Rectangular prism pressure coherence by modified Morlet continuous wavelet transform

Abstract

This study investigates the use of time-frequency coherence analysis for detecting and evaluating coherent "structures" of surface pressures and wind turbulence components, simultaneously on the time-frequency plane. The continuous wavelet transform-based coherence is employed in this time-frequency examination since it enables multi-resolution analysis of non-stationary signals. The wavelet coherence quantity is used to identify highly coherent "events" and the "coherent structure" of both wind turbulence components and surface pressures on rectangular prisms, which are measured experimentally. The study also examines, by proposing a "modified" complex Morlet wavelet function, the influence of the time-frequency resolution and wavelet parameters (i.e., central frequency and bandwidth) on the wavelet coherence of the surface pressures. It is found that the time-frequency resolution may significantly affect the accuracy of the time-frequency coherence; the selection of the central frequency in the modified complex Morlet wavelet is the key parameter for the time-frequency resolution analysis. Furthermore, the concepts of time-averaged wavelet coherence and wavelet coherence ridge are used to better investigate the time-frequency coherence, the coherently dominant events and the time-varying coherence distribution. Experimental data derived from physical measurements of turbulent flow and surface pressures on rectangular prisms with slenderness ratios B/D=1:1 and B/D=5:1, are analyzed.