Yuelong Yu

School of Mechanical Engineering,

Gas Turbine Research Institute,
Shanghai Jiao Tong University,
800 Dongchuan Road,
Shanghai 200240, China
e-mail: yuyuelong@sjtu.edu.cn
Yingzheng Liu1
School of Mechanical Engineering,
Gas Turbine Research Institute,
Shanghai Jiao Tong University,
800 Dongchuan Road,
Shanghai 200240, China
e-mail: yzliu@sjtu.edu.cn
Xavier Amandolese
LadHyX,
CNRS-Ecole Polytechnique,
Palaiseau, F-91128, France;
Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers,
Paris F-75141, France
e-mail: xavier.amandolese@ladhyx.polytechnique.fr
A Review on Fluid-Induced
Flag Vibrations
Fluid-induced flag vibrations provide unattended, efficient, low-cost, and scalable solu-
tions for energy harvesting to power distributed wireless sensor nodes, heat transfer
enhancement in channel flow, and mixing enhancement in process industries. This review
surveys three generic configurations, the inverted flag, the standard flag, and the forced
flag, i.e., an inverted or standard flag located downstream of a bluff body. Their instabil-
ity boundaries, vibration dynamics, and vortex dynamics are compared in a unified
framework to elucidate their common and distinct features and provide insights into
the design of vibrating flags for various applications. Some common features are also
identified and analyzed for describing the interaction between multiple flags, three-
dimensional (3D) effects, and Reynolds number effects. The suggestions are intended to
guide future research directions. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4042446]
Keywords: fluid-induced vibration, flag, vortex dynamics, energy harvesting, mixing
enhancement

1 Introduction configurations share the same governing equations and parameters

but have different boundary conditions. (a) The inverted flag is
Fluid-induced vibrations of flexible flags are of continuing and
clamped at its trailing edge, and its leading edge is free to vibrate.
intense interest in nature and industry applications. The traditional
The flapping dynamics of the inverted flag were first investigated
motivations focused on mitigating fluid-induced vibrations, and flex-
by Kim et al. [19]. The periodic formation and shedding of the
ible flags interacting with axial flow often served as basic models to
leading edge vortex (LEV) and trailing edge vortex (TEV) from
study the flutter of paper during printing presses [1], snoring induced
the deformed inverted flag alter the fluid force on the inverted
by the soft palate in the human upper airway [2], panel flutter in aer-
flag, which leads to large-amplitude periodic vibrations, provided
onautics [3], and nuclear engineering [4]. However, an active area of
the fluid force is well coupled with the bending force of the
research is the utilization of fluid-induced flag vibrations. By explor-
inverted flag. This typical vortex-induced vibration can be
ing their nonlinear motions with large vibration amplitudes and
observed for a light inverted flag, lock-in with the vortex-
deflections, flexible flags of different configurations [5–7] have been
shedding frequency [20] or its higher harmonic fluid response
widely developed to harvest energy from wind or ocean flow in
[21,22], while for a heavy inverted flag, the vortex shedding can
order to power unattended sensor nodes since the early work of
be responsible for the vibration around the flag’s natural fre-
Allen and Smits [8] and Taylor et al. [9], or serve as autonomous
quency [21]. In that context, the fluid-induced vibration of the
flow sensors simultaneously [10]. Abundant vortices that are gener-
inverted flag can be often associated with the vortex shedding
ated by the interaction between vibrating flags with the channel flow
excitation mechanism and thus to an IIE. Under this scenario, the
are favorable for enhancing heat transfer in electronics [11,12] or
nature of vibration of the inverted flag is self-controlled [23]. It
enhancing mixing in massive process industries [13]. The transfer
should be noted that the vortex-induced vibration is the most stud-
enhancement based on fluid-induced flag vibration has been investi-
ied scenario for the inverted flag; however, vortex shedding is not
gated for the past 5 years. Fluid-induced vibrations in flexible flags
significant for small-deflection flapping [21]. (b) The standard flag
serve as renewable, sustainable, and economical solutions for energy
is fixed at its leading edge and is free at its trailing edge. The ear-
harvesting or transfer enhancement. Moreover, knowledge into
liest study on instability and flapping dynamics of the standard
fluid-induced flag vibrations also helps in understanding the flapping
flag goes back to Taneda [24], and extensive literature has been
locomotion of aquatic animals and birds, these problems both
produced to address the instability mechanism since the work of
involve an unsteady balance between inertial forces, body elasticity,
Zhang et al. [25]. The instability in the standard flag occurs due to
and dynamic pressure of fluid flow [14,15], as well as the interaction
the positive feedback of flag’s inertial force with its elastic force
of vortices with a dynamically deformed body [16].
and fluid force. The movement of the standard flag increases the
Fluid-induced vibrations are generally classified into three
aerodynamic load, which in turn drives the standard flag to
categories in terms of the excitation sources, namely, instability-
increase its displacement until an optimal energy exchange with a
induced excitation (IIE), movement-induced excitation (MIE),
right timescale between the two domains is reached. This instabil-
and extraneously induced excitation (EIE) according to Nau-
ity is termed as flutter, and can be associated with the MIE mecha-
dascher and Rockwell [17] and Paidoussis [18]. With regard to the
nism. The nature of the vibration is self-excited vibration. (c) An
main dynamics that can be observed for the three representative
inverted or standard flag can also be forced into vibration by
configurations of flexible flags, namely, the inverted flag, the
upstream fluctuations in the flow velocity and pressure. This EIE
standard flag, and the flag behind a bluff body, the same classifica-
is generally induced by periodic vortices shedding from an
tion will be used here, as shown in Fig. 1. These three
upstream bluff body, such as circular cylinder [26], square cylin-
der [27], D-cylinder [28], and rectangular plate [7,8].
1 Abundant vibration dynamics and vortex dynamics have been
Corresponding author.
Manuscript received July 5, 2018; final manuscript received December 25, 2018; reported separately in the literature for numerous parameters
published online January 31, 2019. Editor: Harry Dankowicz. describing fluid-induced vibrations in flags. The important fluid

Applied Mechanics Reviews Copyright V

C 2019 by ASME JANUARY 2019, Vol. 71 / 010801-1
 Fig. 1 Classification of flow-induced flag vibrations

flow parameters are the flow velocity, pressure, kinematic viscos- 2 Mathematical Formulation
ity, and fluid density. And the important structural parameters are
Incompressible viscous fluid flow is described by the
the bending stiffness, length, width, thickness, and flag density.
Navier–Stokes equations and the continuity equation
Coupled vibration dynamics and vortex dynamics are character-
ized by the vibration mode, vibration amplitude, vibration @u 1
frequency, vortex shedding frequency, evolution, and interaction þ ðu  rÞu ¼  ðrpÞ þ r2 u (1)
between vortices, and a dynamically vibrating flag. A unified @t qf
framework for summarizing the features of vibration dynamics
and vortex dynamics in terms of the three distinct mechanisms of ru¼0 (2)
instability and their dependencies on the system parameters is still
lacking. Previous surveys in this series [29,30] have been limited Assuming the flag is sufficiently thin, shear stresses involving the
to the instability in the standard flag. The aim of this review is to normal direction and rotational inertia about tangential directions
comprehensively study the various mechanisms of fluid-induced are ignored [31]. The centerline of the flag is considered to be
vibrations in flags. In particular, a unified framework is provided inextensible. The thickness and the bending rigidity of the flag
to present the instability and vibration modes of various flag are uniform. Accordingly, the relationship between the two-
configurations in the same parameter space, derive the laws dimensional (2D) deflection of a flag and the applied fluid load is
describing vibration dynamics and vortex dynamics and their rela- derived from Newton’s second law [32]
tionships, as well as elucidate their unique features. This frame-    
work sheds light on the design of fluid-induced vibrations in flags @4X @2X @ @X @X @ @4X
B 4 þ qs h 2  T þ þl ¼ Dpn
for applications such as energy harvesting, heat transfer enhance- @s @t @s @s @t @t @s4
ment, and mixing enhancement. (3)
The organization of this review is as follows: The dimension-
less parameters are first derived from the mathematical formula- where s is the curvilinear coordinate and the vector X ¼ (X(s, t),
tions and theoretical methods that address the coupled Y(s, t)) denotes the displacement of the flag. B is the bending
formulations are reviewed in Sec. 2. The instability boundary for rigidity of flag. qs and h are the density and thickness of flag,
different types of fluid-induced vibrations in the space of dimen- respectively. T is the tension force along the flag axis, which
sionless parameters and the dynamic vibrations in terms of fre- enforces inextensibility and is a function of s and t. The terms that
quency and vibration amplitude are analyzed in Secs. 3 and 4, are proportional to the fluid damping coefficient  and the internal
respectively. Section 5 summarizes the vortex dynamics and their damping coefficient l model dissipation due to the fluid viscosity
dependencies on the vibration dynamics. The effects of three- and the Kelvin–Voigt structural damping, respectively. Dp is the
dimensionality and Reynolds number are examined in Sec. 6. The pressure jump across the flag, which is imparted by the surround-
main interaction features between multiple flags are illustrated in ing fluid. n is the unit vector normal to the flag.
Sec. 7. Finally, the applications of fluid-induced flag vibrations The structural influence is imparted to the fluid through the
are addressed in Sec. 8. It is worth noting that the flag is employed velocity boundary condition on the flag boundary
in the review to refer to various terminologies in the list of refer-
ences, including plate, reed, filament, strip, membrane, beam,
sheet, shell, web, ribbon belt, and panel. A plate emphasizes a flag @X
u¼ (4)
with high bending stiffness, membrane refers to a flag with low @t
bending stiffness, strip or ribbon denotes slender flag with low
aspect ratio, filament means the span is zero, and reed refers to a The boundary condition of the free edge of the flag, i.e., the trail-
flag in channel flow. Nonetheless, these terminologies are inter- ing edge of the standard flag at s ¼ L and the leading edge of the
changeable, and flag is used to encompass all the models with one inverted flag at s ¼ 0, is given by
edge fixed and the other edges free to oscillate. In addition, IIE
and MIE henceforth are used to refer to the configurations of the
inverted and standard flags in undisturbed flow, respectively. EIE @2X @3X
¼ 3 ¼0 (5)
denotes either an inverted or standard flag behind a bluff body. @s2 @s

