic pattern may be found, caused by the pres-
ence of a further cell of higher frequency appearing in the
central span region. The shedding assumes a cellular
structure, with different frequencies found to coexist at
different spanwise locations and with vortex dislocations
[16] or vortex splitting [17] found to occur at the cell
154 C . H . K . Williamson
II III III
b the sense that the experimental oblique-shedding data
Figure 4. Oblique and parallel vortex shedding. These pat-
terns are controlled by end (spanwise) boundary conditions.
Flow is upward in both photographs. (a) The chevron pattern
of oblique shedding [15]; (b) parallel vortex shedding [16].
boundaries because vortices on each side move in and out
of phase with each other. A clear example of three coex-
isting cells is shown in the smoke visualizations of Koenig
et al. [21].
The above experiments also reconcile the earlier dif-
ferences between the experiments of Berger [6] in 1964
and Hama [7] in 1957. It is found from towing tank
experiments [16] that at the start of motion the vortices
are shed parallel to the body (also observed by Gerrard
[10]). This suggests that the most unstable mode is the
parallel-shedding mode, although the shedding can be
forced away from this mode by end boundary conditions
(much like a forced oscillator). Thereafter, an oblique
shock travels inwards from the end (under the indirect
influence of spanwise phase coupling), bringing behind it a
region of oblique shedding, until ultimately the whole
span exhibits the chevron pattern. Surprisingly, one needs
to translate a 100-diameter-long body a distance of around
600 diameters to achieve the chevron pattern. In the
experiments of Hama, he used a towing tank, and he
observed only parallel shedding due to the fact that his
visualization was conducted near the start of motion. On
the other hand, Berger used a wind tunnel and would
have observed his patterns after a great many cycles of
shedding, allowing time for the oblique shedding to influ-
ence the complete span.
Judging from the above, one might question whether it
is possible to manipulate the end conditions to promote
parallel shedding. Indeed, it has now been found that
there are several means to achieve parallel shedding, as
described in a number of papers [15, 17, 22, 23]. The
mechanical devices used to achieve parallel shedding in-
clude angling the leading edge of endplates inwards, end-
ing the span with larger coaxial cylinders, or locating large
cylinders normal to and upstream of the test cylinder at
the ends. It appears that the techniques involve a slight
speeding up of the flow near the ends, which is evident in
the nonmechanical technique used by Miller and
Williamson [23]. In this case, the incident flow near the
ends is speeded up by suction tubes placed around 10
diameters downstream at each end of the test cylinder.
In the context of oblique waves, it is relevant to men-
tion a result that may be derived from Squire's transfor-
mation [24] of 1933. It can be shown (for a given wake
profile and Reynolds number and for a parallel flow) that
if the frequency and temporal growth rate of the most
unstable two-dimensional wave are respectively f0 and o-0,
then for an oblique wave at angle 0, the most unstable
frequency fo is given by fo = fo cos 0, and similarly the
growth rate tr0 is given by tr0 = tr 0 cos 0. From such
theoretical considerations, Garry Brown suggested (private
communication, 1988) that the cylinder wake frequencies
may follow the same trend. With parallel shedding, one
finds that the Strouhal-Reynolds number curve is com-
pletely continuous, as shown in Fig. 3b. It was also shown
[15] that one may define a "universal" Strouhal curve, in
( S o ) can be closely collapsed onto the parallel-shedding
curve (S O) by the transformation
S O = So~cos O. (1)
The dependence of shedding frequency on the phe-
nomenon of oblique shedding would now explain much of
the significant scatter found in the many measurements of
Strouhal number, illustrated earlier in Fig. 3a. Since 1988,
a number of groups have measured the S - R e relationship
in the laminar regime, and the agreement among the
laboratories is remarkably close to the 1% level, as shown
in Fig. 3b.
Experimentally, the cosine "law" of Eq. (1) has been
closely confirmed in several papers including those of
Koenig et al. [17, 25] and Miller and Williamson [23]. In
the experiments of Miller and Williamson, a nonmechani-
cal (suction) technique allowed continuous control of the
oblique shedding angle between 0 ° and 23 °, resulting in
very close agreement with the cosine formula. However, a
very revealing set of experiments by the Goettingen group
(Koenig et al. [25]) suggests that only discrete values of
the shedding angles may exist naturally in the cylinder
wake. The Strouhal curves for these different modes lie
along only four unique curves in the S - R e plane, all of
which have very close agreement with the cosine formula.
It is perhaps a paradox that on the one hand it is possible
to induce a continuous variation of shedding angles (Miller

