A volume integral implementation of the Goldstein generalised acoustic analogy for unsteady flow simulations

Abstract

A new volume integral method based on the Goldstein generalised acoustic analogy is developed and directly applied with large-eddy simulation (LES). In comparison with the existing Goldstein generalised acoustic analogy implementations, the current method does not require the computation and recording of the expensive fluctuating stress autocovariance function in the seven-dimensional space–time. Until now, the multidimensional complexity of the generalised acoustic analogy source term has been the main barrier to using it in routine engineering calculations. The new method only requires local pointwise stresses as an input that can be routinely computed during the flow simulation. On the other hand, the new method is mathematically equivalent to the original Goldstein acoustic analogy formulation, and, thus, allows for a direct correspondence between different effective noise sources in the jet and the far-field noise spectra. The implementation is performed for conditions of a high-speed subsonic isothermal jet corresponding to the Rolls-Royce SILOET experiment and uses the LES solution based on the CABARET solver. The flow and noise solutions are validated by comparison with experiment. The accuracy and robustness of the integral volume implementation of the generalised acoustic analogy are compared with those based on the standard Ffowcs Williams–Hawkings surface integral method and the conventional Lighthill acoustic analogy. As a demonstration of its capabilities to investigate jet noise mechanisms, the new integral volume method is applied to analyse the relative importance of various noise generation and propagation components within the Goldstein generalised acoustic analogy model.