Identification of aerodynamic sound source in the wake of a rotating circular cylinder

In order to reduce aerodynamic noise radiated from the turbulent wake of bluff bodies, vorticity structures and flow field around a rotating circular cylinder at Reynolds numbers between 102 and 104 were numerically investigated. Vorticity structures and resultant aerodynamic noise is strongly dependant on the velocity ratio, which is defined as flow velocity over rotational speed to the cylinder. At low velocity ratio, the noise level and aerodynamic forces increase and an anti-symmetric vorticity structure is observed. On the other hand, the absolute value of lift-drag ratio becomes small and alternative vorticity structure disappears as the velocity ratio exceeds about 2. As a result, the fluctuating aerodynamic forces become weak and the resulting aerodynamic sound becomes small. The noise level of the rotational cylinder is 10 dB lower than that of the conventional circular cylinder. Source terms of aerodynamic sound were also visualized by using vortex sound theory. The intensity of the source term of the separated shear layer rapidly change as the shear layers roll up. Therefore, the separated shear layers play an important role in generating aerodynamic sound at low velocity ratio. Since the anti-symmetric vorticity structure disappears at high velocity ratio, vorticity fluctuation and resultant aerodynamic noise is restrained. As a result, very interestingly, in the case of the high velocity ratio the intensity of the source term generated by the separated shear layer is maintained, however, the noise level gradually decreases. This reveals that cylinder rotation is an effective method for reducing the aerodynamic noise radiated from a turbulent wake.