Abstract: In order to study the aerodynamic response of the vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) foil to different wake vortex shedding patterns, an analog experiment of the sinusoidally pitching foil was carried out based on the similarity of the variation of angle of attack. In the chord-based Reynolds number range of ~O(10^5), three vortex patterns are identified in the wake: leading-edge vortex (LEV) pattern, undulating wake (UW) pattern, and reverse von Kármán vortex street (RvKVS) pattern. For VAWT, the reduced frequency k increases while the amplitude of angle of attack \alpha _\mathrmm decreases as the tip-speed ratio \lambda increases. With a small ratio of the rotor radius over the foil chord R/c, the LEV pattern is less likely to appear at low \lambda while the RvKVS pattern is more likely to appear at high \lambda . With large R/c, the LEV pattern is more likely to appear at low \lambda while the RvKVS pattern is less likely to appear at high \lambda . The light dynamic stall caused by the LEV pattern makes VAWT foil pitch at a high frequency, but the rotor moment and the VAWT power are not affected significantly. The appearance of the RvKVS pattern causes the increase of amplitudes of lift and moment coefficients as well as the production of mean thrust on the foil, which increases the torque load on the foil, the rotor moment, and the output power. Based on the results and discussions of the analogue experiment, a new configuration of the wind-catching wall with two-straight-foil small-scale VAWT units is proposed, which further improves the power coefficient for a given area of land, compared to the Nes configuration of the floating wind-catching wall with horizontal-axis wind turbine units.