Blimp flow visualization

This shows the flow over a blimp shape. (Prolate spheroid of 1-2 aspect ratio.) The flow is visualized in a water tunnel.

The flow shows a line of separation around the body.  The flow behind the line of separation goes forward and up. Click on the picture for an mpeg movie. ( 1.2 MB)

The flow was computed for this flow as well. The result is shown below.

The computational fluid dynamics result was very close to the flow visualization. The line of separation was calculated accurately, as was most of the flow in the separated region. A computation of the symetry plane was done as well