and Williamson), while on the other hand the flow chooses
only particular discrete angles (Koenig et al.). This para-
dox remains to be explained, although it seems clear that
it is a manifestation of particular end boundary condi-
tions.
Three-Dimensional Phase Dynamics
Triggered by the recent surge of experimental discoveries
of 3-D shedding patterns in the cylinder wake, there have
been a number of fruitful analytical approaches to model-
ing both the steady-state and transient 3-D shedding pat-
terns, involving oblique or parallel shedding, chevron pat-
terns, cellular shedding and vortex dislocations, phase
shocks, and phase expansions (to be described in this
section). Triantafyllou [26] in 1992 considered the prob-
lems of "slow" transverse modulations. Noack et al. [27] in
1991 modeled the formation of cells of different shedding
frequency in the wake of a slender cone using van der Pol
oscillators with diffusive spanwise coupling. The group at
Marseille (Albarede et al. [28]) in 1990 used diffusively
coupled Stuart-Landau oscillators along the span. The
resulting equation is a Guinzburg-Landau equation in
time and spanwise coordinates, which was shown by A1-
barede and Monkewitz [29] in 1992 to be equivalent to the
van der Pol model near the onset of Karman vortex
shedding. Amplitude (A) in these equations represents a
measure of wake velocity fluctuations in the cylinder wake.
The Guinzburg-Landau equation, involving a diffusive
spanwise (z) coupling term, may be written
--Ot = ~rA - AIAJZA + /z oqz2 , (2)
where the coefficients are evaluated experimentally. The
chevron pattern [15, 16] is well modeled by this approach.
It is also of interest to note that if the initial conditions in
the model consist of small-amplitude random noise, then
parallel waves emerge naturally from this noise because
they are found to be the most unstable mode. Thereafter,
the boundary condition (A = 0 at the spanwise ends)
induces a region of oblique waves to travel inward from
the ends behind a "phase shock" until the chevron pattern
appears fully across the span, as found in the experiments.
Other complementary papers were published in 1992 by
Park and Redekopp [30] and Chiffaudel [31], who used a
2-D Guinzburg-Landau equation (in streamwise and
spanwise coordinates) to study the 3-D shedding patterns
and stability, respectively, and found phenomena such as
the phase shocks noted above.
Transient patterns have recently been studied experi-
mentally using a continuously variable suction technique
described earlier [23]. It was found that the chevron
pattern is in fact unstable in that any minutely small
difference in the (magnitude of) oblique shedding angle
will cause the apex of the chevron to translate spanwise
until there remains but one orientation of shedding across
the span. As discussed by Park and Redekopp [30] and
Albarede and Monkewitz [29], the chevon is a "stationary"
wavenumber shock, remaining stationary only under con-
ditions of exact spanwise symmetry. Transient experiments
were conducted that involved setting up one angle across
the complete span and then impulsively changing the end
boundary conditions. These experiments led to two dis-
Vortex Dynamics in Bluff Body Wakes 155
tinct phenomena, as illustrated in Fig. 5. If an oblique
angle is generated behind a front that is greater than the
angle ahead of the front, then a phase shock is produced.
If the oblique angle behind the front is less than the angle
ahead of the front, then a phase expansion is produced.
Some straightforward predictions of these transient
wake patterns have been made, Miller and Williamson
[23], from rather simple considerations as an extension of
some measurements made by Williamson [16] in 1989. It
was shown in the latter work that the normal vortex
wavelength remained closely constant, at a given Reynolds
number, irrespective of whether the vortices shed oblique
or parallel to the body. In Fig. 6a, it is shown that if one
starts off with a phase shock at the top of the sketch, then
invoking the normal-wavelength constant condition simply
leads to a spanwise translation of the shock (to the right in
this example) at a constant speed. Measurements of the
phase shock angle relative to the direction downstream
[16] showed good agreement with predictions from this
model. If, on the other hand, one has a region of small-an-
gle shedding impulsively generated that is thereafter mov-
ing into a region of larger-angle shedding, then the model
yields a phase expansion. The initial shock fans out into a
curved sequence of vortices, where the radius of curvature
increases linearly with time, as shown schematically in Fig.
6b. In this example, the impulsively generated end condi-
tion for parallel shedding is imposed at the right-hand
end, whose influence is then felt by the original oblique
shedding region to the left.
The present phase expansion and phase shock pat-
tern phenomena are actually predicted from the
Guinzburg-Landau equations [32], which take the form of
a Burger's equation for the spanwise wavenumber (q),
8q ,9 2q 8q
-"~ = /LLI~z2 -- Alq--~z , (3)
for which (phase) shocks and expansions are well-known
solutions. A major difference between these phenomena is
that phase shocks (involving regions of straight vortices)
translate at constant speed, crossing the complete span in
a finite time, whereas a phase expansion (involving curved
vortices) requires an infinite time (theoretically) to com-
plete its development.
THREE-DIMENSIONAL VORTEX DYNAMICS
IN T H E TRANSITION REGIME
The (wake) transition regime has had remarkably few
investigations in comparison to both the laminar regime
and those regimes at higher Re involving shear layer and
boundary layer transitions. Possibly this is because of the
sensitivity of this regime to experimental conditions and to
the difficulty in determining flow structure because of the
intermittent nature of the flow. Nevertheless, recent work
shows that this regime is surprisingly rich in vortex dynam-
ics phenomena, both fine-scale and large-scale, which
have counterparts in free shear flow (mixing layer) transi-
tion.
The transition to three-dimensionality in the wake can
conveniently be described with reference to the measure-
ments of Strouhal-Reynolds number in Fig. 7, where it
may be observed that the transition, originally described
by Roshko [3] in 1954, actually involves two discontinuous
156 C . H . K . Williamson

Figure 5. 3-D phase dynamics. (a)

"Phase shock." In this case, a re-
gion of small positive angle of
shedding (induced by the lower end
condition) is taken over by a region
of larger negative oblique shedding
angle that was impulsively trig-
gered by the top end boundary
condition. The result is a phase
shock, separating the two regions
of different shedding angle, that
translates down the span at a con-
stant speed. (b)"Phase expansion."
In this case, a large negative angle
of shedding (induced initially by
the top end condition) is pene-
trated by a smaller angle of shed-
ding impulsively generated by the
top end condition. The result is a
phase expansion that spreads out
gradually, yielding curved vortices
whose radius of curvature in-
creases in time. (From Miller and
Williamson [23].)

changes [33]. At the first discontinuity, the Strouhal fre-
quency drops from the laminar curve to one correspond-
ing to a " m o d e A " 3-D shedding at around Re = 180.
This discontinuity is hysteretic, and the exact critical Re
depends on whether the flow speed is increased or de-
creased, as we shall see below. As Re is increased up to
the range Re = 230-260, there is a further discontinuity
in Strouhal number, indicating a further " m o d e B." This
discontinuity may be contrasted with the first in that it is
not hysteretic and instead involves a gradual transfer of
energy from mode A to mode B, as one increases Re.
Interestingly, if one refers to the original S - R e data of
Roshko [3] of 1954, one finds that most of the scatter is
centered around Reynolds numbers corresponding to these
two discontinuities. It will be seen later that each of these
3-D shedding modes corresponds to a spanwise instability
in the wake; mode A involves the inception of vortex loops
and counterrotating streamwise vortex pairs; mode B in-
volves a finer scale streamwise vortex structure.
The definition of such Strouhal discontinuities is clearly
possible only if one takes long time averages of the
spectra of wake velocity fluctuations. Such spectra are
shown in Fig. 8, where the first discontinuity in Fig. 8a
exhibits two possible spectra at the same Re due to the
hysteresis effect. At the second discontinuity in Fig. 8b,
the spectra are twin-peaked. The lower peak correspond-
ing to mode A gradually gives way to the peak at mode B
as Re is increased. This is due to an intermittent swapping
between modes, rather than the simultaneous existence of
both modes [34]. Norberg's investigations (private commu-

