Noise control of subsonic flow past open cavities based on porous floors

Abstract

In implicit large eddy simulations, a porous material was used to suppress the noise produced by a flow past an open cavity. The base case has a Mach number and Reynolds number based on the cavity depth ReD = 105. Strong pressure fluctuations were produced. The solid cavity floor was replaced by a porous material to suppress high-pressure oscillations. With a porous floor, both the pressure fluctuations inside the cavity and noise in the near field were substantially suppressed. Four controlled cases with different porosities were considered. For low porosities, the control was better with increasing porosity. The control was best when the porosity was about 11.2%, and the maximum noise reduction was more than 10 dB. As the porosity was further increased from 11.2% to 19.27%, the control effect was decreased slightly. A porous floor can produce effects of suction and injection, which alter the structures of the recirculation and the shear layer. The control is mainly influenced by the strength of the suction effect. With control, the shear layer has less energetic smaller structures, and the interactions between the shear layer and recirculation inside the cavity are weakened. The vortex–edge impingements are mitigated, and thus, the acoustic feedback is lower, which decreases the self-sustained oscillations and the noise. Basically, the noise reduction mechanisms of the four controlled cases are similar. Our results suggest that a porous cavity floor is an effective method of noise control. However, an appropriate porosity must be chosen.