The wake dynamics behind a sinusoidally pitching custom designed symmetrical airfoil is analyzed computationally. The effect of pitching frequency and pitching amplitude is investigated independently at a constant Reynolds number. The wake patterns are found to exhibit a transition from von Karman to reverse von Karman vortex street and from symmetric reverse von Karman vortex street to asymmetric deflected wake as established. For laminar flow under investigation, the contours of time-varying velocity fluctuations are presented. The mean profiles of velocity and the fluctuations at different locations in the wake show that the thrust wakes are generated at the expense of energy of the surrounding fluid. The temporal behavior of the flow field is analyzed using the phase plot. The time series plots of force coefficients show a periodic loading on the airfoil. Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) analysis of drag, neutral and thrust wakes displayed the evolution of coherent structures in the flow field. The evolution of these structures portray the transitions in the wake of the airfoil. The merging of coherent structures in an asymmetric deflected wake turns out to be an efficient way of identifying the location of deflection. © 2020 Elsevier Masson SAS