Vortex dynamics behind a self-oscillating inverted flag placed in a channel flow: Time-resolved particle image velocimetry measurements

The unsteady flow behind an inverted flag placed in a water channel and then excited into a self-oscillating state is measured using time-resolved particle image velocimetry. The dynamically deformed profiles of the inverted flag are determined by a novel algorithm that combines morphological image processing and principle component analysis. Three modes are discovered with the successive decrease in the dimensionless bending stiffness: the biased mode, the flapping mode, and the deflected mode. The distinctly different flow behavior is discussed in terms of instantaneous velocity field, phase-averaged vorticity field, time-mean flow field, and turbulent kinetic energy. The results demonstrated that the biased mode generated abundant vortices at the oscillating side of the inverted flag. In the deflected mode, the inverted flag is highly deflected to one side of the channel and remains almost stationary, inducing two stable recirculation zones and a considerably inversed flow between them. In the flapping mode, the strongly oscillating flag periodically provides a strengthened influence on the fluid near the two sidewalls. The reverse von Kármán vortex street is well formed and energetic in the wake, and a series of high-speed impingement jets between the neighboring vortices are directed toward the sidewalls in a staggered fashion.