010801-2 / Vol. 71, JANUARY 2019 Transactions of the ASME

The standard flag is fixed at the leading edge (s ¼ 0), while the while a low KB value suggests a more flexible flag or high
inverted flag is fixed at the trailing edge (s ¼ L). The fixed edge flow speed. The tension T  that originates from the viscosity effect
of a flag satisfies clamped or pinned boundary conditions, which of a boundary layer can be modeled empirically [33,34] or
are, respectively, given by expressed as a function of Ms and KB [35]. Meanwhile, the tension
is generally neglected for inviscid flow assumption [36]. Most
@X studies exclude the effects of gravity that would also contribute
X¼ ¼0 (6)
@s to the tension in flag [34,37]. The dissipative properties are
3=2 1=2
characterized by two coefficients   ¼ q2 f ðqs hÞ B and
@2X
X¼ ¼0 (7) l ¼ lq2f ðqs hÞ5=2 B1=2 [38]. The fluid damping and structural
@s2 viscoelastic damping are neglected in the models of inviscid fluid
The inlet fluid velocity is uniform or parabolic in channel flow for and perfectly elastic material [39,40].
IIE and MIE, while the inlet fluid velocity is oscillating for EIE. The reduced flow velocity U and flow-to-mass ratio Mf are
By scaling distance with the length of the flag L, time with L/U, also commonly used in the literature, which are defined as
and pressure difference with qf U 2 , where qf is the density of fluid [34,36,41]
and U is the free-stream velocity of flow, Eq. (3) can be written in rffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
nondimensional form as qs h qf L
U  ¼ LU ; Mf ¼ (10)
  B qs h
@ 4 X @ 2 X @ @X 1=2 @X
KB 4 þ Ms 2   T   þ KB Ms3=2    where U 
is the ratio of the flag’s free vibration characteristic
@s @t @s @s @t pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
  2
time L qs h=B to the characteristic time of the fluid flow L/U. In
1=2 5=2  @ @ 4 X
þ KB Ms l  ¼ Dp n (8) order to compare the data in a consistent framework and summa-
@t @s4 rize these laws, the above parameters are converted to KB and Ms
as follows:
The two key nondimensional parameters are defined as

B qs h Ms 1
KB ¼ ; Ms ¼ (9) KB ¼ ; Ms ¼ (11)
qf U 2 L3 qf L U 2 Mf

where KB is the ratio of the flag’s bending force to the fluid’s iner- Theoretical studies that solve the fluid–structure interaction
tial force. A high KB value denotes a stiff flag or low flow speed, system are summarized in Table 1. The immersed boundary (IB)

Table 1 Theoretical studies to solve fluid-induced flag vibrations

Flow-induced Method to solve

vibration type fluid–structure interaction Fluid model Structure model Author

IIE Immersed boundary method Incompressible viscous N–S Nonlinear 3D Tang et al. [42], Gilmanov et al. [43]
equations Nonlinear 2D Huang et al. [44], Goza et al. [21], Goza and
Colonius [45], Park et al. [12], Ryu et al. [22]
Theoretical linear stability Incompressible viscous N–S Linear 2D Goza et al. [21]
analysis equations
MIE Immersed boundary method Incompressible viscous N–S Nonlinear 3D Huang and Sung [37]
equations Nonlinear 2D Lee and Choi [46], Akcabay and Young [47],
Goza and Colonius [45]
Linear 2D Huang et al. [48], Zhu and Peskin [49]
Coupled fluid–structure direct Incompressible viscous N–S Nonlinear 3D Banerjee et al. [50]
simulation equations Nonlinear 2D Cisonni et al. [51], Connell and Yue [33]
Linear 1D Balint and Lucey [52]
Combined vortex sheet and Potential flow Linear 2D Michelin et al. [53]
discrete point vortex model Linear 1D Howell et al. [54]
Linear/nonlinear vortex sheet Potential flow Nonlinear 2D Wang et al. [55], Alben [56], Alben and
model Shelley [39]
Linear 1D Shoele and Mittal [57], Yamaguchi et al. [58]
Linear/nonlinear vortex Potential flow Nonlinear 2D Chen et al. [59], Attar et al. [60], Zhao et al. [61],
lattice model Tang and Paidoussis [34]
Nonlinear 1D Dunnmon et al. [62], Tang et al. [3]
Linear 1D Gibbs et al. [63], Eloy et al. [36]
Theoretical linear stability Incompressible viscous N–S Linear 2D Goza and Colonius [64]
analysis equations
Potential flow Linear 1D Eloy et al. [40], Guo and Paidoussis [4],
Kornecki et al. [65], Jia et al. [66]
Potential flow (Theodorsen’s Linear 1D Argentina and Mahadevan [67], Huang [2]
approximation)
Potential flow (slender-body Linear 1D Lemaitre et al. [68], Datta and Gottenberg [69]
approximation)
EIE Immersed boundary methods Incompressible viscous N–S Linear 1D Pan et al. [28]
equations
Arbitrary Incompressible viscous N–S Nonlinear 2D De Nayer et al. [70], H€
ubner et al. [71]
Lagrangian–Eulerian method equations
Theoretical linear stability Potential flow (Theodorsen’s Linear 1D Manela and Howe [72]
analysis approximation)

