Experimental study of vortex–structure interaction noise radiated from rod–airfoil configurations

Vortex–structure interaction noise radiated from an airfoil embedded in the wake of a rod is investigated experimentally in an anechoic wind tunnel by means of a phased microphone array for acoustic tests and particle image velocimetry (PIV) for the flow field measurements. The rod–airfoil configuration is varied by changing the rod diameter (D), adjusting the cross-stream position (Y) of the rod and the streamwise gap (L) between the rod and the airfoil leading edge. Two noise control concepts, including “air blowing” on the upstream rod and a soft-vane leading edge on the airfoil, are applied to control the vortex–structure interaction noise. The motivation behind this study is to investigate the effects of the three parameters on the characteristics of the radiated noise and then explore the influences of the noise control concepts. Both the vortex–structure interaction noise and the rod vortex shedding tonal noise are analysed. The acoustic test results show that both the position and magnitude of the dominant noise source of the rod–airfoil model are highly dependent on the parameters considered. In the case where the vortex–structure interaction noise is dominant, the application of the air blowing and the soft vane can effectively attenuate the interaction noise. Flow field measurements suggest that the intensity of the vortex–structure interaction and the flow impingement on the airfoil leading edge are suppressed by the control methods, giving a reduction in noise.