Flow past an impulsively started circular cylinder at high Reynolds number

The unsteady viscous incompressible flow around a circular cylinder is studied numerically for high Reynolds number. The two dimensional Navier-Stokes equation in stream function-vorticity formulation is solved. A fractional step method is used to solve the stream function equation while the vorticity transport equation is solved using a third order upwinding scheme. The computed solutions by the finite difference method agree reasonably well with the available experimental and other computational results at a Reynolds number of 9500 and 4500. These comparisons are for the initial stages of flow evolution when the wake bubble is symmetric.