Role of mass on the stability of flag/flags in uniform flow

The interaction between flag/flags and fluid is studied numerically and the time-average flow in the wake is analyzed. It is found that a zero-mass flag in uniform flow can not exhibit sustained flapping which only occurs when the mass is involved, while multiple zero-mass flags with small separation settle into sustained flapping state. Furthermore, the nonzero mass is an essential condition for flag/flags to establish the sustained flapping in the case of convectively instable wake, while it is an unnecessary condition for the case of the absolutely instable wake.