Unsteady wake behind a circular cylinder in a supersonic flow

Abstract: The objective of the present work is to investigate the unsteady wake behind a circular cylinder in a supersonic flow. A numerical study was conducted to examine the mean and unsteady characteristics of the flow at a high supersonic Mach number 4 and Reynolds number 2.1x10^5. The near-wake is examined to identify the flow transition location approximately. The analysis indicates that, under the experimental conditions simulated in this study, the transition may occur very close to the reattachment point, thereby affecting the flow dynamics. The unsteady characteristics of the flow reveal mechanisms consistent with existing literature. In this study, particular attention is given to experiments conducted by Kendall (1962), who investigated the three-dimensional nature of this flow. Preliminary insights into the three-dimensional structures, originally reported by Kendall (1962), are discussed, highlighting that the wavelength of the spanwise structures in the far-wake is = 0.2 D. Keywords: Compressible wakes, Blunt body flows, Computational fluid dynamics