Wall Pressure Signals Research Articles

Dynamic feature-based deep reinforcement learning for flow control of circular cylinder with sparse surface pressure sensing

This study proposes a self-learning algorithm for closed-loop cylinder wake control targeting lower drag and lower lift fluctuations with the additional challenge of sparse sensor information, taking deep reinforcement learning (DRL) as the starting point. The DRL performance is significantly improved by lifting the sensor signals to dynamic features (DFs), which predict future flow states. The resulting DF-based DRL (DF-DRL) automatically learns a feedback control in the plant without a dynamic model. Results show that the drag coefficient of the DF-DRL model is 25 % less than the vanilla model based on direct sensor feedback. More importantly, using only one surface pressure sensor, DF-DRL can reduce the drag coefficient to a state-of-the-art performance of approximately 8 % at Reynolds number $(Re) = 100$ and significantly mitigates lift coefficient fluctuations. Hence, DF-DRL allows the deployment of sparse sensing of the flow without degrading the control performance. This method also exhibits strong robustness in flow control under more complex flow scenarios, reducing the drag coefficient by 32.2 % and 46.55 % at $Re =500$ and 1000, respectively. Additionally, the drag coefficient decreases by 28.6 % in a three-dimensional turbulent flow at $Re =10\,000$ . Since surface pressure information is more straightforward to measure in realistic scenarios than flow velocity information, this study provides a valuable reference for experimentally designing the active flow control of a circular cylinder based on wall pressure signals, which is an essential step toward further developing intelligent control in a realistic multi-input multi-output system.

Supersonic combustion field evolution prediction in scramjet engine using a deblurring multi-scale attention network

Traditional deep learning technologies often overlook crucial spatiotemporal information when reconstructing supersonic combustion flow fields. These models can only reconstruct the current flow field, resulting in poor visual quality due to the atomization effect. This research introduces experimental studies on scramjet combustion flows with variable injection pressures at the inlet of a scramjet Mach 2.5, creating image datasets of flame evolution processes over different predicted time spans (5, 10, and 15 ms). It develops a multi-scale attention algorithm with deblurring (DB-MSAN) capabilities to predict the flame image after a certain period using the wall pressure signal from the previous moment. The algorithm employs two multi-head attention channels at different scales to extract timing information, encouraging the model to focus on the anisotropy of the input data and to identify more significant features. The DB module utilizes the adapted atmospheric scattering model to jointly estimate the transmission map and atmospheric light, achieving an exceptional defogging effect with a minimal computational expense. The model’s overall performance is assessed regarding efficiency and accuracy, comparing DB-MSAN’s performance differences with those of Chen’s and the ResNet16 models across multi-span, large-span, various test sets, and sparse wall measurement points. Experimental results indicated that, compared to other methods, DB-MSAN achieves a maximum peak signal-to-noise index improvement of 76.10 % and an SSIM index improvement of 155.26 % when predicting average-quality images. The prediction accuracy remains stable, even with sparse pressure input. In addition, DB-MSAN strikes an optimal balance between the number of parameters and model accuracy; it represents only 16.97 % of the volume compared to Chen’s model, which is 585 MB.

Impinging shear layer instability in over-expanded nozzle dynamics

When rocket engine nozzles operate at a high degree of over-expansion, an internal flow separation occurs with a strong unsteady shock–wave boundary layer interaction. The global dynamics results in a low-frequency mode, which is associated with the shock displacement, and a high-frequency mode, which is correlated with the shear layer–boundary layer interaction. While the mechanism responsible for the low-frequency oscillation is known, the one in charge of the high-frequency unsteadiness is not yet clear. The scope of this paper is to provide a physical explanation for this mechanism. To do that, a delayed detached eddy simulation is used to numerically reproduce the flow in the case of a sub-scale cold-gas truncated ideal contour nozzle. The obtained results are successfully compared to the experiments and confirm the presence of two non-axisymmetric wall pressure signatures at Strouhal numbers St=fDj/Uj≃0.2 and 0.3 with different azimuthal selections. To reveal the origin of such modes, a power spectral density analysis is performed in the separated region. The analysis shows that both modes originate from the external shear layer and behave as “twins” in the separated region. The reason is that both modes are two sides of the same impinging shear layer instability: the acoustic mode propagates with the sound velocity, while the hydrodynamic one propagates with the supersonic shear layer velocity. In this context, the resulting self-sustained dynamics may be due to an acoustic–hydrodynamic feedback loop involving the impinging shear layer instability of the external supersonic shear layer and the separated region.

