Flow past short circular cylinders with two free ends

Preliminary tests have been carried out on short circular cylinders with both ends free. Drag force is measured across the range 6 × 10 4 Re 5 for cylinders of length to diameter ratio L / D between 1 and 10. The effect of hemispherical ends is also investigated. A kind of periodic vortex shedding is found in the range 2 L / D L / D is reduced to 3. An asymmetric flow pattern is established for very short cylinders ( L / D