Gaétan Raynaud
+41 21 693 47 73
Office:
MED 0 2226
EPFL › VPA › VPA-AVP-CP › PTMH › PTMH-GE
Website: https://www.epfl.ch/research/facilities/hydraulic-machines-platform/
Research
Fatigue prediction in transient Pelton turbine operations
Project HYPERTENSION at the PTMH in collaboration with SBB Energy
PhD work on flag flutter
The role of morphology and vortex formation in flapping flags. (https://www.epfl.ch/labs/unfold/research/)
In my thesis work, I performed systematic wind-tunnel force, deformation and flow measurements around flapping flags to address the following questions:
In my thesis work, I performed systematic wind-tunnel force, deformation and flow measurements around flapping flags to address the following questions:
- Why does a flag flap at a certain frequency, amplitude and why does it generate a certain amount of drag when the flag start to flap? Can we predict it?
- How does planar shape affect the various flapping kinematics and the formation of vortices in the wake?
- What is the diversity of flapping behavior that we can obtain with flags of various shapes?
- Can we generate more flag shapes to explore new dynamic responses and increase the diversity of flapping behaviors?
Find my PhD thesis on infoscience
Outreach and media
Interview in the CQFD Podcast on Swiss Radio (2025/04/23) [Replay].
"Vanishing autoportrait", Winning picture of the SNF Scientific Image competition 2025 [flickr].
"Spot", Distinction from the SNF Image Competition 2024 [flickr].
Ma thèse en 180 seconds - Swiss final 2023 [Youtube]
"Vanishing autoportrait", Winning picture of the SNF Scientific Image competition 2025 [flickr].
"Spot", Distinction from the SNF Image Competition 2024 [flickr].
Ma thèse en 180 seconds - Swiss final 2023 [Youtube]
Our 2025 APS Gallery of Fluid Motion winning contribution [Youtube]