Flows around a cascade of flat plates with acoustic resonance

Abstract

In order to better understand the effects of acoustic resonance on flows around a cascade of flat plates, fluid structures and acoustic fields were examined by aeroacoustic direct simulations and wind tunnel experiments. Computations and experiments were performed for the flows around five parallel plates with and without the acoustic resonance changing the freestream velocity. The aspect ratio of the plates, C/b, is 15.0, and the separation-to-thickness ratio, s/b, is 6.0. For the resonant condition of a freestream velocity of 44 m/s, the Reynolds number based on the plate thickness, b, and the freestream velocity is 5.8 × 103. The computational results revealed that large-scale vortices composed of fine-scale vortices are shed in the wake of the plates. Both experimental and computational results indicated that the shedding of the large-scale vortices is more synchronized in the spanwise direction for the resonant condition. Moreover, the shedding of the large-scale vortices from one plate and those from the neighboring plates become more synchronized in the resonant condition. The mode of this synchronization was found to be an anti-phase mode, in which the vortex is shed from the upper or lower face of one plate when the vortex is shed from the lower or upper faces of the neighboring plates. Computation of the flow around a single plate was also performed, and the radiation of the acoustic waves from the downstream edge due to vortex shedding from the plate was indicated. When acoustic resonance occurs in the flows around the cascade of flat plates, vortex shedding in the above-mentioned mode contributes to the intensification of the standing waves between the plates. Moreover, standing waves were demonstrated to induce new vortices around the upstream edges of the plates in synchronization.