Some experiments on the flow past a sphere

There is little published work on the flow past a sphere. Some experiments were carried out in the 1930s (see Fage), and other measurements have been made more recently (Cometta and Kendall). Much of the work has been restricted to flow visualisation and to measurements of drag and surface pressure distribution. Very few measurements have been made in the near wake. In the present paper, measurements of vortex shedding frequency, wake dimensions and static pressure up to three diameters downstream are reported. The experiments were carried out in the Aerodynamics Laboratory of the Cambridge University Engineering Department, under the supervision of Professor W. A. Mair.