Transitions to chaos in the wake of an axisymmetric bluff body

This Letter aims at understanding the dynamical process that leads to the onset of chaos in the flow past a blunt-based axisymmetric bluff body. On the basis of direct numerical simulations, conducted for Reynolds numbers ranging from 100 to 900, we show that the flow undergoes multiple transitions, successively giving rise to the SS, _RSPa${\mathrm{RSP}}_a$, _RSPb${\mathrm{RSP}}_b$, _RSPc${\mathrm{RSP}}_c$ and RSB wake states. In particular, the _RSPc${\mathrm{RSP}}_c$ state, revealed in this work via long-term computations, is characterized by intermittent vortex stretching denoting the onset of chaos before the symmetry breaking and the occurrence of the RSB state.