Aeroacoustic source analysis in a corrugated flow pipe using low-frequency mitigation

Abstract

Our study is focused on a phenomenon often encountered in flow carrying pipes, since flow instabilities caused by geometric features may generate acoustic signals and, thereafter, interact with these signals in such a way that powerful pure tones are produced. A modern example is found in the so-called ‘singing risers’, or the gas pipes connecting gas production platforms to the transport network. But the flow generated resonance in a fully corrugated circular pipe may be silenced by the addition of relatively low frequency flow oscillations induced by an acoustic generator. Experiments reported here, aimed at investigating in more detail the coupling between the flow in the pipe, the acoustically generated flow oscillations and the emitted resulting noise, are performed in a specifically designed facility. A rectangular transparent channel using glass walls enables us to use optical techniques to describe in detail the flow field in the corrugation vicinity, in addition to more standard hot-wire anemometry and acoustic pressure measurements with microphones, with and without the acoustically generated low-frequency oscillations.