Abstract
The free turbulent shear flow behind a long axisymmetric cylinder, i.e., a wake, is two-dimensional in nature and is composed of inner shear turbulence and outer potential, irrotational flow (free stream) regions. The conventional definitions of wake width, lu, are based on the mean velocity field, namely, the first order statistics of turbulence. Two alternative definitions of wake width, lS = 2yS and lF = 2yF, are proposed in terms of skewness and flatness factors, respectively, which are considered as thirdand fourth-order statistics of turbulence in this study. Between these two new definitions of wake width, lF can represent the actual sectional range of shear turbulence in a wake.