a ,\ ~ i
'~ H i"
J 2 I and Gharib [19] and Miller and Williamson [23]. Bloor
/ \\ ~.-_I v .....
/ "\~l
\ tunnel wall they introduced their "control cylinders" at
b )~Flow
Vortices
I
Figure 6. Patterns derived from a simple model using "nor-
mal-wavelength constant." (a) A phase shock is induced by a
large positive angle of shedding 01 (from the left-hand end
condition) gradually taking over a region of smaller negative
angle of shedding - 0 2. The shock translates at constant
speed to the right. (b) A phase expansion results (in this
example) when there is an impulsive change at the right-hand
end. Initially this end induces a large negative angle -01,
which is then superseded by (for example) parallel shedding
0 2 = 0. A phase expansion will result, from the right-hand
end, whenever 02 > 0].
nication, 1989; [35]) further confirm the existence of the
two modes A and B at very large aspect ratios (L/D>
2000).
End Contamination Effects: Cause of the Large
Discrepancy in Critical Re (140-190)
Although there is at least some small range of quoted
values of the critical Reynolds numbers for the onset of
vortex shedding (Re from around 45 to 50), there is a
relatively immense range of quoted critical Reynolds num-
Vortex Dynamics in Bluff Body Wakes 157
bers for wake transition (Re = 140-190) in the literature.
Surprisingly, the origin of these differences has had al-
most no attention in the literature, except for the study by
Bloor [4] in 1964 and the recent studies by Hammache
verified Roshko's suggestion that wind tunnel turbulence
could be important in setting the wake transition Re, and
she found values extending from roughly Re = 140 to
Re = 190. However, one does not know how the end
conditions were affected by the different levels of turbu-
lence. It appears that in a number of facilities with good
flow quality (turbulence level 0.1%), investigators have
found a large disparity in critical Re; for example, Roshko
[3] and Tritton [8] found Re = 150, Eisenlohr and Eckel-
mann [17] and Norberg [35] found Re = 165, and
Williamson [15, 16] found Re = 178.
Hammache and Gharib [19] showed that the critical Re
for wake transition was slightly increased if instead of
ending their test cylinder span on the sides of the wind
the ends of the span to induce parallel shedding. They
suggested that transition was triggered early at Re = 156
by the fact that the shedding was oblique rather than
parallel. However, other studies found a higher transition
Re on the order of 165-180 in the presence of the same
angles of oblique shedding, suggesting that early transition
is due to some other feature of the flow not yet accounted
for. It is perhaps not so much whether the shedding is
oblique or parallel that influences the transition Re, but
rather the end boundary conditions that may be signifi-
cant. Throwing some light on this question, it has recently
been found that nonmechanical end conditions (using
suction tubes downstream of the body) can yield rather
"clean" end conditions as shown visually in Fig. 9 [23],
without the large unsteady flow structures at the cylinder
spanwise ends that are normally present (see Fig. 4). With
the conditions in Fig. 9a, it was found that the laminar
regime for parallel shedding could be extended up to
Re = 194, as shown in Fig. 9b. A direct comparison may
be made between transition in flows with the same angle
of shedding: For parallel shedding with "contaminating"
end conditions in Fig. 4b, one has a transition at around
Re = 180; for parallel shedding in the absence of such
end contamination, transition can be inhibited until Re =
194.
The above results suggest that transition is triggered
early due to end contamination, and in the absence of
other effects it would appear that end contamination
could account for the large scatter in the quoted critical
Reynolds numbers for transition reported over the last 40
years. Physically, this contamination takes the form of
regions of vortex dislocations moving across the span (this
phenomenon is discussed later). It is not possible, given
the available evidence, to state that oblique shedding has
a naturally earlier transition than parallel shedding, be-
cause for oblique shedding to occur the end conditions
necessarily contain a lower frequency end cell and thereby
also the presence of contaminating "dislocations."
Vortex Loops and Streamwise Vortices in Transition:
"Small-Scale" Structures
Surprisingly few measurements have been made in the
transition regime to date, and even fewer flow visualiza-
158 C . H . K . Williamson
i i
Figure 7. Strouhal-Reynotds num- 0.20
ber relationship: laminar and 3-D
transition regimes. The transition
regime is characterized by two dis-
tinct discontinuities in the mea-
sured wake parameters, as Re is
increased, and may be conveniently 0.18
interpreted with reference to the 'A..LLEL S.EOO,N
Strouhal-Reynolds number rela-
tionship. At the first discontinuity,
the Strouhal number drops from x / _ j
the laminar shedding curve to a 0.16
curve for mode A turbulent vortex
shedding. This first discontinuity is
hysteretic. At the second disconti-
nuity, there is a jump to a higher
Strouhal curve, corresponding to 0.14
mode B turbulent vortex shedding.
In this case, there is no hysteresis,
but instead a gradual transfer of
energy between modes A and B as
Re is increased. (From Williamson
[33].) 0.12 60
tion studies, although some new phenomena in this regime
have been discovered in the last few years. Based on his
experimental velocity measurements, Roshko [3] sug-
gested that transition to turbulence existed in the separat-
ing shear layers before the vortices were fully formed and
shed from the cylinder. High-frequency oscillations were
later detected in the separating (and transitioning) shear
layers by Bloor [4]. Wei and Smith [36] observed in 1986
that "secondary" vortices were associated with these
high-frequency oscillations and hypothesized that it is the
three-dimensional stretching of these secondary vortices
that causes streamwise vortices, to appear in the wake.
However, although this scenario of shear layer transition
is known to occur at Re > 1000, the brief but significant
visualizations of H a m a [7] showed that the instability in
the wake transition regime takes the form of a three-
dimensional waviness on the primary Karman vortices,
and the formation of what Gerrard [10] later called "fingers
of dye." Shear layer transition itself is a separate phe-
nomenon in a higher Re regime. It is now known that
these dye "fingers" are associated with vortex loops and
streamwise vortices [33, 34], in similarity with other free
shear flows.
Two different modes of 3-D shedding in wake transi-
tion, involving vortex loops and streamwise vortex pairs,
were demonstrated by Williamson [33, 34, 37], and these
have some analogy with the streamwise structure found in
free shear layers (e.g., [38]) and also in the "unseparated"
wake that forms behind a splitter plate [39]. In mode A,
corresponding to shedding frequencies along curve A in
Fig. 7, the primary vortices deform in a wavy fashion along
their length during the shedding process, as visualized in
Fig. 9 (left half). This results in the local spanwise forma-
tion of vortex loops, which become stretched into stream-
wise vortex pairs. (That the two sides of a loop form a
vortex pair is proved in [34].) The spanwise length scale of
these vortex loops is around three diameters, or three-fifths
of a primary wavelength. The process of loop generation is
i i i i , , , i , i
B
Ssr0o..'~o"wo'*%- I.~.- .- °
°o .~Oo°
oq,
j_...ca ~''- .~ o . . ~ - A
~'-~ "~"J" - I 2 nd D I S C O N T I N U I T Y
/..""" I
//~.:"'" I st D I S C O N T I N U I T Y
•~° 0%
100 140 180 220 260
self-sustaining, due to Biot-Savart induction from one
loop to the next, causing a whole string of loops at the
same spanwise position. Mode A and its lengthscale have
similarity with the "in-phase" mode of vortex loop forma-
tion in an unseparated wake studied by Meiburg and
Lasheras [39].
At higher Reynolds numbers, when the Strouhal fre-
quencies lie on curve B in Fig. 7 (i.e., after the second
discontinuity), finer scale streamwise vortex pairs are
formed, as shown in Fig. 10 (right half). In this case the
primary vortex deformation is more spanwise-uniform than
for mode A, and the streamwise vortex structure has a
markedly smaller spanwise wavelength of around one di-
ameter, or one-fifth of a primary wavelength. Evidence of
the vortex pair structure is shown clearly in the visualiza-
tion in Fig. 10, using the laser-induced fluorescence tech-
nique. This photograph bears a striking resemblance to
the vortex pairs visualized in a mixing layer by Bernal and
Roshko [38]. A measure of the spanwise lengthscale of the
two instabilities, modes A and B, is given in Williamson
[34], where it is shown that there is a discontinuous
reduction in lengthscale from three-fifths to one-fifth of a
primary wavelength as one passes through the second
discontinuity (Re = 230-250). A central question pertains
to the origin of these three-dimensional instabilities, and
it seems from the jump in lengthscale that there exist two
different (but related) 3-D instability phenomena, which
are discussed in [34].
At this point, we can return to the first visualizations in
Fig. 1, where the cross-sectional views of the vortex shed-
ding illustrate the position of the streamwise vortices
shown, up to now, only in plan view. Due to the use of
such an aluminum flake technique, and the orientation of
the light source in this case, the white filaments in the
"braid" regions connecting the primary vortices indicate
streamwise vorticity. We may note that in Fig. 1 the top
photograph, for the laminar shedding regime, shows no
distinct white braid structure and thus no streamwise