Experimental study of coherent wall-pressure fluctuations associated with the turbulent near wake of a cylinder

The objective of this work is to present a coherent detection method to determine relationships between pressure fluctuations and wake velocity in the case of the flow past a cylinder in a turbulent regime. We report experimental results and pressure–velocity statistics measured simultaneously on the surface boundary layer and the near wake in the range of Reynolds numbers (2×103<Re<3.5×104). The novelty of the analysis lies in the application of a coherent mean method to determine conditioned wall pressure statistics to velocity events observed in the turbulent cylinder wake. The method allows one to associate wake turbulent events with a corresponding wall-pressure signal profile on the cylinder surface performing discrete angular measurements with a minimum number of pressure sensors. Simultaneous measurements of both time series of wake velocity and wall pressure allow us to characterize the mutual influence of hydrodynamic perturbations from the boundary layer surface pressure with the near wake velocity fluctuations. Large scale turbulent vortex shedding is well correlated with surface pressure fluctuations as expected in the low frequency range. Near wake velocity signals were used as timing signals to determine the coherent influence of a representative velocity pattern on the statistical properties of wall pressure fluctuations. The dynamics of low-frequency large-scale structures is consistent with the presence of counter-rotating vortices and is well correlated with a great part of the pressure fluctuations of the boundary layer. Conditional statistics using the velocity pattern obtained from the coherent averaging method provided the instantaneous pressure fluctuating profile associated with the large-scale vortex shedding cycle, thus, enabling a coherent estimation of the fluctuating lift and drag forces. Conditional statistics on wake velocity are well influenced by the phase of the vortex life-cycle.

Artificially intelligent control of drag reduction around a circular cylinder based on wall pressure feedback

Focusing on the typical problem of flow around a circular cylinder, we propose an active flow control method of reducing drag of a circular cylinder, in which a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) method is used to establish the closed-loop control strategy with pressure sensors providing feedback signals. The detailed comparisons of the lift, drag, and flow fields with and without control are conducted. In the control system, pressure sensors evenly distributed on the cylinder surface are used to provide feedback signals for the controller. The multilayer perceptron is adopted to establish the mapping relationship between the sensors and the blowing/suction jets, i.e. the control strategy. A pair of continuously adjustable synthetic jets that exert transverse force mainly on the top and bottom edge of the cylinder is implemented. Based on the state-of-the-art proximal policy optimization algorithm, the control strategy is explored and optimized during a large number of learning episodes, thus achieving an effective, efficient, and robust drag reduction strategy. To build up the high-fidelity numerical environment, we adopt the lattice Boltzmann method as a core solver, which, together with the DRL agent, establishes an interactive framework. Furthermore, the surface pressure signals are extracted during the unsteady simulation to adjust the real-time blowing/suction jets intensity. The lift information and the drag information are recorded to evaluate the performance of the current control strategy. Results show that the active control strategy learnt by the DRL agent can reduce the drag by about 4.2% and the lift amplitude by about 49% at Reynolds number 100. A strong correlation between the drag reduction effect of the cylinder and the elongated recirculation bubble is noted. In addition, the drag reduction rate varies over a range of Reynolds numbers. The active control strategy is able to reduce the drag by 17.3% and 31.6% at Reynolds number 200 and 400, respectively. Owing to the fact that wall pressure signals are easy to measure in realistic scenarios, this study provides valuable reference for experimentally designing the active flow control of a circular cylinder based on wall pressure signals and intelligent control in more complicated flow environments.

