Experimental Analysis of Whistle Noise in a Particle Agglomeration Pipe

A self-sustained sound, more usually known as a whistle, refers to a distinct tonal noise created due to the interaction between the sound and flow field. When a positive feedback loop is formed between the two fields, the energy in the mean flow will be transferred into the sound wave, thus giving rise to a whistle. In engineering practice, whistles are destructive as they can produce high sound and vibration levels and may result in risk for mechanical failures. In this work, a flow-related high level tonal noise was found during a measurement on a particle agglomeration pipe, which is a quasi-periodic corrugated structure designed for the exhaust system of heavy-duty trucks. The purpose of the pipe is to enhance particle agglomeration to increase the size of exhaust gas particles. To investigate the origin of the detected tonal noise additional measurements were carried out. Based on the measurement result, the aero-acoustic coupling in the agglomeration pipe was analyzed, revealing that the pipe has a large potentiality to amplify the incident sound power in the presence of a mean flow. Furthermore, the Nyquist stability criterion was applied to confirm the existence of exponentially growing modes in the system at certain conditions.