Efficient shear layer corrections for acoustics in arbitrary jet flows

Localization of aeroacoustic sound sources in open jet wind tunnel experiments requires an accurate prediction of the acoustic propagation time. Most conventional predictions use either a ray-tracer, coupled with a modelled continuous velocity field, or use ray diffraction and a discretization of the velocity field by means of vortex sheets. In this work a novel method is proposed in which the continuous velocity field is discretized into blocks of constant velocity separated by velocity discontinuities, thus removing the requirement for the velocity to be parallel to the surface that separates the blocks. The acoustic ray is solved by minimization of the acoustic propagation time. The computational effort is low compared to ray-tracing methods while maintaining an improvement in accuracy compared to methodologies using vortex sheets. A specific continuous velocity field is derived that models a self-similar shear layer expanding asymmetrically from a rectangular nozzle. Subsequently, this velocity field is discretized to compute the acoustic rays. Experimental results with a loudspeaker source placed in the open jet of a large industrial wind tunnel showed a decrease in source localization uncertainty compared to techniques based on vortex sheets. This is attributed to the inclusion of the shear layer slanting.