Flow-induced noise from a seal-vibrissa-shaped cylinder

Abstract

Inspired by the special structure of seal vibrissae and their ability to effectively suppress vortex-induced vibrations, this paper studies the characteristics of flow and aerodynamic noise generated around a seal-vibrissa-shaped cylinder at a Reynolds number (based on the hydrodynamic diameter and freestream velocity) of 6 × 104 using the delayed detached-eddy simulation model combined with the acoustic analogy approach. The far-field aerodynamic noise has also been measured at Reynolds numbers of 6 × 104∼1.2 × 105 in an anechoic wind tunnel to compare the seal-vibrissa-shaped cylinder with cylindrical and elliptical bars of the same characteristic dimensions. The calculated spectra of aerodynamic noise agree well with the wind tunnel measurements, verifying the accuracy of the numerical simulations. It is found that the three-dimensional flow separations introduced by the alternative saddle and nodal planes of the seal-vibrissa-shaped cylinder inhibit shear layer interactions and reduce the spanwise coherence, resulting in a wake with no dominant coherent structures and thus suppressing pressure fluctuations on the solid surfaces. The configuration of seal-vibrissa-shaped cylinder eliminates the regular Kármán vortex street which generally occurs in a cylinder wake, and consequently inhibits the tonal peak in the aerodynamic noise. The sound pressure level is also reduced in most frequencies. The consistency of the normalized spectra of the far-field aerodynamic noise and the vortex shedding frequency at different inflow speeds demonstrates the high accuracy of the anechoic wind tunnel measurements. Compared with cylinders with circular or elliptical cross sections, the seal-vibrissa-shaped cylinder effectively reduces the flow-induced noise by, respectively, 13 dB or 11 dB for a far-field receiver of 90° at Reynolds number of 6 × 104, showing great potential in reducing aerodynamic noise.