Experimental and numerical investigation of a new active control method to suppression of vortex shedding and reduction of sound pressure level of a circular cylinder

Abstract

The reduction of sound pressure level (SPL) induced by the fluid flow is one of the central factors in the modern aerodynamic designs. In the present study, the aerodynamic specifications of the flow over a cylinder with specific diameter and length were numerically and experimentally investigated in different conditions. The experiments were performed in a wind tunnel for various operating conditions, and an in-house OpenFoam multiphase-acoustic solver was applied for numerical investigation. The present study aimed at forming a relationship between SPL propagation and water injection as a modern active control method to decrease flow SPL. Curl's acoustic analogy was used in the applied solver alongside the k-ω SST turbulence model. Also, the simulation results were validated against experimental data. Both numerical and experimental results indicated the key role of water injection in the reduction of the SPL propagation. Furthermore, the results revealed that the mass flow rate ratio of the water injection to the inlet flow of 36 was an optimum state for the SPL reduction. In the next stage, different angles of water injection were investigated, revealing that the water injection angle of 60∘ caused a dramatic decrease in the SPL propagation.