Applied Mechanics Reviews JANUARY 2019, Vol. 71 / 010801-3

method, arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) method, and
coupled fluid–structure direct simulation are three methods that
can be used to solve the fluid-structure interaction with the incom-
pressible viscous N–S equations. Those methods facilitate detailed
predictions of the flow field and vortex dynamics. The ALE
method is “well suited for simulating high Reynolds number flows
due to its inherent body-fitted mesh structure that conforms to
boundaries at all times” [43]. However, the ALE method is lim-
ited to mild deformations, since frequent remeshing is required to
“prevent the mesh from becoming severely distorted when large
deformations develop” [43]. As a result, the ALE method has only
been employed to model the forced flag with relatively low vibra-
tion amplitude. For coupled fluid–structure direct simulation, fluid
dynamics are solved by discretizing the N–S and continuity equa-
tions onto a grid fitted to the deformable solid body. Two separate
flow solver and structural solver require solving the velocity and
pressure fields iteratively in the flow together with iteratively solv-
ing for the position of the solid, and every update in the solid’s
position also requires updating the grid for the fluid [33]. The
immersed boundary method is efficient since entire simulation
can be carried out with a fixed Cartesian grid without boundary
conforming, and the structure motion equation and fluid motion
equation are solved separately by adding an interaction momen-
tum force term [49]. It does not require remeshing and can readily
handle arbitrarily large deformations. However, both the coupled
fluid–structure direct simulation and IB method are generally lim-
ited to low Reynolds numbers on the order of a few hundred to
thousand. Large Reynolds numbers are prohibitively expensive
because very fine grids are required in the flow field. Scare
attempts have been made to extend the IB method to Re  105
“using wall models for reconstructing boundary conditions at the
immersed boundary nodes” based on large-eddy simulation of tur-
bulent flows [43]. Recently, a global stability analysis based on
the linearization of the fully coupled fluid-structure system of
equations has been performed for the standard flag [64] and the
inverted flag [21], the critical KB is accurately predicted for a
wide range of Ms . The flags suffer unstable equilibria that broadly
lead to nonlinear, limit-cycle oscillations, typically through Hopf
bifurcations that can be either subcritical or supercritical depend-
ing on the parameter regime [21,38,64].
Flow separation occurs along IIE and EIE. Therefore, viscous
flow is essential for simulating the postcritical behaviors of these
types of fluid-induced flag vibrations. However, experimental
results for the standard flag demonstrate that the flow remains
attached to the dynamically deformed flag for high KB and Ms in
vibration mode 2, which justifies the employment of potential
flow theories [1,73]. However, the vortex methods and panel
methods in potential flow, including vortex sheet model, vortex
lattice model, combined vortex sheet, and discrete point vortex
model, normally fail to deal with the interactions of vortices and
flags. For a theoretical linear stability analysis that aims to predict
the onset of vibration behavior, the slender-body approximation
and Theodorsen’s approximation further simplify fluid loading in
the model. The slender-body approximation is derived under the
assumption that the flag has low aspect ratio. Theodorsen’s
approximation is derived in the limit of small deformations when
the vertical velocity is nearly constant. Since infinitesimal distur-
bances are assumed, vortex shedding from the trailing edge and
the flag boundary conditions is neglected. Thus, the linear stability
analysis only provides results on critical KB values that are quali-
tatively consistent with the experimental results, rather than the
nonlinear effect in the postcritical region where the disturbance
fully develops [66]. Theodorsen’s approach has also been used to
model fluid in the linearized motion of the flag under EIE, where
vortex shedding from the upstream bluff body was modeled as a
linear vortex sheet [72]. Future developments of theoretical mod-
els require amending the effects of vortex–body interactions.
The structural model of a flag is numerically solved by
using the finite difference method [28] or finite element method
[43,44,51]. For potential flow, the structural equation can be
010801-4 / Vol. 71, JANUARY 2019
solved theoretically by modal analysis; see, for instance, the
Galerkin method [34,40].
3 Instability Boundary
The foremost problem of fluid-induced vibrations in flags is the
instability boundary. The instability boundaries and vibration
modes in IIE, MIE, and EIE are displayed in the parameter space
(Ms , KB ) shown in Fig. 2. The instability region of IIE is concen-
trated between 0:1 ⱗ KB ⱗ 0:4. The inverted flag is first straight at
KB ⲏ 0:4. When KB decreases to 0:3 ⱗ KB ⱗ 0:4, the inverted flag
vibrates asymmetrically in the biased mode, as shown in Fig. 2(a).
Symmetric large amplitude vibration occurs in the flapping mode
for 0:1 ⱗ KB ⱗ 0:3, as shown in Fig. 2(b). This flapping mode for
the inverted flag resembles the first mode of a vibrating cantilever
beam in vacuo [74]. The inverted flag shows large deflections in
Fig. 2(c) as KB decreases to KB ⱗ 0:1; which results in a limited
region for the flapping mode. The instability boundary is well cap-
tured by the global stability analysis [21]. The minor dependence
of instability on Ms is shown for IIE, except two minor differences
as Ms increases from O(103 ) to O(1). This results in a narrower
or absent-biased mode with a steeper transition from straight to
flapping mode for a higher Ms value and an extension of the flap-
ping mode to slightly lower KB values. A further decrease of KB
to the instability regime of MIE for the standard flag would flip
the inverted flag by 180deg, and the inverted flag vibrates as the
standard flag in the flipped-flapping mode, as shown in Fig. 2(d)
[42,75].
The instability of MIE occurs at lower KB value compared to
that of IIE, which suggests that the standard flag vibrates with
larger inertial force of fluid than the inverted flag. In contrast to
the minor dependency of the instability boundary on Ms for IIE,
Ms plays an important role in determining the instability boundary
and vibration dynamics of the standard flag because MIE origi-
nates from the interaction between the flag’s inertia, the fluid
dynamic pressure force, and the flexural rigidity of flag. The criti-
cal KB value for MIE has a general tendency to increase with Ms ,
which means a heavy or short flag corresponds to an extended
unstable region of KB , as indicated in Eq. (9). A close examination
of the instability boundary reveals that the critical KB value is
characterized by a cascade of modal branches, which results from
the transitions of vibration modes. The first branch at Ms ⲏ 0:7
corresponds to mode 2 (i.e., the single-neck mode) of the
standard flag, as shown in Fig. 2(e). For example, KB ¼
2:5  102 when Ms ¼ 2 [53], KB ¼ 1:11  102 when Ms ¼ 1:41
[76], KB ¼ 5:3  103 when Ms ¼ 0.83 [34]. The standard flag
never vibrates in the first mode because the mode always appears
to be stable [32,40]. For the second branch (0.3 ⱗ Ms ⱗ 0.7) and
third branch (0:1 ⱗ Ms ⱗ 0.3), mode 3 with one node in the flag
profile (see Fig. 2(f)) and mode 4 with two nodes (see Fig. 2(g))
are observed, respectively, in the middle of those branches
[24,51]. Those single structure modes are close to the in vacuo
eigenmode shape. For the transition regions of the branches, the
flow interacts with two modes competing against each other. As a
result, the flag undergoes mixed modal motion [51] or modal coa-
lescence [54]. The combination of modes 3 and 4 (or double-neck
mode) shown in Fig. 2(h) occurs due to the intersections
between the second branch of mode 3 and third branch of mode 4,
as reported by Souilliez et al. [76] for Ms ¼ 0:54 and
KB ¼ 4:75  103 , and by Michelin et al. [53] for Ms ¼ 0.33 and
KB ¼ 2:3  103 . The interaction between mode 4 with the higher
order mode results in a combination of modes 4 and 5 with three
necks in Fig. 2(i), as given by Michelin et al. [53] for Ms ¼ 0.1
and KB ¼ 7  104 . More inflections (necks or nodes) are present
along the standard flag for a lower Ms value, i.e., for a longer or
lighter flag. Mode 5 and higher order modes or chaos occur for
Ms < 0:1.
The theoretical models [67,77] fit the critical KB of MIE for a
limited range of Ms and fail to capture the modal branches. The
inviscid models [36,39,41,53,56,57,78] predict the instability
Transactions of the ASME
 Fig. 2 Instability boundaries and IIE, MIE, and EIE vibration modes
boundary fairly well for high Ms values. Because flow visualiza-
tions show that the flow remains attached to the vibrating flag in
mode 2 [73], the potential flow theories, which consider the non-
linear effect of large geometric deflections are capable of captur-
ing the flow fields around the flag. However, the critical KB value
is overestimated by the inviscid models for Ms < 0.2, the origin of
the mismatch is still an open question. By comparison, simula-
tions that incorporate the viscous effect show an instability bound-
ary that is more consistent with the experimental results for
Ms < 0.2 [33,51]. Both the potential theories and simulations that
consider the viscous effect qualitatively predict the modal
branches of the instability boundary, but obvious quantitative dis-
crepancies exist in the divisions of the modal branches, which
require improved numerical methods. Note that the hysteresis
effect, which means the critical KB value is higher in a Re-
increasing process compared to that in a Re-decreasing process, is
extensively reported in experimental results rather than in simula-
tions. This is mainly attributed to the unavoidable planeity defects
of a flag that stiffen the flag in the Re-increasing process during
experiments, while the planeity defects are ironed out once the
flag vibrates [38,79]. The critical KB value in the Re-decreasing
process is reproducible and is used when comparing the instability
boundary from experimental and numerical results that neglect
the planeity defects.
The vortices and fluctuating flow due to the upstream bluff
body force an inverted flag or standard flag to vibrate for higher
KB value than the instability boundary of IIE and MIE. The flags
are forced into the first mode for large KB (see, for example,
KB ¼ 1:17 and Ms ¼ 2.19 [80] for the inverted flag shown in
Fig. 2(j), and the standard flag shown in Fig. 2(k) [7,28,43]). A
Applied Mechanics Reviews
low Ms value favors EIE because the damping of the flag is rela-
tively low. Consequently, the flag responds rapidly to the undulat-
ing wake from the upstream bluff body. For a low Ms value at
KB < 0:05, the standard flag follows the unsteady pressure field
setup by vortex shedding, vibrates with its wavelength and fre-
quency close to that of the vortex shedding, and shows a trailing
wave along the flag [8,27,70,72,81–83]. This is distinctly different
from MIE, where the standard flag is more difficult to flutter by
MIE for a low Ms value, as indicated by the low critical KB value.
Copper strips have been adhered along a standard flag to increase
its Ms value in water so that the standard flag is capable of vibrat-
ing by MIE [77]. Although the EIE configuration can be imple-
mented in the instability region for IIE and MIE, IIE and MIE
dominate while EIE slightly modulates the vibration dynamics of
the inverted or standard flag, thus causing their motions to be
more irregular [7,26]. Therefore, the instability regime for EIE
complements the IIE and MIE margins in the parameter space
(Ms , KB ), but EIE is not recommended in the instability regime of
MIE or IIE for any application.
4 Vibration Dynamics
The vibration dynamics of the inverted, standard, and forced
flags obey distant laws due to the various mechanisms of fluid-
induced flag vibrations. This is reflected from the correlation
between the vibration frequency and amplitude, as illustrated in
Fig. 3. The frequency is normalized by
fA
StA ¼ (12)
U
JANUARY 2019, Vol. 71 / 010801-5
 Fig. 3 Correlation between the vibration frequency and amplitude for IIE, MIE, and EIE flags
where f is the vibration frequency and A is the tip-to-tip vibration
amplitude of flag. The tip-to-tip vibration amplitude is normalized
by the length of flag. The increase of A/L is related to a decrease
in KB , which is generally realized by increasing the flow velocity
U for a certain flag.
The maximum flapping amplitude A/L for the inverted flag in
IIE reaches up to 1.6–1.9, which is approximately two times of
that for the standard flag in MIE (A=L  0:9), and larger than two
times of that for EIE (A/L < 0.8). The flapping amplitude is
proportional to the curvature and strain along the flag, and large
flapping amplitude is favorable for applications such as energy
harvesting [22]. For IIE, StA initially increases as A/L increases
from around 0.9 to around 1.5. As A/L tends to saturate, a further
decrease in KB leads to a slight increase in A/L and a drop in StA
[19,22,42]. Although the instability boundary shows little depend-
ency on Ms for IIE, as shown in Fig. 2, StA varies from 0.07 to
0.37 with Ms for a fixed KB value [75]. StA is an important indica-
tor for vortex dynamics, which will be illustrated in Sec. 5.
In the postcritical region of the standard flag in MIE, the
evolution of StA with A/L is collapsed onto the line with a slope
StL  0:23 for heavy flags (Ms > 1) [34,37,60,62,84], where the
slope in the parameter space of (A/L, StA ) denotes
fL
StL ¼ (13)
U only 9.54% of the critical KB ) for Ms ¼ 0.15 [39]. The chaotic
This means that the dimensionless frequency has no vibration
amplitude dependence. The linear aerodynamic model in
Dunnmon et al. [62] underestimates the slope StL . In contrast, the
nonlinear aerodynamic model in Tang and Paidoussis [34] faith-
fully fits the experimental results. The value StL  0:23 repre-
sents mode 2 of the standard flag. This vibration mode
corresponds to a large range of KB below the instability boundary
for large Ms values (see, for example, 8:7  103 < KB <
1:85  102 for Ms ¼ 3 [26]). When Ms ¼ 0:7–1 [59,85], the
standard flag flutters in mode 2 when KB is close the critical KB
value and StL ¼ 0:23 for A/L < 0.5. However, a sudden deviation
of (A/L, StA ) from the line StL ¼ 0:23 is noted for larger A/L due
to a further decrease of KB far from the critical KB value. The
increased slope corresponds to a transition of the vibration mode
010801-6 / Vol. 71, JANUARY 2019
from mode 2 to higher order modes. Chen et al. [59] have
reported that mode 2 occurs at KB ¼ 0:01, mode 3 occurs
at KB ¼ 3:7  103 , mode 3 and 4 are combined at
KB ¼ 1:6  103 , and mode 4 occurs at KB ¼ 1:3  103 for a
flag with Ms ¼ 1. Virot et al. [85] reported that mode 2, combined
mode 3 and 4, combined mode 4 and 5, and chaotic vibration
arise in sequence with a successive decrease in KB for Ms ¼ 0:72.
For the light flag in the second branch of the instability boundary
(0:3 ⱗ Ms ⱗ 0:7), mode 3 or combined modes 3 and 4 are initi-
ated at instability boundary with large StA  0:26. The vibration
amplitude A/L and StA increase as KB decreases, and the flag tran-
sits to mode 4 or combined modes 4 and 5 in the postcritical
region, as shown for Ms ¼ 0:35 and 0.4 in Virot et al. [85]. A/L
reduces to A/L < 0.7 due to augmented inflections along the flag
in the higher order modes compared to mode 2. The Strouhal
number for various vibration modes collapses to around
0.21–0.23 when the length between the trailing edge to its nearest
node is taken as the characteristic length [24,86]. Michelin et al.
[53] reported that the combined modes 3 and 4 retain in the near
postcritical region 2:3  103  KB  3:6  103 for Ms ¼ 0:33,
while chaotic flapping occurs for ultralow KB  1:5  103 . In
the third branch of the instability boundary 0:1 ⱗ Ms ⱗ 0:3, cha-
otic vibrations are extensively reported in the postcritical regime,
e.g., at KB ¼ 1  104 [33] and at KB ¼ 3:125  104 (which is
flapping mode is characterized by irregular vibration with no
apparent dominant frequency, but rather a wide range of excited
frequencies in the flag bending energy spectrum. The loss of peri-
odicity arises from the nonlinear interactions between higher
order modes of comparable frequencies [87–89]. The slope StL
further increases for the flag when Ms < 0:1, and the vibration
amplitude reduces to A/L < 0.3 [77].
The criterion for assessing how well the flag couples with the
vortices from the upstream bluff body in EIE is to examine the
ratio of the flag’s vibration frequency and the vortex shedding fre-
quency. The resonance of the flag’s vibration frequency with the
vortex shedding frequency is defined as
ðStL  D=LÞ=StD ¼ 1 (14)
Transactions of the ASME

