Analyse du sillage proche d'une sphère par une méthode de reconnaissance de formes
A pattern recognition technique has been applied to analyse the near-wake of a sphere for a Reynolds (Re) criteria of 12 900 and 25 900. Measurements of the main components of the down-stream turbulent flow of the dynamic field of a sphere allowed to confirm literature data. Fluctuations of the streamwise velocity component were measured simultaneously by eight hot-wire anemometers arranged in a circular pattern with the radius corresponding to the position of the extrema of the Reynolds stress [Formula: see text]. For streamwise locations xld = 18 (d = 4 cm) and 36 (d = 2 cm) (d, diameter of the sphere; x, longitudinal position relative to the centre of the sphere), in the near-wake of the sphere, structures occur periodically. The Strouhal number characterizing this periodic activity is 0.18. These structures, which also exhibit some spatial periodicity, seem to constitute the counterpart of the Kármán vortex path detected in the wake of a cylinder perpendicular to the main flow. In the wake of a sphere, these structures might appear in the three-dimensional form of continuous crenellated rings for xld = 18, or interrupted in one or several points of their circumference for xld = 36.