Wall pressure fluctuations in rectangular partial enclosures

Wall pressure fluctuations generated within rectangular partial enclosures (RPEs) have been studied experimentally for a broad range of geometrical parameters. The geometry represents a simplified version of a new generation trapped vortex combustor and consisted of a rectangular cavity connected to a neck of smaller size. Wall pressure fluctuations have been measured through wall mounted microphones providing single and multi-variate pressure statistics both in the physical space and in the Fourier domain. In order to interpret the pressure signals, aerodynamic and acoustic investigations have been carried out as well for several cavity-neck ratios. The analysis of the acoustic response of the cavity has been conducted both numerically and experimentally and a simple theoretical model has been proposed to predict the frequency of the acoustic resonances. The aerodynamic study has been carried out through PIV measurements that provided characterization in terms of the geometrical parameters of both the large-scale vortex generated within the cavity and the recirculation zone formed upstream of the neck. The use of the POD decomposition permitted us to correlate the dynamics of the recirculation with the observed pressure statistics. The aerodynamic and acoustic investigations allowed us to interpret exhaustively the wall pressure cross-statistics and to separate contributions induced by hydrodynamic and purely acoustic pressure fluctuations.