where StD ¼ fv D=U is the Strouhal number for vortex shedding
from the bluff body, fv is the vortex shedding frequency from the
upstream bluff body, and D is the characteristic length of the bluff
body. StD is constant for plenty of bluff bodies over a wide Reyn-
olds number range, such as StD ¼ 0.2 for a circular cylinder [90],
StD ¼ 0.13 for a rectangular cylinder, and StD ¼ 0.15 for a plate
[91]. The EIE results are dispersed in the parameter space (A/L,
StA ) for various bluff bodies and flags, StA reaches up to 0.85
when A/L ¼ 0.44 in Allen and Smits [8], while StA is approxi-
mately 0.33 when A/L ¼ 0.75 in Shi et al. [82]. However, (A/L,
StA ) in EIE evolves around the corresponding line of ðStL 
D=LÞ=StD ¼ 1 for every experimental set of EIE, as indicated by
the dotted or dashed lines in Fig. 3. (A/L, StA ) is below ðStL 
D=LÞ=StD ¼ 1 for low A/L [8,27,82,92], which suggests that the
vibrating frequency is lower than that of the vortex shedding fre-
quency due to the high damping effect at large KB value. The von
Karman vortex street becomes strong enough to overcome the
damping effect of the flag as KB decreases. Consequently, the flag
responds rapidly to the undulating wake from the bluff body, and
the vibration frequency of the flag locks-in with the shredding fre-
quency of von Karman vortex street, as indicated by the (A/L, StA )
values that fall on the lines defined by ðStL  D=LÞ=StD ¼ 1. This
kind of resonance between the flag and the undulating wake of the
bluff body leads to a large vibration amplitude A/L that is close to
the natural wake width of the upstream bluff body [8]. Moreover,
the phase speed of the traveling wave along the standard flag is
also close to the convection speed of the vortices [92].
5 Vortex Dynamics
5.1 Uniform Flow. The inverted and standard flags are used
as vortex generators for the applications such as convective heat
transfer enhancement or mixing enhancement, which requires
examining the vortex dynamics of the flags. Although the inverted
flag vibrates in mode 1 in the flapping mode, various vortex pat-
terns have been reported separately in the literature for various
vibration amplitudes and frequencies of the inverted flag. A
framework for understanding the relationships between the vortex
dynamics and flag vibration dynamics is lacking in the literature.
Figure 4 shows that the dependency of vortex patterns on StA is
Fig. 4 Vortex dynamics interacting with the inverted flag in the flapping mode under uniform
flow, ((a) and (b)) from Goza et al. [21], Shoele and Mittal [93], and Ryu et al. [22], (c) from Ryu
et al. [22], ((d) and (e)) from Gurugubelli and Jaiman [75]
Applied Mechanics Reviews
well established. Every cycle of the inverted flag comprises two
strokes, a LEV followed by a TEV shed in each stroke for large
StA ¼ 0:22  0:34. Consequently, two pairs of counter-rotating
LEV and TEV convect downstream toward two sides of the
inverted flag in every cycle as shown in Fig. 4(a); thus, the flow
mode is termed the two pairs (2P) mode. The vortex mode was
described by Goza et al. [21] at StA ¼ 0:28  0:36, by Ryu et al.
[22] at StA ¼ 0:26, and by Shoele and Mittal [93] at StA ¼0.22.
As StA reduces to 0.13–0.19, a secondary LEV (L2) forms behind
the TEV during every stroke apart from a pair of LEV and
TEV, as shown in Fig. 4(b). Therefore, two pairs plus two single
vortices shed in every cycle, i.e., the 2P þ 2S mode, as reported
by Ryu et al. [22] at StA ¼ 0:19, by Shoele and Mittal [93] at
StA ¼ 0:17 and StA ¼ 0:13, and by Goza et al. [21] at StA ¼ 0:18.
Figure 4(c) shows that a secondary TEV follows the secondary
LEV at StA ¼ 0:12, thus forming the 4P mode [22]. More vortices
are generated with a further decrease in StA to 0.1 and 0.08, thus
generating 4P þ 2S mode and 6P þ 2S mode in Figs. 4(d)
and 4(e), respectively [75]. With this framework, the vortex pat-
terns are inferred directly from the vibration dynamics of the
inverted flag by StA . StA is the ratio of two velocities as defined by
Eq. (12), where fA is the average speed of the inverted flag’s lead-
ing edge, and U is the flow velocity. For low StA , the flow velocity
is fast relative to the velocity of the inverted flag and vortices are
generated quickly. Therefore, more vortices have time to grow in
every cycle. Although Ryu et al. [22] proposed StL as an indicator
of the vortex patterns and the 2P, 2P þ 2S, and 4P modes occurred
in sequence as StL decreases in their simulations, the 4P þ 2S
mode in Gurugubelli and Jaiman [75] occurred at higher StL ¼
0:1 than that of 4P mode at StL ¼ 0:07 in Ryu et al. [22]. The
disagreement occurs because a fixed length L is selected as the
characteristic length in StL as shown in Eq. (13), regardless of
the flapping dynamics. In contrast, StA ¼ StL  A=L adequately
considers the interaction between the flapping dynamics and the
vortex dynamics. Moreover, the 2P mode occurs in a large inter-
val of StA around 0.12, the 2P þ 2S mode occurs for a range of
StA values around 0.6. The modes with more vortices in 4P,
4P þ 2S, and 6P þ 2S modes correspond to a narrower range of
StA  0:02. The 6P mode has not been reported so far, probably
due to its corresponding narrow range of StA . However, it is con-
jectured that the 6P mode exists between the 4P þ 2S mode at
JANUARY 2019, Vol. 71 / 010801-7
StA ¼ 0:1 and the 6P þ 2S mode at StA ¼ 0:08. Further work is
required to validate this conjecture and explore more vortex
modes.
Vortex dynamics are essential for understanding the IIE of the
inverted flag since the vibration is induced by the flow instability
or vortex-induced vibration. LEV is rolled up by the leading edge
of the inverted flag and is characterized by a region of low pres-
sure behind the flag, thus enhancing the force that bends the
inverted flag with large deformation as LEV grows in strength and
size. As the LEV sheds into the wake, the sudden drop of the fluid
force impinging on the inverted flag causes it to bounce due to the
elastic restoring force. Meanwhile, TEV enhances this process
[94,95]. As the flag passes its mean position, LEV forms again on
the other side of the flag for the 2P mode, and symmetric periodic
flapping occurs as this mechanism repeats. Although the second-
ary or tertiary LEV increases the fluid force that contributes to
bend the inverted flag for the 2P þ 2S, 4P, 4P þ 2S, and 6P þ 2S
modes, the resilience of the inverted flag normally dominates over
bounce. However, the biased mode forms when the force of the
secondary or tertiary LEV prevails the resilience, and the inverted
flag bends toward the same side rather than passing the centerline
toward the other side. In the deflected mode, the von Karman vor-
tex street sheds periodically from the deflected flag [93]. For the
flipped-flapping mode of the inverted flag, the vortex dynamics
are the same as that for the standard flag since the inverted flag in
the flipped-flapping mode is akin to standard flag [93].
The standard flag with high KB and Ms shows no boundary-
layer separation along its curved surface in vibration mode 2,
while the flexible flag in higher order vibration mode exhibits
small-scale separations [1,73]. The trailing edge of the standard
flag rolls up strong vorticity in the wake. These vortices are gener-
ated by the agitation of the standard flag’s trailing edge rather
than the vortex shedding, which induces the instability as the case
in the inverted flag. Large vortical structures in the von Karman
vortex street form in the wake of the standard flag for vibration
Fig. 5 Vortex dynamics interacting with the standard flag under uniform flow
010801-8 / Vol. 71, JANUARY 2019
mode 2, which was reported from the simulation results for
StA ¼ 0:05–0:23 by Connell and Yue [33], for StA ¼ 0:21 by
Huang et al. [48] and Lee et al. [96], as well as the experiments
conducted in water at StA ¼ 0:06–0:07 by Giacomello and Porfiri
[97]. Apart from the von Karman vortex street, a series of small
Kelvin–Helmholtz vortices propagate along the shear layer in
flowing soap films [98]. Because the flow velocity at the two sides
of flag jumps discontinuously, the velocity shear causes a proces-
sion of the same-signed Kelvin–Helmholtz vortices during every
stroke of the flag as the flow passes the flag and joins together
in the wake. As a result, the wake structure shows a combination
of von Karman vortex streets and Kelvin–Helmholtz vortices,
as schematically shown in Fig. 5(a). The Kelvin–Helmholtz
vortices are much smaller than the von Karman vortex street
when the velocity shear is low, as was shown in Jia [98] at
StA ¼ 0:07  0:33. Those Kelvin–Helmholtz vortices are large
and indistinguishable from the von Karman vortex street for high
velocity shear [25,99]. In the higher order vibration mode corre-
sponding to a larger StA value, every vortex in the von Karman
vortex street splits into two or three same-signed vortices near
StA ¼ 0:36 and for StA ¼ 0:4–0:5, as shown in Figs. 5(b) and 5(c),
respectively [48,96]. The vortical wake becomes disorganized in
the chaotic regime of the standard flag [33,39].
5.2 Channel Flow. The above discussions regarding the
instability boundary, vibration dynamics, and vortex dynamics
concern uniform flow without confinement or with negligible con-
finement. However, confinement effect plays an important role in
some applications, such as heat transfer enhancement in channel
flow and energy harvesting base on electrostatic conversion using
channel walls [100,101]. Basically, an increase in the flag’s
length-to-channel-width ratio C destabilizes the flag at higher KB
values compared to the aforementioned instability boundary in
Fig. 2, both for the inverted flag [79] and the standard flag [56].
Transactions of the ASME
The effect of confinement on destabilization of the standard flag is
remarkable for heavier flag and is relatively weak for lighter flag.
Moreover, the increased value of C leads to an increased vibra-
tion frequency for the standard flag and a transition to a higher
order vibration mode at lower KB value compared to the uniform
flow case [30,56,57]. Although the effect of confinement on flag
vibration dynamics has been examined [30], a gap in research
exists in determining the effect of confinement on vortex dynam-
ics. Some initial studies have addressed the flow field inside a
channel for the inverted and standard flags as follows.
The confinement effect of channel flow on vortex dynamics of
the inverted flag has been studied recently by Yu et al. [94] and
Yu et al. [79]. Figure 6 summarizes the evolution of the 2P mode