,.:,,2, (a)
dB.
-10
t° -30
-20
= 5 0 0 I-Iz. - - - - - - ~ -
B these low-frequency irregularities reflect the presence of
(b)
dS.
t -10
0
-20
-30
2 5 0 HZ. - - - . - - ~ , -
Figure 8. Velocity spectra from the near wake in the transi-
tion regime. (a) Spectra at the first discontinuity, showing
hysteresis. Re = 172.8; L / D = 200. (b) Spectra at the sec-
ond discontinuity, showing gradual transfer of energy from
mode A to mode B, as Re increases. Re = 207-318; L / D =
200. (From Williamson [33].)
vortex instabilities. For the higher Re = 300 and 700, one
can clearly observe the streamwise vortices in the braid
regions between the primary Karman vortices. In the
separated wake behind a cylinder, the streamwise vorticity
originates mainly (but not wholly) from the deformation of
primary "core" vorticity, which is subsequently stretched
in the braid regions between the primary vortices. This is
rather different from the origin of streamwise vortices in
an unseparated wake, as described by Meiburg and
Lasheras [39], where the streamwise vortices originate in
the first instance from vorticity that has remained in the
braid region as a result of the primary roll-up process.
Nevertheless, in both the separated and unseparated wake,
once significant spanwise vorticity is found in the braid
region, it is then subject to strong streamwise vortex
Vortex Dynamics in Bluff Body Wakes 159
stretching and three-dimensional instability, as mentioned
above.
Spot-Like Vortex Dislocations in Transition:
"Large-Scale" Structure
Small-scale structure in transition, as discussed above, is
perhaps to be expected. However, it is now found that
wake transition also involves structures that have a sur-
prisingly large structure, and this provides our focus for
this section. Large low-frequency irregularities in the wake
velocity fluctuations were first observed by Roshko [3] in
the transition regime. It was later suggested by Bloor [4],
on the basis of other work by Sato and Kuriki [40], that
three-dimensionalities in the flow that would render the
flow turbulent as it travels downstream. Almost no work
was undertaken to investigate the physical cause of this
phenomenon until it was discovered that these irregulari-
ties are due to the existence of vortex dislocations in wake
transition [37]. These structures are analogous with the
crystal dislocations found in materials science. In the
present case, they are generated between spanwise cells of
different frequencies when the primary vortices move out
of phase with each other. It is interesting that dislocations
or "defects" have also been found to be a fundamental
aspect of free shear layer transition (Browand et al.,
1980-1993, see [41, 42]), and such structures could be
important to transition in general.
In the transition regime, measured profiles of velocity
fluctuation in the wake are distinctly different from those
associated with the laminar regime, as illustrated in Fig.
l l a . For example, the turbulent profile (Re = 183) shows
a large symmetrical peak in the centerplane of the wake,
as distinct from the two side peaks for the laminar regime
(Re = 152) usually associated with the two rows of lami-
nar vortices traveling downstream. The fluctuation energy
can be two orders of magnitude greater in a transitional
wake than in a laminar vortex street wake, as evidenced by
the development of fluctuating velocity with downstream
distance in Fig. l l b . It is found that the cause of such
large fluctuation energy in the transition wake is related
to the intermittent low-frequency irregularities first ob-
served by Roshko and shown from his 1967 paper [43] in
Fig. l lc. The traces shown below (from [37]) demonstrate
that such irregularities grow, as the wake travels down-
stream, into large low-frequency oscillations, in distinct
contrast with the much smaller regular oscillations re-
maining in the exponentially decaying laminar wake. It
would seem that there must be structures associated with
such large oscillations.
Evidence of large structure in transition can be ob-
served from a number of visualizations in the literature,
including Cimbala et al. [44], H a m a [7], and Gerrard [10].
By conducting close-up visualization simultaneous with
velocity measurements [37], it is possible to prove that
the irregular glitches in the velocity traces correspond
with the passage of vortex dislocations past the velocity-
measuring device (hot wire). This suggests that the irregu-
larities observed originally by Roshko [3] indeed corre-
spond with the formation of large-scale structure in the
form of vortex dislocations.
To study their evolution in detail, dislocations have
been (passively) forced to occur at a local spanwise posi-
160 C . H . K . Williamson

