Aeroacoustics of finite wall-mounted square cylinders in pressure gradient flows

Abstract

Flow-induced noise produced by finite wall-mounted cylinders (FWMCs) is a major noise source for aircraft landing gear, rail pantographs and submarine appendages. These applications often encounter flows with various pressure gradients, however, there is little information in the literature on the effects of pressure gradients. Our recent work has demonstrated that the presence of a pressure gradient can significantly affect the near-wake flow structures of a square FWMC with a low aspect ratio of 2.4, thereby suppressing/enhancing the vortex-shedding tones. The current study extends this work to square FWMCs with varying aspect ratios, focusing on the role that aspect ratio plays in the noise generation of square FWMCs in pressure gradient flows. Experiments were undertaken using the open-jet pressure-gradient test rig in the UNSW anechoic wind tunnel, where the square FWMC model was immersed in flows with favourable-, near-zero-, and adverse-pressure gradients at a width-based Reynolds number of 28800. The square FWMC model was installed on a traversing system to realize the change in cylinder aspect ratio. Inside the test model, a series of channels and surface pressure taps were created to measure the unsteady surface pressure using a remote microphone technique. Far-field noise and unsteady surface pressure signals were simultaneously acquired to characterize the combined effects of aspect ratio and pressure gradient on the far-field noise production and reveal the noise generation mechanisms.