under uniform flow (see Fig. 4(a)) for various C values. For the
highest value (C ¼ 0.50) at StA ¼ 0.32, the LEV that forms at one
side of the channel develops into bounded circulation around the
inverted flag as it convects along the flag, which in turn transfers
to TEV at the trailing edge of the flag and sheds at other side of
the channel with every stroke [94]. As a result, only a pair of
reverse von Karman vortices shed in every cycle in highly con-
fined channel flow rather than the 2P mode as occurs in
unbounded flow. Figure 6(a) shows that the reverse von Karman
vortex street forms with an energetic wake, and the fluid between
the neighboring vortices accelerates and is impinged on the side-
walls in a staggered fashion. As C decreases to an intermediate
value of 0.375 at StA ¼0.25, the first LEV in every stroke decays
quickly close to the wall, and the secondary LEV breaks up into
two vortices as the LEV convects to the trailing edge of the flag,
with one vortex shedding directly into the wake as LEV while the
other vortex of the same sign rotates around the flag and transfers
to TEV as occurs for C ¼ 0.50 [79]. Consequently, two counter-
clockwise and two clockwise vortices alternatively convect into
the wake with every oscillation period, as shown in Fig. 6(b). For
C ¼ 0:25 at StA ¼ 0:25, two pairs of LEV and TEV are gener-
ated from the interaction between fluid flow and the vibrating
inverted flag as occurs in the 2P mode in unbounded flow. In addi-
tion, each LEV induces an opposite sign vortex “W” near the
channel wall, as shown in Fig. 6(c). The results suggest that the
vortex dynamics of the inverted flag are substantially refereed by
the length-to-channel-width ratio in channel flow due to the inter-
action between the vortices and the channel wall.
The evolution of the 2P þ 2S mode under uniform flow at
StA ¼ 0:18 (see Fig. 4(b)) for channel flow at C ¼ 0:5 has been
Fig. 6 Vortex dynamics interacting with the inverted flag in the
flapping mode under channel flow
Applied Mechanics Reviews
studied by Park et al. [12]. The interaction between the inverted
flag and fluid flow generates a pair of TEV and LEV plus a sec-
ondary TEV with every stroke. The TEV first sheds rather than
the LEV as occurs in the 2P þ 2S mode, since the oncoming fluid
velocity at the leading edge of the flag close to the channel wall is
lower than that at the trailing edge in the channel wall. Moreover,
the fore TEV induces a pair of vortices near the channel wall.
The flow field of the standard flag in channel has been modeled
numerically by Alben [56] and Shoele and Mittal [11]. Symmetric
von Karman vortex streets are formed and the vortices begin to
interact with the channel walls further downstream for low con-
finement [56]. The von Karman vortex street in the wake of a
standard flag (see Fig. 5(a)) changes into a reverse von Karman
vortex street wake when the tip-to-tip vibration amplitude is close
to the channel width for C ¼ 0:66–1 [11]. The reverse von
Karman vortex street is similar to the abovementioned wake of
the inverted flag for C ¼ 0:5, as shown in Fig. 6(a). These vorti-
ces are capable of entraining the hot fluid away from the wall,
thus considerably enhancing heat transfer. The vortices are more
concentrated in the middle of the channel as C increases. The
severe collisions of the standard flag with the channel wall
for high confinement result in weaker and disordered vortical
structures that disappear shortly after the trailing edge in the
wake [11,56].
Vortex dynamics are vital to fully understand heat transfer and
mixing enhancements, as well as other potential applications
based on the inverted and standard flags. In addition, the vortex
dynamics of flag in channel flow are abundant, in particular for
the inverted flag. However, the survey shows that vortex dynamics
of the flag in channel flow are relatively unexplored. Further
investigations into the vortex modes under channel flows for vari-
ous StA and C values are required to address the gap.
6 Effects of Three-Dimensionality and Reynolds
Number
The two-dimensional flag has been the focus of the majority of
experimental, analytical, and numerical studies. The flag evolves
into two-dimensional vibration and generates spanwise uniform
vortex structures, even when the initial conditions are specified
using three-dimensional (3D) displacements with spanwise wave-
length, as reported by Banerjee et al. [50]. The three-dimensional
spanwise wavelength dies out after the flag begins vibrating. How-
ever, this numerical work ignored edge effect and gravity. On the
one hand, real flag has finite span, resulting in the three-
dimensional side edge effect. The side edge effect can be reduced
in experiments by confining the spanwise flow with the presence
of walls, and the flag of finite span converges to the two-
dimensional limit when the gap between the side edge of flag and
the walls tends to zero. However, the side edge effect plays a role
once the gap is larger than O (104 ) multiplied by the chord of the
flag [102,103]. This side edge effect is dependent on the aspect
ratio H  ¼ H=L, where H is the span of the flag. Due to the forma-
tion of vortical structures at the side edges, the pressure difference
across the flag is reduced and vortices that shed from the flag are
attenuated [37]. Consequently, the flag is stabilized by the effect
of side edges. The influence of the side edge effect on the instabil-
ity boundary and flag vibration dynamics can be neglected for
H  2. However, an obvious decrease in the critical KB value
occurs as H  decreases when H  < 1:5, both for the inverted flag
[42] and the standard flag [36,40,84]. A flag with low H  leads to
lower A/L and StA values compared to the two-dimensional case
[37,38,42]. The flag undergoes two-dimensional deformation for
high KB values even with the side edge effect, or slightly three-
dimensional deformations occur only around the side edge of the
flag for intermediate KB , while the three-dimensional deforma-
tions are obvious for low KB values. On the other hand, three-
dimensional deformations occur if gravity prevails overflow
inertia, resulting in sagging, rolling motions of the upper corner,
and oblique waves in vibrating flags [36,37,104]. In the
JANUARY 2019, Vol. 71 / 010801-9
 Fig. 7 (a) Destructive and (b) constructive coupling modes for inverted flags, (c) destructive
and (d) constructive coupling modes for standard flags
asymptotic limit of zero aspect ratio, a theoretical model for the
stability of slender inverted flag has been developed by Sader
et al. [105]. In contrast to the divergence instability of the two-
dimensional inverted flag as KB decreases, the slender inverted
flag is never globally unstable, i.e., in the absence of the flapping
mode in Fig. 2(b). Instead, the slender inverted flag exhibits bifur-
cation of multiple equilibria, including a stable deflected mode as
shown in Fig. 2(c) and an unstable biased mode; the latter one is
attracted by the zero-deflection equilibrium.
Variation in Reynolds number does not fundamentally modify
the mechanisms of fluid-induced flag vibrations at high Reynolds
number. The low Reynolds number has a stabilizing effect on
flag, and computational simulations demonstrate that the flapping
mode of the inverted flag vanishes when Re ⱗ 50 [22]. For the
standard flag in narrow channels, the high order vibration modes
are successively stabilized to lower order modes as Reynolds
number decreases from 1000 to 1. The critical KB decreases with
Re for most Ms when the vibration mode remains identical. How-
ever, for certain Ms , the critical KB can increase before reaching a
maximum and then decreases, which is due to the “additional
instability mechanism related to the wall shear stress” in narrow
channels and the “axial stretch” of flag at low Re [51]. As for the
vortex dynamics, smaller scale vortex structures form in flows
with higher Reynolds numbers [33]. The inverted flag transits
from the 2P mode to the 2P þ 2S mode as the Reynolds number
increases from 50  Re  130 to Re >130 for KB ¼ 0:35 [22].
The instability boundary, vibration dynamics, and vortex dynam-
ics become insensitive to Reynolds number for Re ⲏ 200 for the
inverted flag [22,75,93] and Re ⲏ 1000 for the standard flag
[11,33,50,51].
7 Interaction of Multiple Flags
The interaction between multiple flags through fluid flow
involves vortex–vortex and vortex–structure interactions. Insights
into the interaction between multiple flags facilitate the design of
energy harvesting plants and the implementation of transfer
enhancement with a series of flags in a long channel. Tandem and
parallel flags are basic building blocks with more complex config-
urations, wherein adjacent flags demonstrate the prominent behav-
iors of tandem or parallel flags. The features of tandem and
parallel arrangements, including the inverted and standard flags,
are examined in the section.
7.1 Tandem Flags. In the tandem flags, the upstream flag
sheds vortices into its wake, and the downstream flag interacts
010801-10 / Vol. 71, JANUARY 2019
with the vortices emanated from the upstream flag. Flags with
equal size have the same vortex shedding and vibration frequen-
cies, allowing for the synchronization of the vortex streets. The
vibration of the downstream flag demonstrates a phase delay with
respect to the vibration of the upstream flag. The phase delay dic-
tates the phase in which the downstream flag encounters vortices
that are shed from the upstream flag. Therefore, the phase differ-
ence between flags depends linearly on the streamwise separation
distance Gy for constant convective speed of upstream vortices,
and the phase difference is periodically mediated by the wave-
length or vortex-spacing of the wake, both for the inverted flags
[44] and the standard flags [16,106]. Simulations of tandem stand-
ard flags in potential flow, however, show that the downstream
flag vibrates irregularly for some Gy values and occasionally
breaks the linear relationship between the phase difference and Gy
[106]. Those Gy values correspond to the phases where the
upstream vortices directly impinge on the downstream flag, which
disables the potential flow from providing satisfying results due to
flow separation along the downstream flag. In contrast, the
“viscosity smoothes out vortices that are encountered by the
downstream flag and damps out the irregular flapping motion” in
viscous flow [16].
The interaction between the downstream flag and the upstream
