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Gaétan Raynaud

EPFL STI IGM UNFOLD
MED 0 2226 (Bâtiment MED)
Station 9
1015 Lausanne

EPFLETUEDOCEDME

Recherche

Flapping flags

The role of morphology and vortex formation in flapping flags. (https://www.epfl.ch/labs/unfold/research/)
In my thesis work, I perform 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?

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]