Mechanism of aeroacoustic sound generation and reduction in a flow past oscillating and fixed cylinders

The aeroacoustic sound generated in a flow past two cylinders, one of which is oscillating and the other is fixed, is studied by direct numerical simulation. This problem involves key ingredients of the aeroacoustic noise generated from wind turbines, helicopters, axial flow fans and other turbomachinery: flow, a moving body and a fixed body. The corrected volume penalization method is successfully applied to resolve the sound pressure of aeroacoustic waves as a solution of the compressible Navier-Stokes equations. The sound pressure was shown to be in good agreement with the prediction by the Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings aeroacoustic analogy, which takes account of the cylinder motion, confirming the accuracy of the corrected volume penalization method. Prior to the case of two cylinders, sound generation in flow past a single oscillating cylinder is considered. The fluid motion can be either periodic or non-periodic depending on the frequency and the amplitude of cylinder oscillation. The acoustic power is significantly reduced when the fluid motion locks in to a frequency lower than the natural frequency of vortex shedding from a fixed cylinder. When a fixed cylinder is added, the acoustic power depends strongly on the distance between the cylinders, since that determines whether synchronization occurs and the phase difference between the three forces: the lift forces exerted on the two cylinders and the inertial force due to volume displacement effect of the oscillating cylinder. In particular, significant sound reduction is observed when the fixed cylinder is placed upstream and the frequency of the cylinder oscillation is set to the frequency for which the acoustic power is minimized in the single-cylinder case.