When sound waves propagate in a duct in the presence of turbulent flow, turbulent mixing can cause attenuation of the sound waves extra to that caused by the viscothermal effects. Experiments show that compared to the viscothermal effects, this turbulent absorption becomes the dominant contribution to the sound attenuation at sufficiently low frequencies. The mechanism of this turbulent absorption is attributed to the turbulent stress and the turbulent heat transfer acting on the coherent perturbations (including the sound waves) near the duct wall, i.e. sound-turbulence interaction. The purpose of the current investigation is to understand the mechanism of the sound-turbulence interaction in low-Mach-number internal flows by theoretical modeling and numerical simulations. The turbulence absorption can be modeled through perturbation turbulent Reynolds stresses and perturbation turbulent heat flux in the linearized perturbation equations. In this thesis, the linearized perturbation equations are reviewed, and different models for the turbulent absorption of the sound waves are investigated. A new non–equilibrium model for the perturbation turbulent Reynolds stress is also proposed. The proposed model is validated by comparing with experimental data from the literature, and with the data from Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) of pulsating turbulent channel flow. Good agreement is observed. / <p>QC 20150526</p>

No / A novel technique for the laboratory characterization of the frequency-dependent acoustic surface admittance of partly saturated samples of sands is presented. The technique is based on a standard laboratory de-watering apparatus coupled with a standard acoustic impedance tube. The dependence of the surface admittance on the degree of water saturation is investigated for two samples of sand with widely different flow resistivities. It is shown that a relatively small change (e.g., from 0% to 11% by volume) in the degree of water saturation can result in a much larger change (e.g., twofold) in the acoustic surface admittance. An empirical relationship is found between the peaks observed in the real part of admittance spectra for the low flow resistivity sand and the degree of water saturation. The data are compared with predictions of two widely used ground impedance models: a semiempirical single parameter model and a two parameter model. A modified two-parameter version of a single-parameter model is found to give comparable fit to the two-parameter model. However, neither model provides an accurate fit.

No / The Helmholtz integral equation formulation is used to produce the solution for the acoustic field reflected from a finite, thin, poroelastic plate in a rigid baffle with simply supported edges. The acoustic properties of the porous material are predicted using the effective fluid assumption. The solutions for the displacement of the plate and for the loading acoustic pressures are given in the form of the sine transform. The sine transform coefficients are obtained from the solution of a system of linear equations resulting from three integral Helmholtz formulations which relate the displacement of the plate and the acoustic pressures on the front and on the back of the plate. The effect of an air gap behind the plate in the front of a rigid wall is also considered. A parametric study is performed to predict the effect of variations in the parameters of the poroelastic plate. It is shown that thin, light, poroelastic plates can provide high values of the acoustic absorption even for low frequency sound. This effect can be exploited to design compact noise control systems with improved acoustic performance.

No / A numerical method for sound propagation of higher-order cross-sectional modes in a duct of arbitrary cross-section and boundary conditions with nonzero, complex acoustic admittance has been considered. This method assumes that the cross-section of the duct is uniform and that the duct is of a considerable length so that the longitudinal modes can be neglected. The problem is reduced to a two-dimensional (2D) finite element (FE) solution, from which a set of cross-sectional eigen-values and eigen-functions are determined. This result is used to obtain the modal frequencies, velocities and the attenuation coefficients. The 2D FE solution is then extended to three-dimensional via the normal mode decomposition technique. The numerical solution is validated against experimental data for sound propagation in a pipe with inner walls partially covered by coarse sand or granulated rubber. The values of the eigen-frequencies calculated from the proposed numerical model are validated against those predicted by the standard analytical solution for both a circular and rectangular pipe with rigid walls. It is shown that the considered numerical method is useful for predicting the sound pressure distribution, attenuation, and eigen-frequencies in a duct with acoustically nonrigid boundary conditions. The purpose of this work is to pave the way for the development of an efficient inverse problem solution for the remote characterization of the acoustic boundary conditions in natural and artificial waveguides.