Depending on its wave-shaped whiskers, the harbor seal can identify the vortex characteristics of the wake flow of its prey and trace them. Thus, it is of important scientific significance and practical value to investigate the identification mechanisms of the harbor seal whiskers. In this study, a 1:30 scaled experimental whisker model was fabricated based on the geometric parameters of a harbor seal whisker, and the one degree-of-freedom flow-induced vibrations of a single whisker model and an array of whisker models in uniform flow and wake flow were investigated. The correlation of the vibration responses of the whisker model and the vortex characteristics was analyzed. It was found that owing to the wavy shape of the whisker model, the vibration of the whisker model at the zero angle-of-attack is significantly suppressed in uniform flow, and the whisker model has a very low vibration amplitude in a certain range of the reduced velocity. However, when the angle-of-attack is relatively large (
\alpha \geqslant 30^ \circ 
), the vibration amplitude is significantly augmented. In the wake flow of a stationary circular cylinder, large-amplitude vibrations of the whisker model happen in a certain range of distance from the cylinder, and the vibration frequency locks on the vortex-shedding frequency of the wake flow. Different to the single-frequency vibration of the whisker model in uniform flow, the vibration frequency of the whisker model in wake flow shows a two-peak mode. In wake flow, the vibration amplitude of the whisker model is significantly affected by flow conditions, but the vibration frequency of the whisker model is relatively stable. In uniform flow and wake flow, the vibration amplitude and frequency of an array of whisker models are similar to those of a single whisker model, except at several reduced velocities, which indicates that the interference between the whisker models in a whisker array is not significant.
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