Aerodynamic Sound Radiated from Longitudinal and Transverse Vortex Systems Generated around the Leading Edge of Delta Wings

Flow around the front pillar of an automobile is typical of a flow field with separated and reattached flow by a vortex system. It is known that the vortex system causes the greatest aerodynamic sound around a vehicle. The objective of the present study is to clarify the relationship between vortical structures and aerodynamic sound by the vortex system generated around the front pillar. The vortex system consists of the longitudinal and the transverse system. The characteristics of the longitudinal vortex system were investigated in comparison with the transverse one. Two vortex systems were reproduced by three-dimensional delta wings. The flow visualization experiment and the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) captured well the characteristics of the flow structure of the two vortex systems. These results showed that the longitudinal with the rotating axis along mean flow direction had cone-shaped configuration whereas the transverse with the rotating axis vertical to mean flow direction had elliptic one. Increasing the tip angles of the wings from 40 to 140 degrees, there first exists the longitudinal vortex system less than 110 degrees, with the transition region ranging from 110 to 120 degrees, and finally over 120 degrees the transverse appears. The characteristics of aerodynamic sound radiated from the two vortex systems were investigated in low Mach numbers, high Reynolds number turbulent flows in the lownoise wind tunnel. As a result, it was found that the aerodynamic sound radiated from both the longitudinal and the transverse vortex system was proportional to the fifth from sixth power of mean flow velocity, and that the longitudinal vortex generated the aerodynamic sound larger than the transverse.