Interaction of induced sound with flow past a square leading edged plate in a duct

The interaction of resonant sounds with the flow past a thick, blunt, flat plate in a rigid walled square duct has been examined. Sound pressure levels of up to 146 dB (re 20 μPa) have been recorded. It has been established that the resonant sound can initially be excited at a harmonic of the normal vortex shedding frequency. In some cases, the sound “feeds back” on the vortex shedding process causing a step change in the shedding frequency, increasing the Strouhal number for the plate by up to twice the normal value. This excited vortex shedding and associated resonances can be suppressed by locating the plate at incidence to the air flow direction. Complex duct modes can be generated by the vortex shedding resulting in different regions of the plate shedding at different Strouhal numbers.