Shallow Cavity Flow Tones: Transformation from Large- to Small-Scale Modes

Peter Oshkai > Research > Publications and Presentations
Department of Mechanical Engineering > University of Victoria
P. Oshkai, D. Rockwell, and M. Pollack 2003 "Shallow Cavity Flow Tones: Transformation from Large- to Small-Scale Modes", submitted to Journal of Sound and Vibration.

Abstract

The generation of flow tones in an axisymmetric cavity is addressed for the case where the inflow is fully turbulent and the acoustic wavelength is much longer than the cavity length. Emphasis is on the nature of flow tones in relation to variations of cavity length. For a sufficiently long cavity, the fully-evolved axisymmetric instability yields a large-scale mode. When the cavity length is decreased to progressively smaller values, the mode of oscillation transforms from this large-scale mode to a small-scale mode, which occurs at small values of cavity length, and scales on the momentum thickness of the separating shear layer. The existence and magnitude of pronounced oscillations, i.e., flow tones, over the range of cavity length is related to the cavity depth, relative to the thickness of the inflow boundary layer when the cavity length is sufficiently small. Oscillations are suppressed when either the cavity depth or length is sufficiently small relative to the momentum thickness of the inflow boundary layer.


poshkai@me.uvic.ca