Sound wave scattering in a flow duct with azimuthally non-uniform liners

Abstract

Novel acoustic liner designs often incorporate new materials with non-uniform impedance distributions. Therefore, new methods are required for their modelling and analysis. In this paper, a theoretical model is developed to investigate the scattering of sound waves from an axially symmetrical flow duct with a semi-infinite, azimuthally non-uniform acoustic lining on the duct wall. More specifically, the incorporation of Fourier series expansions into the Wiener–Hopf method leads to an analytical model with a matrix kernel, which is further factorised by using the pole-removal method to obtain a closed-form solution. A new mathematical method is developed to solve the residues associated with the pole-removal technique. The proposed model has been verified and validated by comparing with corresponding computational results. In addition to shedding light on the possible physical effect of azimuthally non-uniform liners along with an axial hard–soft interface, the current model enhances the theoretical modelling capability for a complicated set-up of practical importance, and can be used to investigate new liner designs for passive noise control in flow ducts.