Modeling of sound-turbulence interaction in low-Mach-number duct flows

Abstract: When sound waves propagate in a duct in the presence of turbulent flow, tur- bulent mixing can cause extra attenuation of the sound waves in addition to that caused by the viscothermal eects. Experiments show that compared to the vis- cothermal eects, turbulent absorption becomes the dominant contribution to the sound attenuation at suciently low frequencies. The mechanism of this turbulent absorption is attributed to the turbulent stress and the turbulent heat transfer act- ing on the coherent perturbations (including to sound waves) near the duct wall, i.e. sound-turbulence interaction.The purpose of the current investigation is to understand the mechanism of the sound-turbulence interaction in low-Mach-number internal flows by means of theoretical modeling and numerical simulation. The turbulence absorption can be modeled through perturbation turbulent Reynolds stresses and perturbation turbu- lent heat flux in the linearized perturbation equations. In this thesis, the linearized perturbation equations are reviewed, and dierent models for the turbulent absorp- tion of the sound waves are investigated. In addition, a new non-equilibrium model for the perturbation turbulent Reynolds stress is proposed. The proposed model is validated by comparing the computed perturbation fields with experimental data from turbulent pipe flow measurements, and large eddy simulations (LES) of turbu- lent channel flow. Good agreements are observed.Besides the theoretical modeling, LES is also carried out as a numerical investi- gation of the sound-turbulence interaction. Some preliminary results from the LES are presented.