Formation length in the wake of a circular cylinder
 

I'm interested in the vortex formation length behind a circular cylinder at low to medium Reynolds numbers, particularly in the range from 5 to 200. I found that there is a large scatter among the reported data of both experimental and numerical investigations (mostly before 1980s)in the literature. Could any one provide me some resources of recent studies or discussions regarding this issue?

Re: Formation length in the wake of a circular cylinder
 

(1). Library would be the right place to start your searching process. (2). Don't you think that the flow over a cylinder is a very good "do-it-yourself" project? You can either write a code to calculate the flow field, or you can use a commercial code to do that. For this range of Reynolds number, I think it is ideal as an exercise. What do you think?

Re: Formation length in the wake of a circular cylinder
 

Thanks for the suggestions from Dr. John C. Chien. The fact is that I have actually calculated the formation length in the wake of a circular cylinder with my own code, and I want to verify my code with existing data. As I mentioned in my previous message, I found the existing data (experimental and numerical) scatter a lot, and thus it is difficult to make a meaningful comparison. The most surprising thing is that I didn't find any numerical work that gives the same result as my own code regarding the formation length. I believe there are some mismatches between my calculation and others. Probably some of our CFD colleagues have had similar experience. It might be a good idea to exchange this sort of experience. By the way, my CFD code produces very good results in terms of the vortex shedding frequency, the hydrodynamic forces and separation angle etc.