Reflection properties of a flow pipe with a small angle diffuser outlet

• The reflection of plane acoustic waves is studied for an open pipe termination where the outlet section about 10 cm long is a diffuser with a small angle. Diffuser angles up to 6o with a sharp outlet edge are considered both without and with a mean flow. The experiments are performed for Helmholtz numbers, He, based on the pipe diameter, up to 1.0 and mean flow Mach numbers, M, up to 0.25. A multi-microphone method is used for accurate measurements of the acoustic fields inside the pipe. With no mean flow, the reflection coefficient results are compared with the theories for thin walls by Levine and Schwinger [1] and for the end correction and thick walls by Ando [2], respectively. The data for the magnitude of the reflection coefficient for different pipe end geometries show that in the low frequency regime it is the outlet radius that determines the magnitude of the energy reflection coefficient. The same collapse in the data is not obtained for the end correction which is strongly affected by the pipe end geometry. Experimental results of the reflection coefficient in the presence of a mean flow show a similar behaviour as without flow. However, it is the Strouhal number of the outlet that governs the losses, i.e., radiation and flow losses. For a region of small Strouhal numbers, the reflection is larger than one, as predicted for straight pipes, [3, 4]. An increased diffuser angle and rounded edges both increase the reflection at the pipe termination in a critical range of Strouhal numbers, which indicates that the reflection coefficient is strongly dependent on the shape, half angle, and edge curvature of the pipe end in this region.

Keyword

Accurate measurement

Diffuser angle

Energy reflection coefficients

Flow loss

Frequency regimes

Helmholtz number

Mean flow

Pipe diameter

Plane acoustic waves

Reflection properties

Rounded edge

Straight pipe

Thick-wall

Thin walls

Acoustic fields

Ducted fan engines

Mach number

Strouhal number

Reflection

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)