Fluid–structural coupling of an impinging shock–turbulent boundary layer interaction at Mach 3 over a flexible panel

We present high-fidelity numerical simulations of the interaction of an oblique shock impinging on the turbulent boundary layer developed over a rectangular flexible panel, replicating wind tunnel experiments by Daub et al. (AIAA Journal, vol. 54, 2016, pp. 670–678). The incoming free-stream Mach and unit Reynolds numbers are $M_{\infty } = 3$ and $Re_{\infty }=49.4\times 10^6 {\rm m}^{-1}$ , respectively. The reference boundary layer thickness upstream of the interaction with the shock is $\delta _0 = 4$ mm. The oblique shock is generated with a rotating wedge initially parallel to the flow that increases the deflection angle up to $\theta _{{max}} = 17.5^{\circ }$ within approximately $15$ ms. A loosely coupled partitioned flow–structure interaction simulation methodology is used, combining a finite-volume flow solver of the compressible wall-modelled large-eddy simulation equations, an isoparametric finite-element solid mechanics solver and a spring-system-based mesh deformation solver. Simulations are conducted with rigid and flexible panels, and the results compared to elucidate the effects of panel flexibility on the interaction. Three-dimensional effects are evaluated by conducting simulations with both full ( $50 \delta _0$ ) and reduced ( $5\delta _0$ ) spanwise panel width, the latter enforcing spanwise periodicity. Panel flexibility is found to increase the separation bubble size and modify its spectral dynamics. Time- and spanwise-averaged streamwise profiles of the wall pressure exhibit a drop over the flexible panel prior to the interaction and a reduced peak pressure in comparison with the rigid case. Spectral analyses of wall pressure data indicate that the low-frequency motions have a similar spectral distribution for the rigid and flexible cases, but the flexible case shows a wider region dominated by low-frequency motions and traces of the panel vibration on the wall pressure signal. The sensitivity of the interaction to small variations in the wedge extent and incoming boundary layer thickness is evaluated. Predictions obtained from lower-fidelity modelling simplifications are also assessed.

Direct numerical simulation of a supersonic turbulent boundary layer over a compression–decompression corner

A direct numerical simulation of the interaction between a shock wave and the supersonic turbulent boundary layer in a compression–decompression corner with a fixed 24° deflection angle at Mach 2.9 is conducted. The characteristics of the shock interactions are investigated for two heights between the compression and decompression corners, corresponding to H/δref=4.25, 1.22, where δref denotes the reference turbulent boundary layer thickness. A classic shock wave/turbulent boundary layer interaction flow is reproduced in the higher case. For the lower case, the size of the separation region is significantly decreased, and the low-frequency unsteadiness is slightly suppressed in the interaction region, as assessed by analyzing the mean and fluctuating wall pressure. Flow patterns near the reattachment line show the existence of the Görtler vortices. By analyzing the curvature radius and Görtler number distribution, it was found that a strong centrifuge instability is reserved in the compression corner region and reversed in the decompression corner region due to the convex streamline curvature. The downstream flow of the decompression corner is relatively complex where the additional shocklet and new streamwise vortices are observed. A negative response mechanism is found regarding fluctuating wall-pressure signatures between the upstream and downstream of the decompression corner.

Experimental investigation of supercritical carbon dioxide non-equilibrium condensation in a highly unsteady environment

The current work presents a study of qualitative relationships between the flow unsteadiness, induced by nozzle geometry variation, and non-equilibrium condensation behavior at high temporal scales for supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) flow. A closed sCO2 loop facility is used to drive a supercritical carbon dioxide flow through a rectangular converging–diverging channel. As the flow traverses through the channel, it experiences a local pressure reduction in a stalled region, eventually leading to non-equilibrium condensation of the working fluid. The flow is visualized using high-speed shadowgraphy and schlieren techniques to characterize the unsteady flow dynamics at the diverging section of the nozzle. Spectral information of the condensation behavior is retrieved from the optical diagnostics using power spectral density calculations, revealing multiple dominant frequencies in the diverging section of the nozzle. Three different nozzles are studied to understand how these dominant frequencies of condensation phenomenon change with respect to the nozzle geometry. Each nozzle design is distinguished with a unique dominant frequency, which is significantly impacted by the effect of flow throat velocity and the degree of adverse pressure gradient. Nozzles with divergence of 15° shows a dominant frequency in the range of 5 – 6.25 kHz in condensing behavior while nozzles with 6° divergence exhibited half the frequency of the phase change. These effects resulted from the extent of adverse pressure gradient imposed by the divergence angle of the nozzle. Additionally, these dominant frequencies are also compared to the wall-pressure signals acquired from high-frequency pressure transducers. Spectral analysis of wall-pressure signals, which are directly linked to nozzle designs, reveals a strong coupling between the condensation behavior and the wall-pressures.

