Aeroacoustics of Twin Rectangular Jets Including Screech: Large-eddy Simulations with Experimental Validation

Abstract

High-fidelity large-eddy simulations (LES) are performed to investigate aeroacoustic characteristics of jets issuing from twin rectangular nozzles with an aspect ratio of 2:1 at two over-expanded conditions and the design condition. For all three jet conditions simulated, LES predicts qualitatively similar near-field flow statistics to those measured at the University of Cincinnati. Using the Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings method, LES captures the fundamental screech tone and its harmonics fairly well at multiple observer locations in the far-field. Intense jet flapping motions in the near-field along the minor axis, which are influenced by jet-to-jet interactions, are found to correspond to those frequencies. Moreover, the predicted overall sound pressure levels are within 1-2 dB of the experimental measurements. However, the screech tones appear to be intermittent, as the twin-jet interaction pattern varies irregularly. To extract dominant flow structures at the screech frequencies and identify the twin-jet coupling modes, spectral proper orthogonal decomposition (SPOD) analysis is used. SPOD analysis recovers energetic peaks at the screech frequencies, and the corresponding leading modes indicate strong upstream radiation originating from the fifth/sixth shock-cells. For the two over-expanded conditions, the leading modes show anti-symmetric coupling in the minor axis at the fundamental screech frequencies. In contrast, the two jets behave symmetrically with respect to each other in the major axis, in line with the absence of jet flapping in this direction. Furthermore, the leading SPOD eigenvalues turn out to be, at least, two orders of magnitude larger than higher-order eigenvalues, suggesting potential of reduced-order models for the twin-jet screech.