Steady Two-Dimensional Viscous Flow of an Incompressible Fluid past a Circular Cylinder

Numerical solutions of the steady Navier-Stokes equations are presented for two-dimensional flows past a circular cylinder in an infinite domain. The flow is assumed to be uniform at infinity upstream and the range of Reynolds numbers extends from 1 to 60. The Navier-Stokes equations are replaced by a set of finite difference equations and the numerical solution is obtained by means of an iteration method. Conditions at “infinity” are applied by matching to Imai's asymptotic solution. The results are compared with those of other analytical and numerical computations as well as with experiments. In particular, the discussion is concerned with the drag, the base pressure, the shape of the standing vortices, and some formulas suggested for large Reynolds numbers. Excellent agreement with recent experiments of Acrivos, Leal, Snowden, and Pan is obtained.