Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2006
This paper presents an inviscid bluff-body wake model which correctly takes into account the displacement effect of the far wake by means of an appropriate source–sink system located behind the body. The separating streamlines, which in previous inviscid wake models have been regarded as the time-averaged shear layers emanating from the separation points within a small distance downstream of the body, can be interpreted as the displacement surface of the wake throughout the whole region of flow behind the body. The solutions for a normal flat plate, a circular cylinder and a 90° wedge are worked out and compared with experiments, where possible. The theoretical pressure distributions agree fairly well with the experimental ones. The shape of the separating streamlines obtained from the present theory is physically reasonable and compares well with experimental results for a normal plate and a 90° wedge.