Thephysicalmechanismforgenerationofstreamwisevortices(orribvortices)inthecylinderwakeisnumericallyinvestigatedwithafinite-differencescheme.Rayleigh’stheoryofcentrifugalinstabilityforinviscidaxisymmetricflowisextendedtoanalyzethe2-Dprimaryflows.Accordingly,ananalyticaldimensionlessgroupRay=-(r/vθ)■vθ/■r-1isderived,wherevθrepresentsthevelocityofafluidelementrelativetotheoncomingflow,risthelocalcurvatureradiusoftheelementpathline.CentrifugalinstabilityoccurswhenRay>0.StabilityanalysesarecarriedoutwiththisdiscriminantforprimaryflowsatdifferenttimelevelsinahalfsheddingperiodofthevonKarman(orvK)vortices.UnstableareasareidentifiedandthelocationsofribvorticesarecoincidentwellwiththeunstableareaswithinthefirstwavelengthofvKvorticesbehindthecylinder.Thenumericalresultsalsoshowthatribvorticesexperienceamplificationinthisregion.Itisapparentthatcentrifugalinstabilityplaysanimportantroleinthegenerationofribvorticesinthecylinderwake.
