Reflectional symmetry breaking of the separated flow over 3D bluff bodies
ORAL
Abstract
The first 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. It is found that this RSB regime is persistent at large Reynolds numbers and responsible for a bi-stable turbulent wake.
*The authors are indebted to R. Godoy Diana, V. Raspa and B. Thiria from ESPCI (Paris, France) for lending their low speed hydrodynamics tunnel.
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