Self-sustained oscillations of turbulent pipe flow terminated by an axisymmetric cavity

Abstract

Turbulent flow through a long pipe terminated by an axisymmetric cavity can give rise to self-sustained oscillations exhibiting a very strong coherence, as evidenced by the narrow-band character of corresponding amplitude spectra. These oscillations, associated with the turbulent axisymmetric jet passing through the cavity, are strongly influenced by the acoustic modes of the pipe. The frequencies of oscillation lie within or near the range of most “unstable” frequencies of the turbulent jet previously predicted by using concepts of inviscid hydrodynamic stability theory; consequently, these experiments show truly self-excited and strongly coherent “instability” of a fully turbulent, low Mach number (∼10 −2), axisymmetric flow undergoing separation, corroborating previous experiments involving the external forcing of free turbulent jets. As flow velocity or cavity length is varied, both upward and downward jumps in oscillation frequency are observed; the sign (up or down) of these jumps tends to systematically alternate with increase of velocity or length. The role of these frequency jumps is, in effect, to allow the oscillation of the flow to remain “locked-on” to a pipe mode over a wide range of impingement length or flow velocity. Moreover, these jumps exhibit two types of behavior: for the first kind, the predominant frequency makes a relatively continuous transition between stages and the frequency of the neighboring stage appears as a secondary component; for the second kind, there is a dead zone (where no oscillation occurs) between stages. The consequence of externally exciting the system is strongly dependent on whether the self-sustaining oscillation is relatively near, or well away from, a frequency jump. During excitation, the amplitudes of pressure fluctuations in the cavity substantially exceed the corresponding no-flow values only in regions away from the frequency jumps; at locations of jumps, there can be significant attenuation of the no-flow excitation amplitude. For the type of frequency jump involving a “dead zone”, enhancement of a given mode of oscillation can be achieved by externally exciting not only the given mode, but also neighboring modes. For the other type of jump, involving a relatively continuous transition from one stage to the next, the predominant mode of oscillation following the jump is that mode giving maximum amplitude response to excitation before the jump.