# The flow past a freely rotating sphere

Fabre, David and Tchoufag, Joël and Citro, Vincenzo and Giannetti, Flavio and Luchini, Paolo The flow past a freely rotating sphere. (2017) Theoretical and Computational Fluid Dynamics, 31. 475-482. ISSN 0935-4964

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00162-016-0405-x

## Abstract

We consider the flow past a sphere held at a fixed position in a uniform incoming flow but free to rotate around a transverse axis. A steady pitchfork bifurcation is reported to take place at a threshold $$Re^\mathrm{OS}=206$$ leading to a state with zero torque but nonzero lift. Numerical simulations allow to characterize this state up to $$Re\approx 270$$ and confirm that it substantially differs from the steady-state solution which exists in the wake of a fixed, non-rotating sphere beyond the threshold $$Re^\mathrm{SS}=212$$. A weakly nonlinear analysis is carried out and is shown to successfully reproduce the results and to give substantial improvement over a previous analysis (Fabre et al. in J Fluid Mech 707:24–36, 2012). The connection between the present problem and that of a sphere in free fall following an oblique, steady (OS) path is also discussed.

Item Type: Article hal-03240776 International peer-reviewed journal French research institutions > Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - CNRS (FRANCE)Université de Toulouse > Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse - Toulouse INP (FRANCE)Université de Toulouse > Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier - UT3 (FRANCE)Other partners > University of California - UC Berkeley (USA)Other partners > Università degli Studi di Salerno - UniSa (ITALY) download 18 May 2021 14:49

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