Typical Features of Turbulent Wake Flows.

Plane and axisymmetric wake flows were studied experimentally in a wind tunnel. The results show that each type of wake has its own distinct characteristics. The nature of the initial flow affects the subsequent history of the evolving flow even far downstream. The development of turbulent wakes can be represented in a formal way using certain similarity hypotheses in conjunction with the basic governing equations. An important factor is the progressive change proceeding downstream in the ratio of the turbulent friction to the square of the maximum velocity deficit. A common power law, representing the lateral growth of the wake, was found to fit the experimentally determined data for both the plane and axisymmetric wakes. Author