Reynolds-Averaged Numerical Simulations of Conical Shock-Wave/Boundary-Layer Interactions

We carry out a parametric study of conical shock-wave/turbulent boundary-layer interactions by means of numerical simulation of the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations, with the eventual goal of establishing the predictive capabilities of standard turbulence models. Preliminary assessment of several linear-eddy-viscosity models for the case of planar interactions shows that the model and its variants as well as the Spalart–Allmaras model yield accurate prediction of the typical interaction length scale. Numerical simulations of conical interactions at high Reynolds numbers under attached and separated flow conditions generally support good capability of RANS to predict the gross flow features, including conditions of incipiently and fully separated flow. Comparison with direct numerical simulation data at low Reynolds numbers suggests that caution should be made because certain turbulence models may yield unrealistic incoming velocity profiles. With this caveat, we again find that RANS models yield satisfactory prediction of the three-dimensional flow organization and associated length scales. The -wave mean wall pressure signature is quantitatively predicted, and accurate information about the fluctuating pressure variance can be obtained from RANS data in a postprocessing stage by extension of correlations developed for low-speed separation bubbles.

Numerical Analysis of Side-loads Reduction in a Sub-scale Dual-bell Rocket Nozzle

A calibrated delayed detached eddy simulation of a sub-scale cold-gas dual-bell nozzle flow at high Reynolds number and in sea-level mode is carried out at nozzle pressure ratio NPR = 45.7. In this regime the over-expanded flow exhibits a symmetric and controlled flow separation at the inflection point, that is the junction between the two bells, leading to the generation of a low content of aerodynamic side loads with respect to conventional bell nozzles. The nozzle wall-pressure signature is analyzed in the frequency domain and compared with the experimental data available in the literature for the same geometry and flow conditions. The Fourier spectra in time and space (azimuthal wavenumber) show the presence of a persistent tone associated to the symmetric shock movement. Asymmetric modes are only slightly excited by the shock and the turbulent structures. The low mean value of the side-loads magnitude is in good agreement with the experiments and confirms that the inflection point dampens the aero-acoustic interaction between the separation-shock and the detached shear layer.

Single and Multivariate Statistics of Jet-Induced Pressure Fluctuations over an Infinite Plate

Motivated by the problem of the installation effects of modern turbofan engines, we experimentally investigated the interaction between a compressible subsonic jet and a tangential flat plate. Measurements of wall pressure fluctuations were performed in a semi-anechoic environment addressing the effect of several governing parameters, such as the stream-wise and span-wise location, the jet Mach number and the radial distance of the plate surface from the jet axis. The statistical properties of the wall pressure signals were analyzed in terms of both power spectra and cross-correlations, with the latter providing the estimation of the phase speed. The analysis is also carried out in the time-frequency domain through the application of the wavelet transform to further characterize the dynamics of the wall pressure signatures.

