The major purpose of this paper is to study the phenomena of wake flow of tapered cylinders at Reynolds number below 200. It is found in this work that there are two constant frequency wake regions at each end of the tapered cylinder. In-between is a transitional region. The shedding frequencies of the tapered cylinder are lower than the corresponding two-dimensional cylinder. It is revealed in this paper that end plates of the tapered cylinder may lower the measured shedding frequency at both ends. The flow character around the small end has more influence on the wake character of the tapered cylinder in the transition region. This mechanism increases the critical Reynolds number of the tapered cylinder if the small end has no shedding.
The major purpose of this paper is to study the phenomena of wake flow of tapered cylinders at Reynolds number below 200. It is found in this work that there are two constant frequency wake regions at each end of the tapered cylinder. In-between is a transitional region. The shedding frequencies of the tapered cylinder are lower than the corresponding two-dimensional cylinder. It is revealed in this paper that end plates of the tapered cylinder may lower the measured shedding frequency at both ends. The flow character around the small end has more influence on the wake character of the tapered cylinder in the transition region. This mechanism increases the critical Reynolds number of the tapered cylinder if the small end has no shedding.