The subsonic near-wake of an axisymmetric semielliptical afterbody

The near-wake of axisymmetric semielliptical afterbody was studied experimentally in a wind tunnel at 47 m/s using an upstream support system to minimize disturbances to the wake. The flowfield was surveyed with a variety of pressure and hot-wire probes. This paper presents the mean flowfield characteristics for the entire near-wake region. The results include static and stagnation pressure distributions as well as velocity profiles. Separation occurred at 0.38 model radii upstream of the base, while realignment was found at 0.2 model radii downstream. Centerline velocity recovery is slower than for blunt bases, but far-wake similarity was found as early as 0.4 radii downstream. The overall flowfield is heavily influenced by the wall geometry. The data presented will serve as a quantitative basis for the development and evaluation of analytical solutions.