Perturbation-based active flow control in overexpanded to underexpanded supersonic rectangular twin jets

The effects of perturbation-based active flow control on supersonic rectangular twin jets (SRTJ) over a wide range of nozzle pressure ratios (NPR = 2.77 to 6.7, corresponding to fully expanded Mach numbers Mj = 1.3 to 1.9) were investigated. The aspect ratio and design Mach number for the bi-conic, converging-diverging nozzles were 2 and 1.5, respectively. The flow and acoustic fields of SRTJ are known to couple, often generating high near-field (NF) pressure fluctuations and elevated far-field (FF) noise levels. Large-scale structures (LSS), or equivalently instability waves or wave packets, are responsible for mixing noise, broadband shock-associated noise, screech and coupling. The primary objective of this research was to manipulate the development of LSS in this complex flow to better understand and mitigate their effects. The organization and passage frequency of the LSS were altered by excitation of instabilities over a wide range of frequencies and modes. Key findings include: (1) the screech mode of each jet was flapping along its minor axis; (2) the jets coupled, out-of-phase primarily in overexpanded cases and in-phase primarily in underexpanded cases, along the minor axis of the SRTJ; (3) coupling has significant effects on the NF pressure fluctuations, but only minor effect on the FF noise; (4) standing waves were observed only on the minor axis plane of the SRTJ; (5) altering or suppressing coupling can significantly reduce NF pressure fluctuations; (6) two high-frequency excitation methods proved effective in reducing the FF noise; and (7) nonlinear interactions between the screech tones and excitation input were observed in controlled cases in which screech was only partially suppressed.