Excitation of Airborne Acoustic Surface Modes Driven by a Turbulent Flow

Abstract

This experiment demonstrates the generation of trapped acoustic surface waves excited by a turbulent flow source through the coupling of pressure fluctuations at the interface between an acoustic metamaterial and a flow environment. The turbulent flow, which behaves as a stochastic pressure source, was interfaced with an acoustic metasurface waveguide stationed in a quiescent environment via a single Kevlar-covered cavity, which ensured no significant disturbance to the flow. The metasurface waveguide produced an acoustic surface mode through evanescent diffractive coupling of the pressure field. This acoustic mode was trapped at the quiescent surface, with its mode dispersion determined by the surface geometry. The results of two different metasurface geometries are discussed: 1) a slotted cavity array, and 2) a meander connected cavity array, with each demonstrating a different trapped surface wave characteristic. Fourier transform and correlation analyses of spatially resolved temporal acoustic signals, measured close to the metamaterial surface, were used to construct the frequency- and wavevector-dependent acoustic mode dispersion. The results demonstrate that the flow can be used to excite acoustic surface modes and that their mode dispersion may be tailored toward realizing novel control of turbulent flow through acoustic-flow interactions.