Figure 9. Extension of the laminar

shedding regime to Re > 194 by
minimization of end boundary con-
dition contamination. The results
shown suggest that end contamina-
tion is responsible for the immense
disparity among reported critical
Re values for wake transition (Re 0.21 I 1 t I I I I

= 140-190) measured over the last

40 years. By minimizing the con- S t e a d y (5 m i n or m o r e ) (b)
tamination of the flow from the o Transient
x
~xx x x X X x X x x
large unsteady fluctuations nor- 0.20 Williamson 1988 xx
x xxx
mally present at the ends of a
cylinder, it has proven possible to
r x
inhibit the spread of turbulent re-
gions along the span and thereby 0.19 •
x
t5 i
~
i
i x x
x x -x"
to retain laminar shedding at higher
Reynolds numbers. An example of S x x xx
x ~ Ie ~ • tNI~ Kxxxx
minimal e n d contamination result- xx x
ing from the use of an end suction 0.18 x
x

tube control technique (from Miller x

x

and Williamson [23]) is shown in

(a) for Re = 200. The "clean" end
conditions can be compared with 0.17
those in Fig. 4. The prolongation of
the laminar regime, and a substan-
tial hysteresis region, are indicated I a I ~ I , t , 1 , I , I
by the extended curve of laminar 0.16
shedding frequencies in the S - R e 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 260 280
plot in (b).

tion with the use of a small ring disturbance, creating
low-frequency periodic structures [37]. Forcing techniques
have been common for the study of boundary layer spots
and were used by Browand and Prost-Domasky [41] to
study defects in the mixing layer. In the wake, it was found
that "two-sided" dislocations are stable in a symmetric
in-phase configuration, as shown in Fig. 12a. As the wake
travels downstream, the energy at the low dislocation
frequency decays only slowly, in contrast to the rapid
decay of other frequencies, leaving the downstream wake
dominated by large dislocation structures, as is found for
the natural wake transition. It is found that across the
boundaries of the out-of-phase region there is a rather
contorted web of vortex linking. Dislocation structures can
grow to immense proportions on the order of 50 diameters
(10 primary wavelengths) in width and 150 diameters (30
wavelengths) in streamwise extent. Evidence of vortex
dislocations in natural wake transition are shown typically
in Fig. 12b, and it has been found that there are close
similarities with the forced dislocations shown, for exam-
ple, in Fig. 12a.
Vortex dislocations have been discovered in many other
flows and can indeed be expected in a large variety of
flows, such as shear flows past cylinders; flows past a
nonuniform cylindrical geometry, such as a cone or stepped
cylinder; free shear flows (temporal, or spatial as for a
tilting tank); convection patterns; flows over sand dunes
and ripples; and cloud patterns. Of particular significance
 Vortex Dynamics in Bluff Body Wakes 161

Figure 10. Visualization showing vortex deformation process (mode A), and mushroom-shaped streamwise vortex pairs (mode
B). On the left, self-sustaining vortex loops forming at a local spanwise position behind a cylinder. The evolution of a typical
vortex loop can be seen by following the vortex marked with a blob, in photographs (a)-(e). Flow is from right to left, and the
spanwise extent of the vertical cylinder at the right edge is around three diameters. Dye visualization is used, at Re = 180. In
the right-hand photograph, we can see clearly the smaller-scale structures of mode B vortex shedding. Laser-induced
fluorescence of a thin sheet of light illuminates particularly these streamwise mushroom-shaped vortex pairs. The flow is left to
right, with a vertical cylinder at the left edge. Re = 250. (Photographs from Williamson [33, 34].)