Flow dynamics and wall-pressure signatures in a high-Reynolds-number overexpanded nozzle with free shock separation

A delayed detached eddy simulation of an overexpanded nozzle flow with shock-induced separation is carried out at a Reynolds number of , based on nozzle throat diameter and stagnation chamber properties. In this flow, self-sustained shock oscillations induce local unsteady loads on the nozzle wall as well as global off-axis forces. Despite several studies in the last few decades, a clear physical understanding of the factors driving this unsteadiness is still lacking. The geometry under investigation is a subscale truncated ideal contour nozzle, which was experimentally tested at the University of Texas at Austin at a nozzle pressure ratio of 30. Under these conditions, the nozzle operates in a highly overexpanded state and comprises a conical separation shock that merges to form a Mach disk at the nozzle centre. The delayed detached eddy simulation model agrees well with the experimental results in terms of mean and fluctuating wall-pressure statistics. Wall-pressure spectra reveal a large bump at low frequencies associated with an axisymmetric (piston-like) motion of the shock system, followed by a broad and high-amplitude peak at higher frequencies associated with the Mach waves produced by turbulent eddies convecting through the detached shear layer. Moreover, a distinct peak at an intermediate frequency ( ) persists in the wall-pressure spectra downstream of the separation shock. A Fourier-based analysis performed in both time and space (azimuthal wavenumber) reveals that this intermediate-frequency peak is associated with the (non-symmetric) pressure mode and is thus related to the generation of aerodynamic side loads. It is then shown how the unsteady Mach disk motion is characterized by an intense vortex shedding activity that, together with the vortical structures of the annular shear layer, contributes to the sustainment of an aeroacoustic feedback loop occurring within the nozzle.

Influence of hydrogen equivalence ratios on supersonic combustion based on large eddy simulations

Scramjet engines are propulsion systems with high specific impulse performances, which are widely implemented for the realization of hypersonic flight. In this study, the influence of global hydrogen equivalence ratios on supersonic combustion under hypersonic flow was evaluated by conducting a large eddy simulation. First, numerical simulation results revealed a good agreement between the experimentally determined wall pressure and shockwave signal, which verified the accuracy of the numerical method. Moreover, the influence of the equivalence ratio on the characteristics of supersonic combustion was investigated. The results revealed that the complexity of the waveform increased with an increase in the equivalence ratio, owing to the higher combustor pressure and significant interactions between the flames and boundary layer. In particular, the combustion expanded to the center of the flow field, and the average Mach number of the flow field decreased. In addition, the size of the auto-ignition region decreased; however, it was under supersonic flow. The influence of the equivalence ratio on the heat release rate (HRR) under different combustion modes was investigated. The results revealed that the total HRR increased with an increase in the equivalence ratio. Moreover, the majority HRR was in the auto-ignition region, and supersonic combustion was pre-dominant. This study was based on the scramjet model engine without flameholders under hypersonic conditions; therefore, the findings cannot be applied to scramjet combustors under other conditions.

Wind tunnel measurements of the surface pressure fluctuations on the new VEGA-C space launcher

An extensive wind tunnel test campaign devoted to the characterization of the aerodynamic and aeroacoustic behaviour of the new Space Launcher VEGA-C has been carried out in the trisonic wind tunnel available at the National Institute for Aerospace Research (INCAS) in Bucharest. The present paper summarizes the main results of the aeroacoustic investigation with a specific focus on the buffeting analysis. For this reason, the results presented herein are limited to the transonic conditions which are the most critical in terms of occurrence of flow instabilities. The scaled instrumented model of the VEGA-C launcher has been equipped with flush mounted Kulite sensors that provided the distribution of the wall pressure fluctuations. Pressure measurements at the wall of the wind tunnel have been carried out as well, with the scope of measuring reference signals to be used for cleaning the model pressure data from the background noise. Numerical simulations have been also performed to facilitate the physical interpretation of the experimental outcomes by qualitatively identifying the position of the shockwaves and tracking their evolution along the launcher for increasing Mach number. Data processing provides temporal statistics of the wall pressure signals as well as spectral quantities that give clear indications about the absence of buffeting.

