On the statement of the problem of sound scattering by a cylindrical vortex

The well-known problem of sound wave scattering by a Rankine vortex is investigated. Although the problem has been studied for years, none of the solutions reported in the literature can be considered completely correct. It is demonstrated that the main difficulty consists in the absence of a mathematically well-posed statement of the problem for a plane wave (which is used in most of the approaches) because of the slow decrease in the mean flow velocity at infinity. This gives rise to multiple solutions, including those singular on a line behind the vortex, and each of them claims to be correct. It is shown that, in spite of the decrease in the mean flow velocity, the problem does not possess any remote region at infinity, tending to which it is possible to preset the plane wave condition for the incident field. Therefore, for the external field, the remote point source condition is proposed. This approach makes it possible to state a mathematically well-posed problem, to reveal the origin of the aforementioned ambiguity, and to compare previous approaches used for solving the problem under consideration.