Flow around cylinder has widely existed in hydraulic engineering,construction engineering,and environmental engineering.Based on the previous researches,this paper summarizes the flow patterns and the force characteristics of single cylinder,two cylinders,and cylinder group by the stages of analytical research,physical model and numerical simulation.It can be found that most researches focused on the flow patterns and the force characteristics of single cylinder or two cylinders.The further research of cylinder group under more complex situations should be carried out on marine risers,high-piled wharf and environmental engineering,and develops the active control technology to control wake characteristics effectively.