Background-noise effects on modelling transitional shear flows

Presented in this article is an experimental and numerical study aimed at analysing the wake dynamics downstream of a cylinder in an unsteady flow. The experimental study was carried out by measuring the mean velocity field with a laser Doppler anemometer, visualizing the fluid field by means of laser induced fluorescence, and performing a statistical analysis of the instantaneous velocity signals using Fourier and wavelet transforms. The visualized images were processed to determine the mean-statistical characteristics of large-scale structures in the wake. Experimental results provided the essential information for the numerical investigations of the temporal evolution of large-scale structures. A theoretical model based on the theory of dynamical systems with few degrees of freedom was adopted. The effects induced by the unsteady nature of the incoming flow were simulated. Experimental and numerical results were in excellent agreement, underlining the validity of the methods of analysis and simulation proposed.