The flow over a circular cylinder controlled by a two-dimensional synthetic jet positioned at the mean rear stagnation point has been experimentally investigated in a water channel at the cylinder Reynolds numberRe= 950. This is an innovative arrangement and the particle-image-velocimetry measurement indicates that it can lead to a novel and interesting phenomenon. The synthetic-jet vortex pairs induced near the exit convect downstream and interact with the vorticity shear layers behind both sides of the cylinder, resulting in the formation of new induced wake vortices. The present vortex synchronization occurs when the excitation frequency of the synthetic jet is between 1.67 and 5.00 times the natural shedding frequency at the dimensionless stroke length 99.5. However, it is suggested that the strength of the synthetic-jet vortex pair plays a more essential role in the occurrence of vortex synchronization than the excitation frequency. In addition, the wake-vortex shedding is converted into a symmetric mode from its original antisymmetric mode. The symmetric shedding mode weakens the interaction between the upper and lower wake vortices, resulting in a decrease in the turbulent kinetic energy produced by them. It also has a significant influence on the global flow field, including the velocity fluctuations, Reynolds stresses and flow topology. However, their distributions are still dominated by the large-scale coherent structures.

The dynamics of vortical structures in flow over a circular cylinder in the vicinity of a flat plate is investigated using particle image velocimetry (PIV). The cylinder is placed above the flat plate with its axis parallel to the wall and normal to the flow direction. The Reynolds number $Re_{D}$ based on the cylinder diameter $D$ is 1072 and the gap $G$ between the cylinder and the flat plate is varied from gap-to-diameter ratio $G/D=0$ to $G/D=3.0$ . The flow statistics and vortex dynamics are strongly dependent on the gap ratio $G/D$ . Statistics show that as the cylinder comes close to the wall ( $G/D\leqslant 2.0$ ), the cylinder wake becomes more and more asymmetric and a boundary layer separation is induced on the flat plate downstream of the cylinder. The wake vortex shedding frequency increases with decreasing $G/D$ until a critical gap ratio (about $G/D=0.25$ ) below which the vortex shedding is irregular. The deflection of the gap flow away from the wall and its following interaction with the upper shear layer may be the cause of the higher shedding frequency. The vortex dynamics is investigated based on the phase-averaged flow field and virtual dye visualization in the instantaneous PIV velocity field. It is revealed that when the cylinder is close to the wall ( $G/D=2.0$ ), the cylinder wake vortices can periodically induce secondary spanwise vortices near the wall. As the cylinder approaches the wall ( $G/D=1.0$ ) the secondary vortex can directly interact with the lower wake vortex, and a further approaching of the cylinder ( $G/D=0.5$ ) can result in more complex interactions among the secondary vortex, the lower wake vortex and the upper wake vortex. The breakdown of vortices into filamentary debris during vortex interactions is clearly revealed by the coloured virtual dye visualizations. For $G/D<0.25$ , the lower shear layer is strongly inhibited and only the upper shear layer can shed vortices. Investigation of the vortex formation, evolution and interaction in the flow promotes the understanding of the flow physics for different gap ratios.

Tomographic particle image velocimetry (TPIV) measurement with six high-resolution charge-coupled device (CCD) cameras is conducted to investigate flow structures over a finite circular cylinder with an aspect ratio of 2 ( $h/d=2$ ). This short wall-mounted cylinder is fully immersed in a thick turbulent boundary layer ( $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}/h=1.025$ ). Focus is placed on the three-dimensional instantaneous vortex structures and their dynamic characteristics in the wake flow fields. Based on the present results, a refined topological model of the mean wake field behind the finite circular cylinder is proposed, where the spatial locations of the typical vortex structures and their interactions are described in more detail. Among the reported typical vortex structures (i.e. the horseshoe, tip, base, trailing and arch vortex), emphasis is laid on discussion of the tip and arch vortex. The instantaneous 3D M-shape arch vortex and an alternating large-scale streamwise vortex are first found in the present experiment, and their developments are also discussed. Therefore, it is suggested that the instantaneous finite-cylinder wake is dominated by the arch vortex system and the large-scale streamwise vortices. Moreover, in the instantaneous volumetric flow fields, both the antisymmetric and the symmetric wake behaviours are observed. With proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) analysis, the dynamic characteristics of the wake field are clarified. Different from the flow around an infinite cylinder without control, the third and fourth POD modes are characterized by low-frequency symmetric shedding. The low-frequency feature shown in the second mode pair is observed and associated with the occurrence of instantaneous symmetric 3D wake behaviour triggered by the low-aspect-ratio effect and the extension of the separated shear layer. The low frequency seems be attributed to the flapping phenomenon, i.e. oscillation of the recirculation in the backward-facing step flow. It is found that the flapping motion has a modulating effect on the occurrence of the antisymmetric shedding vortex and thus the large-scale streamwise vortex.

Evolution of Lagrangian coherent structures (LCS) in a flat plate boundary layer transition induced by the wake of a circular cylinder is investigated. Both hydrogen bubble visualization and particle image velocimetry (PIV) techniques are used. It is found that downstream of the cylinder, the disturbance in the boundary layer experiences a fast growth followed by a slow decay in the transition. Lagrangian coherent structures are revealed by qualitative hydrogen bubble visualizations and quantitative finite-time Lyapunov exponents (FTLE) fields derived from the PIV data. The evolution of the LCS is considered from the very beginning of the transition up to when the boundary layer becomes fully developed turbulent flow. The mean convection velocity and average inclination angle of the LCS are first extracted from the FTLE fields. The streamwise length of the low-speed streaks seems to increase, while their spanwise distance decreases in the boundary layer transition. Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) of the PIV data shows that low-speed streaks associated with the hairpin vortices and hairpin packets are the dominant coherent structures close to the wall in the transitional and turbulent boundary layer. The POD modes also reveal a variety of scales in the turbulent boundary layer. Moreover, it is found that large-scale coherent structures can modulate the amplitude of the small-scale ones.