vortices is analogous to EIE. However, the upstream vortex modes
occurring in the wake of the upstream flag, as illustrated in Fig. 4
for the inverted flag and in Fig. 5 for the standard flag, are much
more abundant and complex than the von Karman vortex street
behind the bluff body in EIE, which undoubtedly complicates the
interaction with the downstream flag. The vibration amplitude A/L
for the upstream flag is smaller than that of an isolated flag for
short Gy values due to the feedback from the downstream flag,
both for the inverted [44] and standard configurations [107]. A/L
for the upstream flag increases with Gy and eventually approaches
the value for an isolated flag and remains stable. Figure 7 shows
the mechanisms of the interaction between the upstream vortices
and the downstream flag. The vortices that are generated by
upstream flag and downstream flag are denoted by dotted lines
and solid lines, respectively. For the 2P mode wake of the inverted
flag in Fig. 7(a), the pair of LEV and TEV that shed from the
upstream flag moves away from the center position of the flag as
they convect downstream. The LEV directly passes around the
downstream flag, while the TEV merges with the opposite-signed
LEV of the downstream flag. The destructive merging of vortices
with opposite signs weakens the LEV of downstream flag [44].
Because LEV is generally attributed to the force that bends the
inverted flag [94], the A/L value for the downstream flag is
Transactions of the ASME
 Fig. 8 Coupled vibration for two parallel (a) inverted flags and (b) standard flags
reduced compared to that of an isolated flag, which is known as
destructive coupling. In contrast, both the first LEV and TEV of
the upstream flag pass around the downstream inverted flag in the
2P þ 2S mode for the inverted flag, as shown in Fig. 7(b), while
the secondary LEV impacts the downstream flag. The merging of
the downstream flag’s LEV with the same-signed secondary LEV
of the upstream flag intensifies the vorticity, which in turn
increases A/L for the downstream flag and causes constructive
coupling [44]. It is demanding to study whether more complex
interactions between the 4P, 4P þ 2S, or 6P þ 2S mode with the
downstream flexible flag lead to constructive coupling or destruc-
tive coupling. Similarly, destructive and constructive couplings
occur for the standard flags when the vortices that surround the
downstream flag merge with upstream vortices with the opposite
and the same rotational sense, as shown in Figs. 7(c) and 7(d),
respectively. Constructive coupling accounts for “anomalous
hydrodynamic drafting,” where the downstream flag endures
larger drag and the upstream flag experiences less drag than that
of an isolated flag because the drag is correlated with A/L, as
reported by Ristroph and Zhang [107].
7.2 Parallel Flags. Two parallel flags interact with each other
through the fluid when their transverse separation distance Gx is
of the order of their lengths. The predominant coupling mecha-
nism between two parallel inverted flags is the anti-phase vibra-
tion as shown in Fig. 8(a) for 2 ⱗ Gx ⱗ 4. The anti-phase
vibration is energetically favorable, where any initial displace-
ment condition for the two flags leads to inversion-symmetric
vibration, as reported in the experimental work of Huertas-
Cerdeira et al. [108]. The vibration of each flag is asymmetric
with stronger bending toward the interior of the parallel flags
since the accelerated flow in the interior forms lower pressure
when the flags bend toward each other. A/L and StA increase in the
anti-phase vibration with respect to an isolated flag, and the gain
in A/L and StA becomes less prominent as Gx increases and satu-
rates to the value for an isolated flag with Gx > 3.2. The anti-
phase vibration corresponds to 0.1 ⱗ KB ⱗ 0.3 for Gxx3. And an
increase in Gx shrinks the regime of KB that corresponds to anti-
phase vibration. Instead, coupling between parallel inverted flags
is more sensitive to the initial conditions of the flags. Different
initial conditions give rise to in-phase vibration, staggered vibra-
tion with constant phase difference between the in-phase and anti-
phase, and alternating vibration where the flags switch between
two or more of the in-phase, anti-phase, and staggered vibrations.
And perturbations cause transitions between those coupled vibra-
tions. Qualitative consistent anti-phase vibration and relatively
weak coupling between vibrations that are sensitive to initial
conditions have been confirmed from numerical results presented
by Ryu et al. [109], but the anti-phase vibration regime at 2 <
Gx  2:5 shows quantitative discrepancies from 2 ⱗ Gx ⱗ 4 in
Applied Mechanics Reviews
Huertas-Cerdeira et al. [108]. For Gx < 2, parallel inverted flags
primarily exhibit irregularly vibration or they collide with each
other, and the in-phase coupling and deflected mode occasionally
occur for Gx  0.3 [109]. The flag vibrations are decoupled for
Gx > 5 [108].
Coupling between two parallel standard flags has been investi-
gated by changing Gx or KB while holding the other parameters
constant. The two dashed arrows in Fig. 8(b) indicate the two
observation directions. For constant KB , Zhang et al. [25] discov-
ered in-phase, anti-phase, and decoupled vibrations with the suc-
cessive increase in Gx . The same phenomenon has also been
reported in a series of publications [48,110–112]. A concomitant
jump in frequency occurs as the flags transfer from in-phase to
anti-phase vibrations. For constant Gx , the flags tend to anti-phase
coupling for high KB values below the instability boundary, and
in-phase vibration dominates as KB decreases [113–115]. The
transition region is characterized by the random alternation
between in-phase and anti-phase vibrations [66] or the co-
existence of the vibration frequencies that correspond to in-phase
and anti-phase vibrations [114]. Quantitative coupling division is
not shown in Fig. 8(b) because the coupling distribution also
depends on Ms [116]. The in-phase vibration region expands for
low Ms values, while the anti-phase vibration region enlarges for
high Ms values.
The combinations of parallel and tandem flags form more com-
plex configurations, such as a triangular configuration [117], three
or more parallel flags [115,116,118], diamond configuration
[119], conical configuration [120], and X-shape configuration
[121]. Gallegos and Sharma [30] reviewed those configurations
for the standard flags. In general, the anti-phase and in-phase
vibrations are the two prominent coupling phenomena between
adjacent parallel flags in those combined configurations; and the
constructive and destructive merging of vortices leads to intensi-
fied and reduced vibrations in the downstream flags, respectively.
8 Applications
The basic idea in mitigating fluid-induced flag vibrations is to
adjust the flag parameters (L, h, qs , and B) or fluid parameters (U
and qf ) so that the (Ms ,KB ) values fall outside of the instability
regions in Fig. 2. Utilization of fluid-induced vibrations in the
flexible flags involves the selection of IIE, MIE, EIE, and the cor-
responding vibration modes, design of the flag vibration dynamics
in terms of (A/L, StA ) as shown in Fig. 3, optimization of the vor-
tex modes as shown in Figs. 4–6, and the assembly of multiple
flags as shown in Figs. 7 and 8. For instance, the development of a
self-powered piezoelectric microflow sensor is actually based on
the linear relationship between A/L and StA for the standard flag in
the second vibration mode [10]. Vortices behind the vibrating flag
are used to transform the asymmetric vortices of a slender aircraft
forebody to symmetric vortices, thus alleviating the lateral force
JANUARY 2019, Vol. 71 / 010801-11
on the aircraft and improving its control characteristics [122,123].
We review three representative applications of fluid-induced flag
vibrations, namely, energy harvesting, heat transfer enhancement,
and mixing enhancement.
8.1 Energy Harvesting. The booming internet of things
market requires wireless sensor networks, where numerous sen-
sor nodes work collaboratively to monitor mechanical stress for
seismic and infrastructure safety, and humidity and temperature
for agriculture applications [124]. Those distributive wireless
sensor nodes require autonomous power ranging from micro-
watts (lW) to milliwatts (mW) that can be adequately satisfied
by energy harvesting. Energy harvesting based on fluid-induced
flag vibrations converts kinetic energy of geophysical flows
(wind, river, and oceanic or tidal currents), or the flow in indus-
try ducts/pipes into vibrational energy, which is in turn con-
verted to electricity via piezoelectric, electromagnetic, or
electrostatic conversion. The flag is equivalent to an alternating
current source in parallel with an intrinsic impedance of the con-
verter, as schematically shown in Fig. 9(a). Power management
(or conditioner) is used to enhance the efficiency and regulate
power in order to satisfy the requirements of wireless sensor
nodes [125–127]. Regulated power can be used directly by wire-
less sensor nodes or stored in an energy reservoir before being
sent to sensor nodes. Energy harvesting based on fluid-induced
flag vibrations is environmentally friendly, incurs low mainte-
nance costs, and does not require frequent battery replacements
in sensor nodes, especially in difficult-to-access ocean environ-
ments or remote areas.
Fig. 9 Applications of fluid-induced flag vibrations: (a) energy harvesting, (b) heat transfer
enhancement, and (c) mixing enhancement
010801-12 / Vol. 71, JANUARY 2019
Conversion from vibrational energy in flags into electricity
occurs via either a deformation-based or displacement-based
mechanism. Piezoelectric conversion is deformation-based, where
the flags are made of piezoelectric materials. Stretching and com-
pression of the piezoelectric materials due to the local curvatures
of the flags induce charge transfer between electrodes attached to
piezoelectric materials, which is known as the piezoelectric effect.
The induced electric voltage results in additional internal torque
on the piezoelectric flags due to the inverse piezoelectric effect.
For piezoelectric materials with high electromechanical coupling
coefficient, such as lead zirconate titanate (PZT), the electro-
mechanical coupling model must be integrated with the aforemen-
tioned fluid-structure coupling model to account for the inverse
piezoelectric effect, thus forming a full fluid-structure-electricity
