Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 March 2006
Profiles of mean and fluctuating turbulent velocities and temperatures, of the time derivative of velocity and of intermittency have been measured in the wake of an unheated as well as a heated sphere in the low Reynolds number range 600–2500 at distances 80–1800 sphere diameters downstream. The wind-tunnel experiments exhibit a strong dependence on Reynolds number but they do not indicate the attainment of or an approach to the final period of turbulent decay which has been explored theoretically by Phillips and by O'Brien. The lowest turbulence Reynolds number obtained was Rλ, = 1·4.