Aeolian tones of a plate cascade

Abstract

A model for the aeroacoustic resonance effects (aeolian tones) excited around a plate cascade in a gas flow is suggested. Methods of calculating the frequencies of natural acoustic oscillations near the cascade are developed. The effect of the cascade geometry and the Mach number of the main flow on the frequencies, abundance, and modes of the natural oscillations is investigated. Anomalous acoustic oscillations near a cyclic plate cascade are shown to exist and are studied. It is shown that there always exist no less than two natural oscillation frequencies in the gas flow near any nontrivial cyclic plate cascade. It has been found that the natural oscillation frequencies can be combined in bundles such that in the case where the number of plates in a period is large the frequencies pertaining to each bundle occupy a certain interval with arbitrary density. The natural oscillations are classified with respect to the form of the eigenfunctions; the classification is based on the theory of representations of groups of locally plane symmetries of the cyclic plate cascade in the solution space. The correctness of the proposed model of the aeroacoustic resonance effects (aeolian tones) excited near a plate cascade in a gas flow is supported by a comparison with the available experimental and theoretical data. On the basis of the investigation performed, some previously unknown physical phenomena are predicted. Thus, the existence of frequency zones or main-flow Mach number ranges on which aeroacoustic resonance phenomena exist near a cyclic cascade with a large number of plates in a period is proved; it is shown that for certain frequencies of the natural oscillations near the cyclic plate cascade the resonance oscillations may be localized in the vicinity of the source; and the existence of narrow-band wave packets slowly propagating along the cascade is demonstrated.