Investigation of Transonic and Supersonic Flows over an Open Cavity Mounted on Curved Wall (II) - Unsteady Flow Characteristics -

Investigations into cavity flows have been conducted for noise and vibration problems that arise in cavity systems. Cavity systems have been applied in engineering devices and have undergone rapid development in the aerospace industry. Meanwhile, to the author`s best knowledge, the cavity on a curved wall has been seldom studied. The present work is conducted to study the flow physics of a cavity mounted on a curved wall. Numerical analysis is performed to investigate the cavity flow. Two variables of sub- and supersonic cavity flows were considered: the radius of curvature of the curved wall (L/R) and the inlet Mach number. The results show that the uniform vortex generated by the cavity flow on the curved wall stabilize the pressure fluctuation as time passes. As the inlet Mach number increases, the pressure fluctuation amplitude increases. The results obtained from the curved wall are compared with those from a straight wall using Rossiter`s formula. The Strouhal number of the curved wall is lower than that of the straight wall. Lower Strouhal numbers have been obtained in the present computational fluid dynamics (CFD) results than in the theoretical results using Rossiter`s formula.