Analysis and control of cavity flow

A flow above a cavity leads to an unsteady separated flow. This configuration exhibits an intense aeroacoustic coupling, where very intense aerodynamic noise can be emitted. Moreover, a majority of tangential flow above a cavity has an oscillatory character, resulting from a strong coupling between the acoustic and the flow dynamics. In the present work, we are interested in characterizing the dynamics and the frequency distribution of a cavity flow. First, the dynamics of the cavity are analyzed and the frequency distribution is established, which is followed by a study of nonlinear interaction. An open loop control using a synthetic jet is then applied in order to reduce noise generation. Finally, by choosing suitable jet parameters a significant noise reduction is obtained. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.