On the interaction of a moving hollow vortex with an aerofoil, with application to sound generation

Abstract

A hollow vortex in the form of a straight tube, parallel to the z-axis, and of radius a, moves in a uniform stream of fluid with velocity U in the x-direction, with U small compared with the sound speed c. This steady flow is disturbed by the presence of a thin symmetric fixed aerofoil. With a change of x-coordinate, the problem is equivalent to that of a moving aerofoil cutting through an initially fixed vortex in still fluid. The aim of this work is to determine the resulting perturbed flow, and to estimate the distant sound field. A detailed calculation is given for the perturbed velocity potential in the incompressible flow case, for the linearized equations in the limit of small aerofoil thickness. A formally exact solution involves a four-fold integral and an infinite sum over all mode numbers. For the important special case where the vortex tube has small radius a compared with the aerofoil width, the deformed vortex is characterized by a hypothetical vortex filament located at the ‘mean centre’ x¯(z, t), y¯(z, t) of the tube. Explicit results are given for x¯(z, t), y¯(z, t) for the case where the aerofoil has the elementary rectangular profile; results can then be obtained for more general and realistic cylindrical aerofoils by a single integral weighted with the derivative of the aerofoil thickness function. Finally the distant sound field is estimated, representing the aerofoil by a distribution of moving monopole sources and representing the effect of the deformed vortex in terms of compressible dipoles along the mean centre of the vortex.