in this discussion is that they have been shown to be
fundamental to the growth of free shear flows by the work
by Browand and coworkers [41, 42] and recently by Ny-
gaard and Glezer [45]. It would seem conceivable that
vortex dislocations could be a generic feature of transition
in all shear flows.
W A V E I N T E R A C T I O N S IN T H E FAR W A K E
Although there have been a large number of investiga-
tions concerned with the near wake behind a body, there
are relatively few papers whose focus has been to study
the structure of far wakes. One of the central questions is
whether there is a connection between the flow and vortex
dynamics right behind a body (in the near wake) and the
structure that is found far downstream of a body (in the
far wake). In other words, one might question whether the
far wake retains a "signature" of the details of the near-
wake dynamics. In both the laminar and turbulent wake
regimes, the width of a nominally two-dimensional far
wake grows as x 1/2, for large values of downstream dis-
tance (x), and we thus expect the size of the large wake
structures to increase, while the passage frequency of
these structures should decrease. Some original observa-
tions by Taneda in 1959 [46] for both laminar and turbu-
lent wakes demonstrated the decay of the original Karman
street wake and the growth in the far wake of a larger
scale secondary vortex street that he suggested, arises out
of a hydrodynamic instability based on the local mean
velocity profile. In contrast, Matsui and Okude [47] sug-
gested that such a secondary street is generated by vortex
amalgamations or pairing of the original Karman vortices
into larger vortical structures. In a computational study,
Meiburg [48] showed that vortex pairing would be able to
account for the growth of a secondary vortex street.
An extensive experimental study in the laminar regime
by Cimbala in 1984 [49] and by Cimbala et al. in 1988 [44]
suggested that the far-wake structure does not depend
directly on the precise scale or frequency of Karman
vortices shed from the cylinder. The fact that frequencies
unrelated to the Karman shedding frequency (fK) were
amplified in the far wake (and have good agreement with
those predicted from linear stability theory) strongly sug-
gests that hydrodynamic instability is the principal mecha-
nism for secondary street growth. A particularly interest-
ing result from the study of Cimbala et al. was found from
spanwise visualizations, where they discovered a honey-
comb-like cellular 3-D pattern in the far wake. They
suggested that this 3-D pattern could be caused by a
secondary 3-D parametric instability of the subharmonic
162 C . H . K . Williamson

(a) ~ Re= 183

u~=, 0.08
U~ ~ ~.~ Re= 152 R O S H K O (1967)

x/D = 4 0
0 ,
- -4 0 4

0.25
y/D (c)
(b)
0.20

/'trms 0.15 ~.,,..~'~ Re= 248 x/D = 5

U~
o.Io ~ ~
0.05 / -,,~
Re= 183 Re= 152 Re= 183

Re= 152
LAMINAR WAKE TURBULENT WAKE
0 10 20 30 40 50
Wl L L I A M S O N (1992)
x/D
Figure 11. Velocity measurements in the transitional wake. (a) Velocity fluctuation profile measured in both the laminar
regime (Re = 152) and the wake transition regime (Re = 183). The twin peaks for Re = 152 are indicative of the two rows of
vortices traveling downstream past the hot-wire probe. The profile for Re = 183 is distinctly different, with a much larger
central peak. In this case, normalized rms velocity is plotted versus normalized transverse distance y / D ( x / D = 10). (b)
Downstream decay of normalized rms velocity fluctuations, showing the distinctly different rates of decay in the laminar regime
(Re = 152) versus the transition regime (Re = 183, 248). Rather than the exponential decay in the laminar case, the transition
regime exhibits a plateau-like region of much slower decay, at least down to x / D = 50. (Data for (a) and (b) from Williamson
[37].) (c) Large low-frequency intermittent velocity fluctuations in the transition regime explain the large fluctuation energy
measured in the profile and downstream decay plot shown in (a) and (b). Such large fluctuation irregularities were first
observed by Roshko in 1954, and a typical velocity trace (black) from his 1967 paper [43] is included here. The contrast between
laminar (on the left) and turbulent velocity traces (on the right) is particularly noticeable further downstream at x / D = 40, in
the white traces (Williamson [37]).

type acting on the far-wake initially 2-D waves. Further
investigations that involve forcing 3-D structure in far
wakes were undertaken by Lasheras and Meiburg [50] and
by Corke et al. [51], both of whom consider the interac-
tions of subharmonic pairs of oblique waves with a pri-
mary 2-D wave. However, it has remained unclear, until
recently, whether such a secondary instability actually
occurs in "naturally" observed wakes. Although it is rea-
sonably apparent from simple observation of their smoke
visualization that such a pattern is caused by parallel and
oblique waves interacting, one might ask, From where do
these waves originate? We shall see that there is a direct
link between the near-wake phenomenon of oblique shed-
ding and the far-wake honeycomb pattern of Cimbala et
al.
In agreement with the conclusions of Cimbala et ai.
[44], Hammache and Gharib [52] stated that no direct
relationship should be expected between the frequencies
in the primary and secondary regions. They found that the
secondary vortices are parallel (2-D) irrespective of
whether there is oblique shedding or parallel shedding
upstream, although with oblique shedding there exists a
spanwise waviness on the downstream parallel waves. Some
careful measurements demonstrate that the spanwise
wavelength of the downstream waviness is equal to the
spanwise wavelength of the oblique shedding vortices. The
results of Williamson [53] and Williamson and Prasad [54]
demonstrate that a honeycomb pattern can be formed as
the direct result of an interaction between oblique shed-
ding vortices and 2-D large-scale waves that grow in the
far wake. With parallel (2-D) shedding upstream, no hon-
eycomb pattern is found downstream, which proves
straightforwardly that the far-wake 3-D patterns observed
to date are dependent on the presence of oblique shed-
ding "waves" in the wake. It clearly follows, from this
particular type of o b l i q u e - - 2 - D wave interaction, that the
spanwise wavelengths upstream and downstream must be
the same, which is consistent with the meticulous mea-
surements of Hammache and Gharib. There would seem
to be little question, from the further available evidence
demonstrated in [55], that the honeycomb pattern of Cim-
bala et al. is also caused by their oblique shedding waves
interacting with growing 2-D waves in the far wake.
Further research now indicates that in "natural" far
 Vortex Dynamics in Bluff Body Wakes 163

a b
Figure 12. "Vortex dislocations": origin of low-frequency fluctuations. Recent research has shown that the origin of the large
low-frequency irregularities in wake transition, first observed by Roshko [3], is the growth of large vortical structures in the
wake. (a) Forced two-sided vortex dislocation. An enormous vortex dislocation in this case is induced to occur at a local
spanwise position in the wake by placing a small "ring" disturbance around the cylinder. This has the effect of causing a slightly
lower frequency of vortex shedding behind the ring relative to either spanwise side, and thus a sequence of periodic large-scale
dislocations ensue. The streamwise extent of the symmetric dislocation is around 20 primary wavelengths and is therefore very
much larger than that of the small-scale wake instabilities [37]. Flow is upward. (b) Natural vortex dislocations. Visualization in
plan view shows that the large fluctuations in natural wake transition are due to large structures known as vortex dislocations
[37]. Re = 210. Flow is upward. The development of clusters of these structures in transition has strong similarities with vortex
defects in free shear layers studied by Fred Browand and coworkers over the last decade (see, e.g., [42]).