coupling model [55,128], while the inverse piezoelectric effect is
negligible for materials with low electromechanical coupling
coefficient, such as polyvinylidene fluoride. Electromagnetic con-
version utilizes relative motions between a conductor and a mag-
net, which is displacement-based. The conductor or magnet is
attached to the vibrating flag [129] or oscillating flagpole [130].
The conversion efficiency is normally larger than that of piezo-
electric conversion, but results in stronger dissipation of the vibra-
tional energy, which can be modeled as structural damping using
the Kelvin-Voigt model [131]. The increase in structural damping
decreases the critical KB value, reduces A/L and StA , and tends to
transform a higher order vibration mode to a low-order vibration
mode. Electrostatic conversion has been exploited in special
circumstances, such as energy harvesting in water using ionic
polymer metal composites, which are electroactive polymers
Transactions of the ASME
(EAPs) [97]. For energy harvesting in narrow channel flow, suc-
cessive contacts between the triboelectric materials on the flags
and lateral walls lead to the exchange of electric charges by tribo-
electricity and electrostatic polarization of the channel walls
[100,101]. More information on smart materials and conversion
from mechanical energy to electricity are provided in Invernizzi
et al. [132].
The harvested electrical energy is preliminarily mediated by the
quality and quantity of the vibrational energy of flags. Vibrational
energy is optimized through the proper selection of IIE, MIE, and
EIE, depending on the fluid kinetic energy and conversion
method. The inverted flag shows significant advantages for energy
harvesting [6,93], including a high critical KB value that is inde-
pendent of Ms (see Fig. 2), and a large A/L value (see Fig. 3) that
results in strain energy ranging from Oð102 Þ [22] to Oð103 Þ [75]
times that of the standard flag. Furthermore, the symmetric vibra-
tion in flapping mode is plausible for piezoelectric conversion due
to the absence of inflection points. As a result, the mechanical
strain along the flag contributes to the total electricity output for a
continuous piezoelectric layer. However, the flapping mode
occurs in a limited range of KB values, the flag transfers to the
deflected mode at low KB values. Thus, the inverted flag is pre-
ferred in both wind and water flow, where the fluid has low yet
stable kinetic energy, such as occurs in industrial ducts or pipe-
lines and ocean currents. Although A/L is lower than that of the
inverted flag, the standard flag is robust for a wide range of KB
values beyond the critical value. As positive and negative strains
for mode 2 or higher order vibration modes would generate
opposite charges with continuous piezoelectric layer, piezoelectric
polymers are segmented in order to prevent cancelation of the
positive and negative charges [78,133]; positions and dimensions
of the piezoelectric electrodes are optimized [134]. For
displacement-based electromagnetic conversion, only two embed-
ded conductor segments in flag are necessary for the vibration in
mode 2, and the higher order modes require several segments due
to the presences of more displacement phases along flag. Simi-
larly, the electrodes on the lateral channel walls must be seg-
mented for high order modes in the standard flag for electrostatic
conversion. Otherwise, the capacitance variations are weak
because there is always a contact between the triboelectric flag
and continuous electrodes on the lateral walls [101]. The standard
flag is favorable in wind rather than in water, since the critical KB
value is unaffordably small for a low Ms value. In contrast, the
forced flag shows a profound impact for low Ms values due to the
relatively low flag damping with respect to the upstream vortices;
hence, the flag generates vibration with higher StA values but
lower A/L values than that in IIE and MIE, as shown in Fig. 3 [8].
The forced flag also demonstrates better energy-harvesting feasi-
bility for high KB values, such as the stiff PZT flag in Fig. 2(j)
[80] and in Fig. 2(k) [10,135]. The low A/L value for the forced
flag protects the brittle PZT from damage [7]. Alternatively, a
nonpiezoelectric flag with high KB in EIE is clamped between two
flextensional frames through which the forces are amplified along
certain axis to compress the PZT stacks and harvest power up to
50 mW [136,137]. Because the instability originates from the fluc-
tuations in fluid, EIE is adaptive for unsteady incoming flow with
strong kinetic energy variations. The power of a single harvester
is generally 1 lW10 mW, where multiple flags in tandem or par-
allel configurations (discussed in Sec. 7) form power plant to meet
the requirements for wireless sensor nodes with higher power con-
sumptions [5,138].
8.2 Heat Transfer Enhancement. Convective heat transfer
enhancement in channel flow is commonly required in cooling
systems for electronics, heating and refrigeration engineering
fields, and process industries in order to prevent thermal damage
and ensure proper operation of systems. Convective heat transfer
is limited by the air-side heat transfer resistance, which can be
improved through flow manipulation. The traditional passive
Applied Mechanics Reviews
techniques add inserters (twisted tapes, wire coils, etc.) or protru-
sions (ribs, pins, fins, dimples, etc.) to promote turbulence and dis-
rupt the boundary layers at the channel walls [139]. However,
poorer heat transfer performance is found within low speed recir-
culation zones around rigid inserters or protrusions. The fluid-
induced flag vibrations generate vortices, as shown in Figs. 4 and
5, which significantly promote the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE)
of flow. Those vortices interact with the boundary layers and
entrain the heated flow near the walls into the cold main stream
without stable recirculation zones close to the walls, as shown in
Fig. 6. Thus, the vibrating flags improve heat transfer
performance.
The heat transfer performance evaluation criteria are the Nus-
selt ratio at constant Re and the Nusselt ratio at constant pumping
power. The Nusselt ratio at constant Re quantifies the increased
heat flux due to flag vibration, which is defined as
Nu
NuRe ¼ (15)
Nu0;Re
where Nu is the Nusselt number in the presence of vibrating flag,
and the subscripts 0 and Re denote the parameter in plain channel
at constant Re. The pressure expenditure induced by the vibrating
flag is taken into account in the Nusselt ratio at constant pumping
power, which is often referred to as the thermal enhancement
factor [11,140]. This is given by
Nu
Nup ¼ ; (16)
Nu0;p
where the subscripts 0 and p denote the parameter in plain channel
at constant pumping power. For constant pumping power, Re and
the friction factor F satisfy the following relationship:
 1=3
Re F
¼ (17)
Re0;p F0;p
In general, Nu and F in plain channel are related to Re in the fol-
lowing forms:
 a  b
Nu0;p Re0;p F0;p Re0;p
¼ ; ¼ (18)
Nu0;Re Re F0;Re Re
where the exponents a and b are fitted using the experimental
results. Eliminating Nu0;p in Eq. (16) using Eqs. (17) and (18)
yields
  a
Nu F 3þb
Nup ¼ (19)
Nu0;Re F0;Re
For fully developed (hydrodynamically and thermally) turbulent
flow in smooth channel, a ¼ 0:8 in the well-known Nusselt num-
ber correlation with the Dittus–Boelter equation, and b ¼ 0:25
due to the friction factor correlation in the modified Blasius
  0:29
equation [141], i.e., Nup ¼ Nu=Nu0;Re F=F0;Re . In prac-
  1=3
tice, the approximate form Nu=Nu0;Re F=F0;Re is com-
monly used to evaluate Nup for other flow conditions
[12,30,142,143].
Park et al. [12] and Shoele and Mittal [11] numerically coupled
the thermal energy equation with the aforementioned
fluid–structure interaction equations in Sec. 2 and modeled heat
transfer in IIE and MIE under laminar flow with parabolic incom-
ing velocity profiles. The inverted and standard flags are installed
in the middle of the channel, with their tip-to-tip vibration ampli-
tudes close to the width of the channel. In the abovementioned
evolution of the 2P þ 2S mode of the inverted flag in channel
flow, the opposite-signed LEV and TEV induce heated fluid near
JANUARY 2019, Vol. 71 / 010801-13
the walls to move into the middle of the channel due to the rota-
tional momenta of those vortical structures. The induced vortices
can also be attributed to the interruption and redevelopment of
thermal boundary layers. In this vortex mode, NuRe reaches up to
2.5 at Re ¼ 800, resulting in an optimal value of Nup ¼ 1:2 [12].
Comparable heat transfer performances for NuRe ¼ 2 and Nup ¼
1:25 occur at Re ¼ 800 when the reverse von Karman vortex street
is well-organized in the wake of the standard flag in vibration
mode 2 [11]. The higher order vibration mode of the standard flag
causes higher energy transfer to the flag; hence, Nup declines.
Heat transfer due to vibrating flags installed in the middle of
turbulent channel flow has been experimentally investigated
recently by two research groups, with the inverted flag at
Re  Oð104 Þ [79,94] and the standard flag at Re  Oð103 Þ
[144,145]. The value of NuRe increased from 1.08 to 1.31 as C
increased from 0.125 to 0.5. The evolved 2P mode at C ¼ 0:25,
as shown in Fig. 6, leads to a maximum value of Nup ¼ 0:97
among the vortex modes of the inverted flag. Mixing between the
core flow and the near-wall flow is weak for low C ¼ 0:125,
which does not exhibit apparent benefits in heat removal from the
walls. A value of C greater than 0.25 induces large pressure loss
that reduces Nup [79,94]. The reverse von Karman vortex street of
the standard flag results in NuRe  eT and reduces Nup to approxi-
mately 0.9 [144,145]. NuRe in turbulent flow is lower than the
value in laminar flow because the heat flux in plain turbulent flow
is much higher, which leads to Nup < 1 due to the disproportion-
ate energy loss. Nup can be elevated through direct modulation of
the boundary layers using short flags close to the channel wall, as
shown in Fig. 9(b), which effectively reduces energy loss com-
pared to the flags with high C values installed in the middle of
channel. In a long channel, a series of tandem flags disrupt the
redeveloped thermal boundary layers farther downstream from the
flags.
8.3 Mixing Enhancement. Flags with high C values in
channel flow have potential applications in mixing enhancement
in process industries, such as chemical reactions, pharmaceutical,
and water treatment [146]. Pressure loss is not the major concern;