Automatic stability control using tip air injection in a multi-stage axial flow compressor

Automatic stability control is experimentally investigated using tip air injection in a multi-stage axial flow compressor. The warning signal is obtained according to the auto- and cross-correlation algorithm integrated in the digital signal processing controller for online monitoring wall pressure signal at different stages. It is used as a feedback signal to drive the discrete proportional jet valves. The control law depends on the stall margin improvement (SMI) versus injected momentum ratio relationship. The real-time detection algorithms based on the correlation theory are experimentally studied using a collection of pressure transducers installed symmetrically on the casing at different stages. The results reveal that because of the initial appearance of stall inception at the first stage, which induced a stall in all stages of the compressor, only the correlation coefficient detected at the first stage exhibits a decreasing trend in the throttling process. Moreover, only the tip air injection at the first stage can obtain a large SMI. Therefore, the correlation coefficient detected at the first stage is used as the feedback signal in the controller after verifying the influence of injected air on the correlation coefficient. Compared with steady injection, the proposed automatic stability control can save energy when the compressor is stable and provide protection to extend the stall margin when close to the stall point. With a nearly equal SMI as the steady injection (the maximum SMI is 20%), the energy of the active injected air is approximately one-fifth of the steady injection. This active control can fully consider the failure control such that when the control system is inoperative, the aero-engine continues safe operate under normal circumstances.

The obestatin/G-protein coupled receptor 39 (GPR39) system in pancreatic cancer: proliferation studies in pancreatic cancer cell lines

The objective of this paper is to investigate the cavitation evolution and excited pressure fluctuation in unsteady sheet/cloud cavitating flows in a convergent–divergent channel using a combination of experimental and computational studies. In the experiments, a simultaneous sampling technique is used to synchronize the cavitation images with wall-pressure signals. The computations are based on the Navier–Stokes equations solved with a mass transfer cavitation model and a modified RNG k–ε turbulence model. The experimental results indicate that, for non-cavitating flow, neither significant fluctuation nor periodic fluctuation can be observed. However, in the case of sheet/cloud cavitating conditions, significant quasi-periodic pressure fluctuations are captured in the entire cavitation area. The numerically predicted unsteady sheet/cloud cavitation behaviors agree well with the experimental results; both the experimental and computational results indicate that a typical quasi-periodic sheet/cloud cavitation development process can be divided into three main stages: (1) the growth of the attached cavity, (2) shedding of the attached cavity, and (3) growth and collapse of the detached cavities. The quasi-periodic pressure fluctuations in sheet/cloud cavitation are found to be highly related with the time evolution of the cavitation behaviors. The acceleration due to the changes in the cavity volume is found to be the main source of the excited pressure fluctuations. The pressure signal decreases in the middle of the growing process of the attached cavity and the detached cavity. Next, the pressure signal increases and reaches a peak with the collapse of large detached cavity near transducer 4#.

Modal analysis of the laminar boundary layer instability and tonal noise of an airfoil at Reynolds number 150,000

A direct numerical simulation of the flow field around a controlled-diffusion airfoil within an anechoic wind-tunnel at [Formula: see text] incidence and a high Reynolds number of [Formula: see text] is performed for the first time using a lattice Boltzmann method. The simulation compares favorably with experimental measurements of wall-pressure, wake statistics, and far-field sound. The simulation noticeably captures experimentally observed high-amplitude acoustic tones that rise above a broadband hump. Both noise components are related to a breathing of a recirculation bubble formed around 65–70% of the chord, and to Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities in the separated shear layer that yield rollers that break down into turbulent vortices whose diffraction at the trailing edge produces a strong dipole acoustic field. A wavelet analysis of the wall-pressure signals combined with some flow visualization has shown that the flow statistics are dominated by intense events caused by intermittent, large and intense bursting rollers. Several modal analyses of these events are performed on both the wall-pressure fluctuations and the span averaged flow field in order to analyse the boundary layer instability which triggers the typical sharp tones over a broadband hump in airfoil noise. A suction side Kelvin-Helmholtz instability is observed to be coupled with a pressure side vortex shedding induced by the sudden transition to turbulence and the blunt trailing edge.

