An experimental investigation of the oscillating lift and drag of a circular cylinder shedding turbulent vortices

Abstract

The oscillating lift and drag on circular cylinders are determined from measurements of the fluctuating pressure on the cylinder surface in the range of Reynolds number from 4 × 10 3 to just above 10 5 . The magnitude of the r.m.s. lift coefficient has a maximum of about 0.8 at a Reynolds number of 7 × 10 4 and falls to about 0.01 at a Reynolds number of 4 × 10 3 . The fluctuating component of the drag was determined for Reynolds numbers greater than 2 × 10 4 and was found to be an order of magnitude smaller than the lift.