Numerical and experimental investigation of flow-acoustic resonance of side-by-side cylinders in a duct

The phenomenon of flow-excited acoustic resonance is a design concern in many engineering applications, especially when wakes of bluff bodies are encountered in ducts, piping systems, heat exchangers, and other confined systems. In this paper, the case of self-excited acoustic resonance of two side-by-side cylinders in a duct with cross-flow is investigated both numerically and experimentally for a single spacing ratio of T/D=2.5, where D is the diameter of the cylinders and T is the centre-to-centre distance between them. The numerical investigation is performed using a finite-volume method at a Reynolds number of 3.0×104 to simulate the unsteady flow field, which is then coupled with an imposed resonant sound field of the first acoustic cross-mode of the duct calculated through the use of Finite Element Analysis (FEA). The experimental investigation has been performed using phase-locked Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) of the flow field during the occurrence of a self-excited acoustic resonance condition in the duct. The results of both methods reveal that the flow-excited acoustic resonance produces a strong oscillatory flow pattern in the cylinder wakes, with strong in-phase vortex shedding being synchronized by the acoustic resonance. The distribution and strength of the aeroacoustic sources and sinks within the flow field have been computed by means of Howe׳s theory of aerodynamic sound for both the experimental and numerical cases, with the results of the two methods comparing favourably, showing comparable trends in the oscillating flow fields, and very similar trends in the distribution of net acoustic power.