AERODYNAMICALLY GENERATED ACOUSTIC RESONANCE IN A PIPE WITH ANNULAR FLOW RESTRICTORS

An experimental study of the coupling between fluid dynamic instabilities and an acoustic field is performed for the case of a pipe with annular flow restrictors, representing a segmented solid propellant booster. As long as the distance between the restrictors remains smaller than the length of the flow recovery region behind the upstream restrictor, the fluid flow can amplify the acoustic pereturbations at the frequencies of the acoustic modes, leading to strong resonance for specific flow velocity ranges. A physical explanation is proposed, linking the amplification of the acoustic perturbation to the phase and frequency of vortex shedding from the restrictors. An approximate semi-empirical correlation is developed for the critical Strouhal number of the phenomenon as a function of the restrictor size and other problem parameters.