Numerical simulation of flow‐induced noise using LES/SAS and Lighthill's acoustic analogy

Abstract

AbstractWe present a finite element (FE) formulation of Lighthill's acoustic analogy for the hybrid computation of noise generated by turbulent flows. In the present approach, the flow field is computed using large eddy simulation and scale adaptive simulation turbulence models. The acoustic propagation is obtained by solving the variational formulation of Lighthill's acoustic analogy with the FE method. In order to preserve the acoustic energy, we compute the inhomogeneous part of Lighthill's wave equation by applying the FE formulation on the fine flow grid. The resulting acoustic nodal loads are then conservatively interpolated to the coarser acoustic grid. Subsequently, the radiated acoustic field can be solved in both time and frequency domains. In the latter case, an enhanced perfectly matched layer technique is employed, allowing one to truncate the computational domain in the acoustic near field, without compromising the numerical solution. Our hybrid approach is validated by comparing the numerical results of the acoustic field induced by a corotating vortex pair with the corresponding analytical solution. To demonstrate the applicability of our scheme, we present full 3D numerical results for the computed acoustic field generated by the turbulent flow around square cylinder geometries. The sound pressure levels obtained compare well with measured values. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.