Wall pressure and vorticity in the intermittently turbulent regime of the Stokes boundary layer

In this paper we study the wall pressure and vorticity fields of the Stokes boundary layer in the intermittently turbulent regime through direct numerical simulation (DNS). The DNS results are compared to experimental measurements and a good agreement is found for the mean and fluctuating velocity fields. We observe maxima of the turbulent kinetic energy and wall shear stress in the early deceleration stage and minima in the late acceleration stage. The wall pressure field is characterized by large fluctuations with respect to the root mean square level, while the skewness and kurtosis of the wall pressure show significant deviations from their Gaussian values. The wall vorticity components show different behaviours during the cycle: for the streamwise component, positive and negative fluctuations have the same probability of occurrence throughout the cycle while the spanwise fluctuations favour negative extrema in the acceleration stage and positive extrema in the deceleration stage. The wall vorticity flux is a function of the wall pressure gradients. Vorticity creation at the wall reaches a maximum at the beginning of the deceleration stage due to the increase of uncorrelated wall pressure signals. The spanwise vorticity component is the most affected by the oscillations of the outer flow. These findings have consequences for the design of wave energy converters. In extreme seas, wave induced fluid velocities can be very high and extreme wall pressure fluctuations may occur. Moreover, the spanwise vortical fields oscillate violently in a wave cycle, inducing strong interactions between vortices and the device that can enhance the device motion.

Effects of air injection on the characteristics of unsteady sheet/cloud cavitation shedding in the convergent-divergent channel

The objective of this paper is to investigate the effects of air injection on the characteristics of two different unsteady sheet/cloud cavitation shedding mechanisms, namely re-entrant flow mechanism and bubbly shock propagation mechanism, in the convergent-divergent channel. Experiments were conducted in the 10° divergent section with a ventilation slit near the throat, using a simultaneous sampling technique to synchronize the transient cavity behaviors with wall-pressure signals. Results are presented at a Reynolds number 9.33 × 105 and Froude number 10.24 for (1) under re-entrant flow mechanism (σ = 0.81) characterized by the intermittent shedding of small-scale cavities, and (2) under bubbly shock propagation mechanism (σ = 0.70) characterized by periodic large-scale cavity cloud shedding, with three non-dimensional air injection volumetric flow rates, namely 0, 1.135 × 10−3 and 2.270 × 10−3. The results show that air injection from the throat into the shear layer can significantly suppress cavitation induced unsteady pressure fluctuations. With the increasing of air flow rate, the size of the attached sheet cavity and the shedding cavity clusters grows larger, and the distance between the new attached sheet cavity and the shedding cavity cloud decreases, resulting in the cavitation region misty. The cavitation evolution tends to be stable, indicating the increase in the cavitation cycle, and the FFT analysis of the unsteady pressure fluctuations shows the decrease in dominant frequency. For the re-entrant flow mechanism condition, air injection rate at 1.135 × 10−3 will cause the transition from small-scale cavity clusters shedding to large-scale cavity cloud shedding, accompanying with pressure fluctuations increasing. With the air injection rate further increase, the pressure fluctuations decrease. Air injection can significantly reduce the unsteady pressure fluctuations spectral content in the frequency range of 1 kHz to 10 kHz. For the bubbly shock propagation mechanism condition, air injection can avoid the formation and propagation of the bubbly shock and suppress both the pressure peaks and pressure fluctuations. With the increase in the air injection rate, the unsteady pressure fluctuations are further suppressed. The unsteady pressure spectral content between 0.2 kHz and 10 kHz is effectively reduced.

Wind tunnel study of wind effects on a high-rise building at a scale of 1:300

The objective of the present paper is to investigate the unsteady characteristics of the global and local wind loads and their relationships with the oncoming atmospheric boundary layer through wind-tunnel tests on a high-rise building with a well-defined atmospheric boundary layer at a 1:300 scale. Complete information on wind (mean velocity profile, turbulence intensity, power spectrum of the fluctuation, etc.) and global and local wind loads is analyzed. The results of the present study show that, depending on the location, wall-pressure forces on the tower are under the influence of the upstream flow or the shear layers that form at the upstream corners of the building or both of them. Good agreement between the literature and the present study is found regarding the Strouhal number characteristics of the most energetic frequency in the wall-pressure spectra. Based on the analysis of the spectral coherence between wall-pressure signal at different pressure tap locations, the loss of the strong spectral signature for the global wind force in the longitudinal direction is attributed to the loss of phase coherence between pressure signals on these sides.