Acoustic mode scattering from a heat source

Abstract

The scattering of an incident acoustic wave by a non-uniform mean flow resulting from a heat source is investigated. The heat source produces gradients in the mean flow and the speed of sound that scatter the incident duct acoustic mode into vortical, entropic, and higher-order acoustic modes. Linear solutions utilizing the compact source limit and nonlinear solutions to the Euler equations are computed to understand how variations in the amplitude and axial extent of the heat source as well as the incident acoustic wave propagation angle and amplitude modify the scattered solution. For plane wave excitation, significant entropy waves are produced as the net heat addition increases at the expense of the transmitted acoustic energy. When the net heat addition is held constant, increasing the axial extent of the heat source results in a reduction of the entropy waves produced downstream and a corresponding increase in the downstream scattered acoustic energy. For circumferential acoustic mode excitations the incident acoustic wave angle, characterized by the cutoff ratio, significantly modifies the scattered acoustic energy. As the propagating mode cutoff ratio approaches unity, a rise in the scattered vortical disturbance and a decrease in the entropic disturbance amplitude is observed. As the cutoff ratio increases, the scattered solution approaches the plane wave results. Moreover, incident acoustic waves with different frequencies and circumferential mode orders but similar cutoff ratios yield similar scattered wave coefficients. Finally, for large amplitude incident acoustic waves the scattered solution is modified by nonlinear effects. The pressure field exhibits nonlinear steepening of the wavefront and the nonlinear interactions produce higher harmonic frequency content which distorts the sinusoidal variation of the outgoing scattered acoustic waves.