instead, energy is pumped into the system in order to reduce
inhomogeneities in concentration, density, composition, or tem-
perature using in-line mixers in pipes or ducts, thereby improving
product quality and consistency in continuous processes. Fluid-
induced flag vibrations serve as passive agitators or passive
stirrers in place of mechanically driven agitators. In contrast to
impellers, rotor–stators, or actuators, fluid-induced vibrating flags
do not require external power sources and can be easily manufac-
tured at low cost.
Mixing is a multiscale phenomenon. In general, macro, meso,
and micromixing are evaluated by the residence time distribution,
TKE, and dissipation of TKE, respectively [147]. The flags per-
turb the fluid path, and they promote secondary transverse and
longitudinal flow in unidirectional channel flow, thereby increas-
ing the residence time distribution. Vortices are efficient means of
mixing intensification [148], where the vortices generated by flags
considerably enhance the TKE, i.e., meso-mixing [79,94]. Ali
et al. [13] numerically studied the mixing enhancement due to
instability-induced excitation of flags. The inlet flow is divided
into two equal parts with two different scalar values. The flags
resemble the inverted flags but have nonzero initial angle toward
the free stream and are fixed on channel walls. They found that
the vortices behind vibrating flags improved homogeneity of the
mixture with scalar distribution beyond 97% compared to their
rigid counterparts. Tandem flags vibrating with phase lags, as dis-
cussed in Sec. 6, facilitate refined mixing scales. Figure 9(c) sche-
matically shows the mixing of two streams in a Y-shaped channel,
as indicated by the dashed arrows and the solid arrows. As the two
streams meander through the tandem vibrating flags, mixing
becomes more homogeneous, eventually producing uniform flow.
The flags are capable of enhancing mixing of gases, miscible or
010801-14 / Vol. 71, JANUARY 2019
immiscible liquids, and dispersing a gas phase in a liquid phase.
The flows can be reactants or catalysts, where mixing is accompa-
nied by chemical reactions or heat transfer in multifunctional
mixers/reactors/heat exchangers. The mixing enhancement due to
the fluid-induced flag vibrations is promising for commercial
applications in process industries. However, the fluid-induced flag
vibrations in those scenarios are unexplored and would be inter-
esting avenues for future research.
9 Conclusions
This paper examined three representative mechanisms of fluid-
induced flag vibrations, namely, IIE of the inverted flag due to
fluid flow, MIE of the standard flag, and EIE of flag behind a bluff
body. The instability boundary, vibration dynamics, and vortex
dynamics of the flags are compared to summarize the characteris-
tic features and laws describing the distinct mechanisms of fluid-
induced vibrations and their constitutive relations. In addition, the
three-dimensional effects and Reynolds number effects are dis-
cussed. After that, the interactions of multiple inverted flags and
standard flags are addressed, where the interactions of tandem
flags and parallel flags received particular focus as building blocks
that facilitate understanding of more complicated arrangements.
Finally, the applications of fluid-induced flag vibrations are
reviewed. Energy harvesting concerns flag vibration dynamics
and has been explored extensively. Heat transfer enhancement
and mixing enhancement mainly concern vortex dynamics of
flags, which have attracted more attention recently. The following
main conclusions are highlighted:
(1) The inverted flag is unstable, where the instability is
determined by KB but is independent of Ms . In contrast, the
critical KB value for the standard flag decreases as Ms
decreases, which is accompanied by the emergences of
higher order modes. For the stable regions of IIE and MIE,
a flag can still be forced into vibration using an upstream
bluff body, i.e., EIE.
(2) The inverted flag under IIE has the largest vibration ampli-
tude A/L up to around 1.6–1.9. The dimensionless fre-
quency StA first increases with the vibration amplitude and
subsequently decreases when the vibration amplitude satu-
rates. For MIE, the evolution of StA with vibration ampli-
tude A/L is featured by a constant slope around StL ¼ 0.23
in vibration mode 2. StL and StA increase for higher order
modes as KB or Ms decreases, while A/L decreases due to
the augmented inflections along the flag, and the standard
flag is finally driven to chaotic vibration for ultralow KB in
the postcritical region. The vibration amplitude reduces to
A/L < 0.8 for the forced flag. The (A/L, StA ) values lie
below ðStL  D=LÞ=StD ¼ 1 at large KB values due to the
high damping effect of flag, and the evolution of StA with
A/L falls on the line ðStL  D=LÞ=StD ¼ 1 as KB decreases,
which is characterized by lock-in of the flag vibration fre-
quency at the vortex shedding frequency from the upstream
bluff body.
(3) The vortex dynamics depend on the dimensionless fre-
quency StA of flags. More LEV and TEV shed from the
inverted flag under IIE in every cycle as StA decreases. For
MIE, the tail of the standard flag spins off strong vorticity
at maximum displacements, and the von Karman vortex
street forms in the wake of the standard flag for the mode 2.
Kelvin–Helmholtz vortices may also be generated along
the shear layer connected with the von Karman vortex
street when the velocity differences along the two sides of
the flag are high, thus causing a procession of the same-
signed vortices in every stroke. The higher order vibration
mode splits the vortices induced by the vibrating tail of the
flag into small same-signed vortices, which normally corre-
sponds to a larger StA value. The standard flag behind the
bluff body of EIE follows the unsteady pressure field
Transactions of the ASME
 created by the upstream vortex shedding and vibrates with
its wavelength and frequency close to that of vortex shed-
ding for a low Ms value at KB < 0:05.
(4) Confinement by channel walls has destabilizing effects on
flags, which elevates the critical KB and StA values. The
vortex dynamics are strongly dependent on the flag’s
length-to-channel-width ratio C . The vortex mode evolves
with C in channel flow. Apart from the vortices generated
from the interaction between flag and fluid flow, vortices
induced close to the channel walls are demonstrated.
(5) Flags with finite spans are stabilized by the effect of side
edges due to the reduced pressure difference near the edges.
Obvious decreases in the critical KB , A/L, and StA values
occur as H  decreases in the range of H  < 1:5. However,
the influence of the side edge effect on the instability
boundary and flag vibration dynamics are negligible for
H 2.
(6) Low Reynolds number flow has stabilizing effects on flags,
National Outstanding Youth Foundation of China (11725209).
while fluid-induced flag vibrations become insensitive to
Reynolds number when Re ⲏ 200 for IIE and when Re ⲏ
1000 for MIE.
(7) In tandem flags, the downstream flag tends to synchronize
with the vibration frequency of the upstream flag, which
causes the phase difference to have a linear dependence on
separation distance, both for the standard and inverted
flags. The vibration amplitude of the upstream flag is
smaller than that of an isolated flag at low separation dis-
tance, and the amplitude increases asymptotically to that of
an isolated flag as the separation distance increases. Merg-
ing of the vortices from the downstream flag with the vorti-
ces from the upstream flag with the same rotational sense
leads to constructive coupling, where the vibration ampli-
tude of the downstream flag increases. In comparison,
destructive merging of vortices reduces the vibration ampli-
tude of the downstream flag.
(8) In-phase and anti-phase vibrations are the predominant
results of coupling between two parallel flags.
Future researches should focus in four areas:
First, researchers should explore fluid-induced flag vibrations
under complex incoming flow patterns. Mixing enhancement in
process industries involves incoming fluid with inhomogeneous
concentration and velocity distributions, various species of gases
or liquids, dispersion of particles or gases in a liquid phase, etc.
Those complex incoming flows definitely influence the instability
boundary, vibration dynamics, and vortex dynamics of flags,
which in turn determine their performance on mixing enhance-
ment. Fluid-induced flag vibrations are promising solutions to
mixing enhancement in process industries, which are of great
significance but lack investigations to date. The performance of
the passive stirrer as an in-line mixer requires quantitative
examinations.
Second, flag vibration dynamics have been extensively studied,
while the resulting vortex dynamics are an active area of research.
In particular, the vortex dynamics of the inverted flag are abun-
dant, and detailed studies into the vortex dynamics would cause
the vibrating flag to become the standard vortex generator in fluid
engineering. Moreover, the dependence of the vortex convective
speed, wavelength, or vortex spacing of the wake on KB would
shed light on the interaction between tandem flags.
Third, experiments into fluid-induced flag vibrations in laminar
flow are highly desirable. The aforementioned numerical studies
suggest significant heat transfer enhancement of vibrating flags in
laminar flow. While experiments have been performed in the
range of Re ¼ Oð103 Þ  Oð105 Þ, experimental data are lacking to
validate the numerical results in laminar flow.
Finally, few efforts have been made to determine the fatigue
responses of cyclically vibrating flags under fluid load. The finite
element analysis of brittle PZT bimorph flag showed fatigue
failures after 3.9104 vibration cycles due to the stress
Applied Mechanics Reviews
concentrations near its mounting region [137]. The fatigue prob-
lem has been alleviated by optimizing the mounting design. Alter-
natively, the flags can be designed independently of piezoelectric
fatigue limits by introducing novel designs such as the flexten-
sional actuators whereby the flag transfers vibrations to the hous-
ing PZT stacks. It is necessary to study the reliability of the
standard, inverted and forced flags with various KB and Ms for
long-term applications.
Acknowledgment
We would like to thank our colleague Yujia Chen for the fruit-
ful discussions.
Funding Data
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