D. Barkley, L.S. Tuckerman and M. Golubitsky

Biifurcation Theory for Three-Dimensional Flow in the Wake of a Circular Cylinder

Phys. Rev. E. 61 No. 5 (2000) 5247-5252



A bifurcation scenario is presented for three-dimensional vortex shedding in the wake of a circular cylinder for Reynolds numbers up to 300. Amplitude equations are proposed to describe the nonlinear interaction between two three-dimensional modes of shedding with different spanwise wavenumbers and different spatio-temporal symmetries. The amplitude equations explain many features of the transition scenario observed experimentally.