wakes, not only the scale but also the frequency are
precisely dependent on the near wake (Williamson and
Prasad [56]). Surprisingly, the characteristic that actually
forges a "connection" between the near and far wakes is
the sensitivity to free-stream disturbances. Indeed, the far
wake, being a convectively unstable flow, will tend to
amplify extremely small frequency peaks in the free
stream. With an understanding of the exquisite sensitivity
of the far wake to free-stream disturbances, a new mecha-
nism of "oblique wave resonance" in the far wake has
recently been discovered [56, 57] that is distinct from the
parametric subharmonic instabilities discussed above. A
nonlinear (quadratic) interaction between the oblique
shedding waves generated from upstream and the 2-D
waves amplified in the far wake triggers the growth of an
oblique resonance wave, as shown in Fig. 13a, where the
smoke was introduced into the wake at x / D = 50 in
order to highlight the three wave systems. The photograph
in Fig. 13b shows that if the smoke wire is located further
downstream at x / D = 100, then what one observes is
almost wholly the strong oblique resonance waves. It
appears that one needs only a remarkably small free-
stream spectral peak (of order U'rms/U = 0.00005) to trig-
ger an amplification in the far wake. The disturbance in
the free stream of a wind tunnel facility are generally of
an acoustic origin and are thus generally 2-D waves, with
amplitudes typically of this order.
Measurements of frequency under conditions of far-
wake resonance indicate that the predominant far-wake
frequency is a combination frequency (f~¢ - fT), where fK
is the Karman frequency upstream and fT is the fie-
quency of the 2-D wave. That this frequency corresponds
to oblique resonance waves is apparent if one interprets
the phenomenon as an example of the type of resonance
in fluid mechanics that has been described in the book by
Craik [58]. For such resonance, it is required that the
following two waves travel at the same phase speed:
alc ei(,~xx+13Kz--,oKt), (4)
aT ei(aTx +13Tz COT/), (5)
164 C . H . K . Williamson

Figure 13. A mechanism of oblique

wave resonance in the far wake.
This phenomenon is due to the
nonlinear interaction between
oblique shedding waves from up-
stream and the large-scale 2-D
waves that evolve from instability
in the far wake. Flow is left to
right. With the smoke wire located
at x/D = 50 in (a), one can ob-
serve at the left the oblique shed-
ding waves. These waves interact
with the 2-D waves in the middle
of the picture to produce the
large-angle oblique resonance
w,aves to the right. The lower pho-
tograph in (b) shows that if the
smoke is introduced further down-
stream at x/D = 100, then what
one observes is almost wholly the
strong oblique resonance waves.
(Note that the orientation of the
waves is different due to the dif-
ferent orientation of the oblique
shedding waves in these two exper-
iments.) In essence, two waves in-
teract nonfinearly to produce a
third wave, which can grow to
"swamp" the first two waves. (From
Williamson and Prasad [54, 56].)

where x and z are the distances downstream and span-
wise, respectively. Subscript K refers to the K a r m a n shed-
ding waves, and subscript T to the 2-D waves. With such a
two-wave interaction, one may expect quadratic terms on
the o r d e r of a 2 to a p p e a r (e.g., aKa T, aKa~). Let us
denote a third wave corresponding to aKa ~ as
a3ei(a3 x+ ~3 z- t°3t), (6)
where the following relationships may then be written:
60 3 = (..OK - - O ) T , (7)
f13 = flK -- fiT' (8)
Ot 3 : OtK - - O / T . (9)
A resonance exists if such a relationship between three
waves holds true, and this is precisely what is found to
exist in this far-wake flow. Relation (7) shows that the
resonance wave has a frequency fK -- fT, and relations (8)
and (9) give the geometry of the oblique waves as precisely
what is found experimentally, namely, the resonance waves
passing through the nodes formed by the intersection
pattern of the other two waves. A n investigation into the
typical downstream development of velocity spectra in Fig.
14 demonstrates that although the 2-D waves (frequency
fT) are involved in triggering the oblique wave resonance
at around x / D = 100, they are almost lost in the back-
ground noise at x / d = 300, whereas the oblique waves
(fK - - f v ) are still relatively energetic, decaying only very
slowly as the wake travels further downstream. A clear
schematic illustration of the oblique wave resonance phe-
nomenon, summarizing in a simple manner the fundamen-
tal concept of the two-wave interaction, is provided in
Fig. 15.
Since these resonances are caused by extremely small
acoustic disturbances present in the free stream, the non-
linear oblique wave resonance has been induced by the
use of 2-D wave acoustic forcing, Williamson and Prasad
[57]. A whole set of oblique resonance modes have been

