Effect of impingement edge geometry on the acoustic resonance excitation and Strouhal numbers in a ducted shallow cavity

Flow-excited acoustic resonance in ducted cavities can produce high levels of acoustic pressure that may lead to severe damage. This occurs when the flow instability over the cavity mouth, which is created by the free shear layer separation at the upstream edge, is coupled with one of the acoustic modes in the accommodating enclosure. Acoustic resonance can cause high amplitude fluctuating acoustic loads in and near the cavity. Such acoustic loads could cause damage in sensitive applications such as aircraft weapon bays. Therefore, the suppression and mitigation of these resonances are very important. Much of the work done in the past focused on the fluid-dynamic oscillation mechanism or suppressing the resonance by altering the edge condition at the shear layer separation. However, the effect of the downstream edge has received much less attention. This paper considers the effect of the impingement edge geometry on the acoustic resonance excitation and Strouhal number values of the flow instabilities in a ducted shallow cavity with an aspect ratio of 1.0. Several edges, including chamfered edges with different angles and round edges with different radii, were investigated. In addition, some downstream edges that have never been studied before, such as saw-tooth edges, spanwise cylinders, higher and lower steps, and straight and delta spoilers, are investigated. The experiments are conducted in an open-loop wind tunnel that can generate flows with a Mach number up to 0.45. The study shows that when some edge geometries, such as lower steps, chamfered, round, and saw-tooth edges, are installed downstream, they demonstrate a promising reduction in the acoustic resonance. On the other hand, higher steps and straight spoilers resulted in intensifying the acoustic resonance. In addition, the effect of edge geometry on the Strouhal number is presented.