The work presented is a wind tunnel investigation of the highly curved, three-dimensional shear layers separating from the surfaces of hemispherical bluff bodies immersed in three different turbulent boundary layers. The thickness and growth rate of each shear layer is examined, over most of the region from separation to reattachment on the ground plane, and the influence of upstream conditions
... [Show full abstract] is assessed. In addition, the distributions of normal and shear stresses throughout the near wake region are reported.