Passive noise control by enhancing aeroacoustic interference due to structural discontinuities in close proximity

In-duct devices are commonly installed in flow ducts for various flow management purposes. The structural construction of these devices indispensably creates disruption to smooth flow through duct passages so they exist as structural discontinuities in duct flow. The presence of these discontinuities provides additional possibility of noise generation. In real practice, in-duct devices do not exist alone in any duct system. Even though each in-duct device would generate its own noise, it might be possible that these devices could be properly arranged so as to strengthen the interference between individual noise; thus giving rise to an overall reduction of noise radiation in the in-duct far field. This concept of passive noise control is investigated by considering different configurations of two structural discontinuities of simple form (i.e., a cavity) in tandem in an unconfined flow and in opposing setting within a flow duct. It is known that noise generated by a cavity in unconfined domain (unconfined cavity) is strongly dependent on flow-resonant behavior within the cavity so the interference it produces is merely aeroacoustic. The objective of the present study is to verify the concept of passive noise reduction through enhancement of aeroacoustic interference due to two cavities by considering laminar flow only. A two-dimensional approach is adopted for the direct aeroacoustic calculations using a direct numerical simulation (DNS) technique. The position and geometries of the cavities and the Mach number are varied; the resultant aeroacoustic behavior and acoustic power are calculated. The numerical results are compared with a single cavity case to highlight the effect of introducing additional cavities to the aeroacoustic problem. Resonant flow oscillations occur when two unconfined cavities are very close and the associated acoustic field is very intense with no noise reduction possible. However, for duct aeroacoustics, it is found that a 7.9 db reduction of acoustic power in the downstream side of the duct or a total reduction of ∼6 db is possible with opposing cavities having an offset of half a cavity length. In addition, the reduction is shown to be free from lock-on with trapped modes of the ducts with cavities.