End effects of nominally two-dimensional thin flat plates

Abstract Differences in the structure and dynamics of nominally two-dimensional turbulent wakes are investigated experimentally for a thin flat plate, normal to a uniform flow, with two different end conditions: with and without end plates. Both cases are characterized by Karman-like vortex shedding with broadband low frequency unsteadiness. Both wakes evidence a low frequency flapping motion in addition to the slowly drifting base flow common to cylinder wakes. For the case without end plates, an interaction between the drift motion and the vortex formation process is associated with a much stronger modulation of the quasiperiodic vortex shedding amplitude when compared to the case with end plates where a flapping motion is more strongly expressed. These dynamics underlie structural differences in the mean wake and Reynolds stress fields.