The study of the dynamics of cantilevered thin flexible plates in reverse axial flow -also known as inverted flags -has become of significant interest, partly due to their energy harvesting potential. This paper presents fresh experimental results, aiming to enhance our understanding of the dynamics of inverted flags, particularly concerning stability and global dynamics sensitivity to various system parameters, such as the aspect ratio (i.e. height-to-length ratio) and flag material. This is achieved through testing flags of various dimensions, made from different materials. The dynamics of the system is presented in the form of bifurcation diagrams in which the flag tip angle is shown as a function of the dimensionless flow velocity. The frequency content of oscillatory motions is presented in the form of spectrograms. Also, time-histories, phase-plane portraits, as well as power spectral density and probability density function plots are presented for different flow regimes. Interesting dynamical features, such as small-and large-amplitude flapping, static divergence, large-amplitude buckling, and chaotic motions, have been observed experimentally, some for the first time. It is shown that for flags of very low aspect ratio the undeflected static equilibrium is stable prior to a subcritical pitchfork bifurcation. For flags of large aspect ratio, on the other hand, the undeflected static equilibrium becomes unstable via a supercritical pitchfork bifurcation leading to static divergence (buckling) at a sufficiently high flow velocity; at higher flow velocities, past the pitchfork bifurcation, a supercritical Hopf bifurcation materialises leading to flapping motion around the deflected static equilibrium; at even higher flow velocities, flapping motion becomes symmetric around the undeflected static equilibrium. Interestingly, it is found that heavy flags may exhibit large-amplitude flapping right after the initial static equilibrium, provided that they are subjected to a sufficiently large disturbance. In addition to experiments, nonlinear analytical models for the two asymptotic cases of zero and infinite aspect ratios are outlined, the results of which are used for comparison with the experimental results. Theory and experiments are found to be in reasonably good agreement.Keywords inverted flag, cantilevered plates in reverse axial flow, fluid-structure interactions, nonlinear dynamics, effect of aspect ratio, effect of flag material

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An experimental and numerical investigation of the flow near a blunt body has been conducted in this study. Most experimental methods of flow studies use flow visualization and probes introduction into the flow field. The main goal of this research was the development of a new methodology to analyze flows, and to measure flow characteristics without taking into account the distorting effects of measuring probes. A series of experiments were performed on a ground surveillance radar in the Price-Païdoussis subsonic wind tunnel. Forces and moments were measured as functions of wind speeds and angular positions by the use of a six-component aerodynamic scale. A Computational Fluid Dynamics three-dimensional model was employed to analyze the wake region of the ground surveillance radar. A turbulence reduction system was proposed and analyzed in this research. The use of the proposed turbulence reduction system was found to be an effective way to reduce turbulent flow intensity by 50%, drag coefficients by 9.6%, and delay the flow transition point by 7.6 times.