DNS of a plane mixing layer for the investigation of sound generation mechanisms

Direct numerical simulations in two and three dimensions have been performed to investigate the sound generation by vortex pairing in a compressible plane mixing layer with Ma1 = 0.5 being the upper and Ma2 = 0.25 being the lower stream Mach number. The Reynolds number based on the vorticity thickness at the inflow and the velocity of the upper stream is Re=500Re=500. The flow is forced at the inflow with eigenfunctions obtained from viscous linear stability theory including three-dimensional disturbances. The results are verified with linear stability theory and the two-dimensional simulations performed by Colonius et al. [Colonius T, Lele SK, Moin P. Sound generation in a mixing layer. J Fluid Mech 1997;330:375–409]. The excitation of a steady longitudinal vortex mode leads to an early three-dimensional deformation of the travelling spanwise vortices and reduced sound emission to the slower fluid stream side.