Acoustic intensity based data analysis and assessment in computational aeroacoustics

Abstract

A methodology for assessing the quality and analysing the sound field of a numerical solution for an aeroacoustic problem is presented using an in-duct propagation problem as example. Namely an analysis of the acoustic energy conservation provides insight about the solution quality; sources of numerical error as well as physical source of sound are located by an analysis of the acoustic intensity; a mode analysis provides information about the sound field in the duct and a visualisation of the average pathway of sound by the acoustic intensity helps the interpretation of the modal amplitude data. The problem chosen for the presentation deals with the propagation of a single acoustic mode upstream through the tapering inlet duct of a centrifugal compressor. The propagation of tone noise is a typical problem for computational aeroacoustics. The numerical approach employs high-order finite-difference discretisation schemes with structured body-fitted meshes. An overset grid approach allows to overcome the geometrical complexity of the problem. The conservation of the acoustic energy is found to be violated by less than 3% in case of a potential base flow. In this case major sources of error are found in the interpolation between overset and background mesh. In case of a non-potential flow with boundary layers at the wall, the conservation of acoustic energy cannot be claimed. Consequently, it shows an increase of the acoustic energy, for which the accelerated flow in the nozzle is identified as source. It is shown that the filtering scheme affect the solution more than the spatial discretisation, if the grid resolution is relatively high. A strong scattering of energy into higher radial modes is detected. The fifth and sixth radial mode are found to be preferred in the current example. They are excited in the nozzle with a similar level. For these high radial modes, the transport of acoustic energy takes place further away from the duct wall. This explains the relatively large drop of about 20 dB for the average sound pressure level at the wall over the inlet nozzle.