In flow past a finite length circular cylinder, experimental data show that the presence of the free end appears to have significant effects on the surface pressure only in the range e > 50". The wake pressure is more negative near the free end but is normally still less negative than the two-dimensional flow value. The drag coefficient is spanwise position dependent and is larger near the free end. Both the spanwise and overall drag coefficients are lower than the two-dimensional flow drag coefficient. Regular vortex shedding can be detected only at the mounting board half of the hid = 8 cylinder and the corresponding Strouhal number is slightly smaller than the two-dimensional flow value.
Circular cylinder-is one of the most frequently encountered shapes in engineering applications including offshore and polar engineering applications. A good understanding of flow past circular cylinder (in the present paper from now on tlie word "circular" will be omitted for brevity and unless otherwise stated the word "cylinder" should be interpreted as meaning "circular cylinder") is therefore important. The above is despite the fact that due to the more complicated nature of the flow, more data will have to be collected and their interpretation will become a lot more difficult. Experiments conducted on flow past a single finite length cylinder include the work by Farivar (1981), Ayoub and Karamcheti (1982), Kawamura et al (1984), Uematsu (1986), Sin and So (1987), Saban et al (1989) and Saban and So (1991a and b) etc. The objective of the present paper is to supplement or make comparison with the information already available in the literature which include the papers mentioned above by carrying out further experimental measurements on the flow past a finite length cylinder, with special interest in the effects caused by the free end.
