Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 April 2006
Seeley, Hummel & Smith (1975) reported the results of experiments to study the dynamics of flow around spheres at intermediate Reynolds numbers using a nondisturbing flow-visualization technique. The flow patterns were recorded on ciné photographs and the information stored was processed in order to obtain the velocity field. The position of fluid elements shown by the photochromic indicator traces were estimated by eye on a projection screen. In this paper, a new set of results based on the same films has been reduced and computed using the ‘POLLY’ film-reading system described by Esmail, Smith & Hummel (1976). Some numerical boundary-layer solutions are included to show the reliability of the data, and comparisons with the results previously reported by Seeley et al. (1975) are presented.J. W. Smith will be pleased to send a complete set of experimental data on request.