oblique waves
l 2-D waves Karmanshedding
I I /i \
100
I new appreciation of the effects of end boundary condi-
Figure 14. Development of downstream velocity fluctuations
for oblique wave resonance. The velocity spectra demonstrate
that as the wake travels downstream, the energy of the
oblique Karman shedding frequency fK dies out (exponen-
tially) but nevertheless interacts nonlinearly with the 2-D
waves (frequency fT) sufficiently to trigger the oblique reso-
nance wave (frequency f K - fx)- This resonance wave then
grows to become by far the dominant wave further down-
stream at x / D = 300. (From Williamson and Prasad [54,
56].)
found that correspond to frequencies fK -- rifT, where n
is an integer. Surprisingly large angles for the oblique
resonance waves (Ores up to at least 75 °) have been found
to be preferentially amplified over the 2-D waves that
trigger the resonance. Paradoxically, the effect of an in-
crease in amplitude (A) of the 2-D wave forcing is to
further amplify the oblique resonance waves in preference
to the 2-D waves.
It seems that although the general approach to under-
standing the far wake has hitherto followed classical para-
metric subharmonic studies, there are distinct differences
between these theories and the actual wave interactions
found in wake experiments to date, as described above. It
also seems clear, and is indeed to be expected, that the far
wake has an extreme sensitivity to free-stream distur-
bances. It is these disturbances that not only lead to a
large scatter in previous wake measurements but also are
Vortex Dynamics in Bluff Body Wakes 165
responsible for the regular 3-D patterns and for the phe-
nomenon of oblique wave resonance that evolves in the
far wake. This sensitivity to disturbances makes it difficult
to properly define a "natural" wake, as its structure is
exquisitely dependent on the environment in which it is
studied. In analogy with the mixing layer: The natural far
wake is by nature an excited flow.
C O N C L U D I N G REMARKS
Despite the fact that the wake of a bluff body does not
easily admit analytical approaches, it is exceedingly rich in
flow phenomena. Over the last six years, there has been a
wave of experimental discoveries concerning several as-
pects of bluff-body wakes, particularly three-dimensional
aspects. Cellular shedding, vortex dislocations, oblique
shedding, phase shocks and expansions, vortex loops, and
streamwise vortices are all three-dimensional vortex dy-
namics phenomena that are becoming understood. As a
part of understanding these phenomena, there has been a
tions influencing the flow over long cylinder spans. From
all of this, one might question what it is that we are trying
to understand: Is it the flow over an infinitely long body,
or the flow over a body with finite span and therefore
under the influence of end boundary conditions? There
are scientific and engineering reasons to consider both of
these as goals.
In considering the wake vortex dynamics in this paper,
one may define two kinds of three-dimensionality, as
discussed in the 1992 ONR Wakes Workshop and further
in Roshko [59] and Williamson [60]. One may be called
extrinsic, for example, effects due to end conditions; the
Other may be called intrinsic, for example, 3-D motions
arising from natural instabilities. One may perhaps con-
sider that extrinsic end effects are extraneous to the flow.
On the other hand, one may alternatively view oblique
shedding and parallel shedding as equally intrinsic phe-
nomena; they are both solutions of the flow over a body
but are simply the result of different boundary conditions.
Following the results emerging from studies on the ring
cylinder wake with no end effects, studied by the group at
Marseille (Provansal, Leweke, and Boyer), the matter is
not so clear-cut, since stable wake configurations comprise
both helical oblique shedding modes and vortex ring
(parallel shedding) modes. In this case, the oblique helical
modes are as intrinsic as the parallel vortex ring modes.
Perhaps we should view all of the three-dimensional vor-
tex dynamics phenomena pertaining to uniform long cylin-
ders in uniform flows as indeed intrinsic phenomena.
Finally, one might consider some of the many outstand-
ing questions remaining on the problems of bluff-body
flows. A central question is, To what extent do the three-
dimensional vortex dynamics phenomena recently found
for low Reynolds numbers carry over to high Reynolds
number flows? How do the 3-D phenomena influence the
steady and, more particularly the unsteady, fluid forces on
a cylinder? There is the question of whether we can use
our improved knowledge regarding 3-D flow phenomena
for uniform cylinders in uniform flows in the cases of
other more complex flows such as flows with active/pas-
sive control, nonuniform problems such as cone wakes
and cylinders in shear flows, bodies in oscillatory and wave
flows, and bodies of very small aspect ratio, which have
166 C . H . K . Williamson

Body produces
fx
Decaying

7' I
I
Free-streamproduces fr

'1
l
l I
2D waves
I I I | I
Growing

The interactionproduces fx-fr

Figure 15. Schematic diagram demonstrating
fundamental concept of two-wave interaction Rapidly growing
(fK and fT) yielding an oblique resonance wave

recently drawn the attention of Norberg [35] and Szepessy annual workshops), of which the present work at Cornell is a part
[611. (ONR contract No. N00014-90-J-1686).
Modern techniques are certainly being brought to bear
in the experiments, particularly the use of standard and
digital PIV methods to determine velocity and thereby NOMENCLATURE
vorticity fields. Although further development is taking a amplitude of wave,
place with these methods, a main challenge at present is A amplitude of wake oscillator,
to develop a three-dimensional D P I V technique. In analy-
D diameter of cylinder,
sis, there continues to be research in stability theory and
in the use of amplitude equations to characterize the f shedding frequency,
three-dimensional wake patterns in the near wake. Analyt- q spanwise wavenumber, dimensionless
ical efforts are also under way to explain the phenomenon Re Reynolds number, dimensionless
of oblique wave resonance in the far wake. In computa- S Strouhal number, dimensionless
tions, there has been a great deal of progress in develop- t time, s
ing numerical techniques such as vortex methods, finite U free-stream velocity
difference schemes, and spectral methods in two dimen- x downstream coordinate, dimensionless
sions. One of the technical challenges at present appears
to be in pushing the three-dimensional computations to z spanwise coordinate, dimensionless
higher Reynolds numbers, larger aspect ratios, and for Greek Symbols
longer times. a downstream wavenumber, dimensionless
There is clearly much work still to be done to discover /3 spanwise wavenumber, dimensionless
and understand three-dimensional vortex dynamics in w radial frequency, r a d / s
wake flows, over and above the development of the new A coefficient, dimensionless
techniques in experimentation, analysis, and simulation.
/z coefficient, dimensionless
v coefficient of viscosity
I wish to thank Greg Miller, Anil Prasad, and Chantal Champagne, ~r growth rate
Ph.D., for superb assistance with this paper. The continued support 0 oblique shedding angle
from the Ocean Engineering Division of the Office of Naval Re-
search, monitored by Dr. Tom Swean, is gratefully acknowledged.
Subscripts
Much of the recent surge of research in this area has directly K Karman shedding wave
resulted from an ONR "Bluff Body Wake Vortex Dynamics and T two-dimensional wave
Instabilities" Accelerated Research Initiative (with corresponding 0 oblique

3 third wave
1 r e f e r s to o t h e r c o e f f i c i e n t s
0 two-dimensional
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Accepted August 24, 1995