Experimental Investigations of Flow past Spinning Cylinders*

Experimental investigations of flow past spinning cylinders is presented in the context of their application and relevance to flow past projectiles. A subsonic wind tunnel is used to perform experiments on flow past spinning cylinders that are sting-mounted and oriented such that their axis of rotation is aligned with the mean flow. The experiments cover a Reynolds number range of up to 300000 and rotation numbers of up to 2 (based on cylinder diameter). The experimental validation of the tunnel characteristics and the benchmarking of the flow field in the tunnel are described. The experimental results for spinning cylinders with both rear-mounted and fore-mounted stings are presented along with available computational and experimental findings.