DETAILS OF THE DRAG CURVE NEAR THE ONSET OF VORTEX SHEDDING

A closer look at the drag curve for a circular cylinder near the onset of vortex shedding reveals that there is a sharp transition in the fo rces acting on a body moving through a fluid when it produces an unste ady wake. In this Letter results from high-resolution computer simulat ions are presented to quantify the change in viscous drag, pressure dr ag, and base pressure coefficients. (C) 1995 American Institute of Phy sics.