Control of cavity tones using a spanwise cylinder

A detailed experimental study of flow over a deep cavity was conducted towards understanding the attenuation of tones using a spanwise cylinder. Two "no-control" cavities were compared with a similar configuration using a cylinder on the leading edge of the cavities. Parametric changes of the spanwise cylinder such as the distance from the wall are studied. Maximum control across the range of studied velocities occurs for a particular position of the spanwise cylinder for the two configurations. Reductions in sound pressure levels (SPL) of up to 36 dB were obtained. Moreover, a shaped cylinder was also studied and shows that the attenuation of tones is not due to high-frequency pulsing as suggested in the literature, but to an increase of the cavity-shear-layer thickness due to the change in the mean axial velocity profiles.