Abstract
The turbulent flow around a sphere was investigated using two experimental techniques: smoke-wire flow visualization in wind tunnel at Re=5300, 11000 and PIV measurements in a circulating water channel. The smoke-wire visualization shows flow separation points near an azimuthal angle of $90^{\circ}$, recirculating flow, transition from laminar to turbulent shear layer, evolving vortex roll-up and fully turbulent eddies in the sphere wake. The mean velocity field measured using a PIV technique in x-y center plane demonstrates the detailed near-wake structure such as nearly symmetric recirculation region, two toroidal vortices, laminar separation, transition and turbulent eddies. The PIV measurements of turbulent wake in y-z planes show that a recirculating vortex pair dominates the near-wake region.