We investigate the stability properties and flow regimes of laminar wakes behind slender cylindrical bodies, of diameter D and length L, with a blunt trailing edge at zero angle of attack, combining experiments, direct numerical simulations and local/global linear stability analyses. It has been found that the flow field is steady and axisymmetric for Reynolds numbers below a critical value, Recs (L/D), which depends on the length-to-diameter ratio of the body, L/D. However, in the range of Reynolds numbers Recs(L/D) < Re < Reco(L/D), although the flow is still steady, it is no longer axisymmetric but exhibits planar symmetry. Finally, for Re > Reco, the flow becomes unsteady due to a second oscillatory bifurcation which preserves the reflectional symmetry. In addition, as the Reynolds number increases, we report a new flow regime, characterized by the presence of a secondary, low frequency oscillation while keeping the reflectional symmetry. The results reported indicate that a global linear stability analysis is adequate to predict the first bifurcation, thereby providing values of Recs nearly identical to those given by the corresponding numerical simulations. On the other hand, experiments and direct numerical simulations give similar values of Reco for the second, oscillatory bifurcation, which are however overestimated by the linear stability analysis due to the use of an axisymmetric base flow. It is also shown that both bifurcations can be stabilized by injecting a certain amount of fluid through the base of the body, quantified here as the bleed-to-free-stream velocity ratio, Cb = Wb/W∞.

The wake flow past a streamwise rotating sphere is a canonical model of numerous applications, such as particle-driven flows, sport aerodynamics and freely rising or falling bodies, where the changes in particles’ paths are related to the destabilization of complex flow regimes and associated force distributions. Herein, we examine the spatio-temporal pattern formation, previously investigated by Lorite-Díez & Jiménez-González (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 896, 2020, A18) and Pier (J. Fluids Struct., vol. 41, 2013, pp. 43–50), from a dynamical system perspective. A systematic study of the mode competition between rotating waves, which arise from the linearly unstable modes of the steady-state, exhibits their connection to previously observed helical patterns present within the wake. The organizing centre of the dynamics turns out to be a triple Hopf bifurcation associated with three non-axisymmetric, oscillating modes with respective azimuthal wavenumbers $m=-1,-1$ and $-2$ . The unfolding of the normal form unveils the nonlinear interaction between the rotating waves to engender more complex states. It reveals that for low values of the rotation rate, the flow field exhibits a similar transition to the flow past the static sphere, but accompanied by a rapid variation of the frequencies of the flow with respect to the rotation. The transition from the single helix pattern to the double helix structure within the wake displays several regions with hysteric behaviour. Eventually, the interaction between single and double helix structures within the wake lead towards temporal chaos, which here is attributed to the Ruelle–Takens–Newhouse route. The onset of chaos is detected by the identification of an invariant state of the normal form constituted by three incommensurate frequencies. The evolution of the chaotic attractor is determined using of time-stepping simulations, which were also performed to confirm the existence of bi-stability and to assess the fidelity of the computations performed with the normal form.

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We analyze the global linear stability of the axisymmetric flow around a spinning bulletshaped body of length-to-diameter ratio L/D = 2, as a function of the Reynolds number, Re = w ∞ D/ν, and of the rotation parameter Ω = ωD/(2w ∞ ), in the ranges Re < 450 and 0 Ω 1. Here, w ∞ and ω are the free-stream and the body rotation velocities respectively, and ν is the fluid kinematic viscosity. The two-dimensional eigenvalue problem is solved numerically to find the spectrum of complex eigenvalues and their associated eigenfunctions, allowing us to explain the different bifurcations from the axisymmetric state observed in previous numerical studies. Our results reveal that, for the parameter ranges investigated herein, three global eigenmodes, denoted Low-Frequency (LF), Medium-Frequency (MF) and High-Frequency (HF) modes, become unstable in different regions of the Re − Ω parameter plane. We provide precise computations of the corresponding neutral curves, that divide the Re − Ω plane into four different regions: the stable axisymmetric flow prevails for small enough values of Re and Ω, while three different frozen states, where the wake structures co-rotate with the body at different angular velocities, take place as a consequence of the destabilization of the LF, MF and HF modes. Several direct numerical simulations of the nonlinear state associated to the MF mode, identified here for the first time, are also reported to complement the linear stability results. Finally, we point out the important fact that, since the axisymmetric base flow is SO(2)-symmetric, the theory of equivariant bifurcations implies that the weakly non-linear regimes that emerge close to criticality must necessarily take the form of rotating-wave states. These states, previously referred to as frozen wakes in the literature, are thus shown to result from the base-flow symmetry.

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