A two-plate array is used to compare the flow characteristics between the side of a rectangular plate that is bounded by an adjacent plate and the side of the plate that is unbounded. For c/t = 3, flow visualization shows that the thickness of the recirculation bubble is slightly thinner on the bounded side, but the distance from the plate's leading edge to the point of reattachment is nearly the same on both the bounded and the unbounded sides of the plate. For c/t = 6.67 and c/t = 16, the flow reattaches in a shorter downstream distance from the leading edge of the bounded side of the plate than the unbounded side of the plate. On the bounded side of the plate, the recirculation zone formed by the reattached flow is less than half as thick as the recirculation zone formed on the unbounded side of the plate. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.