Tutorial: Modeling Aeroacoustics for a Helmholtz Resonator
Using the Direct Method (CAA)
Introduction
The purpose of this tutorial is to provide guidelines and recommendations for the basic
setup and solution procedure for a typical aeroacoustic application using computational
aeroacoustic (CAA) method.
In this tutorial you will learn how to:
Model a Helmholtz resonator.
Use the transient k-epsilon model and the large eddy simulation (LES) model for
aeroacoustic application.
Set up, run, and perform postprocessing in FLUENT.
Prerequisites
This tutorial assumes that you are familiar with the user interface, basic setup and solution
procedures in FLUENT. This tutorial does not cover mechanics of using acoustics model, but
focuses on setting up the problem for Helmholtz-Resonator and solving it. It also assumes
that you have basic understanding of aeroacoustic physics.
If you have not used FLUENT before, it would be helpful to rst review FLUENT 6.3 Users
Guide and FLUENT 6.3 Tutorial Guide.
Problem Description
A Helmholtz resonator consists of a cavity in a rigid structure that communicates through a
narrow neck or slit to the outside air. The frequency of resonance is determined by the mass
of air in the neck resonating in conjunction with the compliance of the air in the cavity.
The physics behind the Helmholtz resonator is similar to wind noise applications like sun
roof bueting.
We assume that out of the two cavities that are present, smaller one is the resonator. The
motion of the uid takes place because of the inlet velocity of 27.78 m/s (100 km/h). The
ow separates into a highly unsteady motion from the opening to the small cavity. This
unsteady motion leads to a pressure uctuations. Two monitor points (Point-1 and Point-2)
act as microphone points to record the generated sound. The acoustic signal is calculated
within FLUENT. The ow exits the domain through the pressure outlet.
c Fluent Inc. March 12, 2008 1
Modeling Aeroacoustics for a Helmholtz Resonator Using the Direct Method (CAA)
Preparation
1. Copy the les steady.cas.gz, steady.dat.gz, execute-by-name.scm, stptmstp4.scm,
ti-to-scm-jos.scm and stptmstp.txt into your working directory.
2. Start the 2D double precision (2ddp) version of FLUENT.
Setup and Solution
Step 1: Grid
1. Read the initial case and data les for steady-state (steady.cas.gz and steady.dat.gz).
File Read Case & Data...
Ignore the warning that is displayed in the FLUENT console while reading these les.
2. Keep default scale for the grid.
Grid Scale...
3. Display the grid and observe the locations of the two monitor points, Point-1 and
Point-2 (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Graphics Display of the Grid
4. Display and observe the contours of static pressure (Figure 2) and velocity magnitude
(Figure 3) for the initial steady-state solution.
Display Contours..
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Modeling Aeroacoustics for a Helmholtz Resonator Using the Direct Method (CAA)
Figure 2: Contours of Static Pressure (Steady State)
Figure 3: Contours of Velocity Magnitude (Steady State)
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Modeling Aeroacoustics for a Helmholtz Resonator Using the Direct Method (CAA)
Step 2: Models
1. Select unsteady solver.
Dene Models Solver...
(a) Select Unsteady in the Time list.
(b) Select 2nd-order-implicit in the Unsteady formulation list.
(c) Retain the default settings for other parameters.
(d) Click OK to close the Solver panel.
2. Dene the viscous model.
Dene Models Viscous...
(a) Select Non-Equilibrium Wall Functions in the Near-Wall Treatment list.
(b) Retain the default settigns for other parameters.
(c) Click OK to close the Viscous Model panel.
Near-Wall Treatment predicts good separation and re-attachment points.
Step 3: Materials
Dene Materials...
1. Select ideal-gas from the Density drop-down list.
2. Retain the default values for other parameters.
3. Click Change/Create and close the Materials panel.
Ideal gas law is good in predicting the small changes in the pressure.
Step 4: Solution
1. Monitor the static pressure on point-1 and point-2.
Solve Monitors Surface...
(a) Enter 2 for the Surface Monitors.
(b) Enable Plot and Print options for monitor-1 and monitor-2.
(c) Select Time Step from the When list.
(d) Click Dene... for monitor-1 to open Dene Surface Monitor panel.
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Modeling Aeroacoustics for a Helmholtz Resonator Using the Direct Method (CAA)
i. Select Vertex Average from the Report Type drop-down list.
ii. Select Flow Time from the X Axis drop-down list.
iii. Enter 1 for Plot Window.
iv. Select point-1 from the Surfaces selection list.
(e) Similarly, specify the surface monitor parameters for point-2.
2. Start the calculations using the following settings.
Solve Iterate...
(a) Enter 3e-04 s for Time Step Size.
The expected time step size for this problem is of the size of about 1/10th of the
time period. The time period depends on the frequency (f ) which is calculated
using the following equation:
f =
c
2
S
V [L +
2
.
D
h
2
]
where,
c = Speed of sound
S = Area of the orice of the resonator
V = Volume of the resonator
L = Length of the connection between the resonator and the free ow area
D
h
= Hydraulic diameter of the orice
For this geometry, the estimated frequency is about120 Hz.
(b) Enter 250 for the Number of Time Steps.
(c) Enter 50 for Max Iterations per Time Step.
(d) Click Apply.
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Modeling Aeroacoustics for a Helmholtz Resonator Using the Direct Method (CAA)
(e) Read the scheme le (stptmstp4.scm).
File Read Scheme...
This le activates a alternative convergence criteria. For acoustic simulations
with CAA it is obligatory that the pressure is completely converged at the reciever
position. FLUENT compares the monitor quantities within the last n-dened it-
erations to judge if the deviation is smaller than a y-dened deviation.
(f) Specify the number of previous iterations from which monitor values of each
quantity used are saved and compared to the current (latest) value (include the
paranthesis):
(set! stptmstp-n 5)
(g) Specify the relative (the smaller of two values in any comparison) dierence
by which any of the older monitor values (for a selected monitor qauntity) may
dier from the newest value:
(set! stptmstp-maxrelchng 1.e-02)
(h) Dene the execute commands.
Solve Execute Commands
i. Enter (stptmstp-resetvalues) for the rst command and select Time Step
from the drop-down list.
ii. Enter (stptmstp-chckcnvrg "/report/surface-integrals vertex-avg point-1
() pressure") and select Iteration from the drop-down list.
iii. Click OK.
(i) Click Iterate to start the calculations.
The iterations will take a long time to complete. You can skip this simulation af-
ter few time steps and read the les (transient.cas.gz and transient.dat.gz)
provided with this tutorial. These les contain the data for the ow time of 0.22
seconds. As seen in Figures 4 and 5, no pressure uctuations are present at this
stage. The oscillations of the static pressure at both monitor points has reached
a constant value.
The RANS-simulation is a good starting point for Large Eddy Simulation. If
you choose to use the steady solution as initial condition for LES, use the TUI
command /solve/initialize/init-instantaneous-vel provides to get a more realistic
instantaneous velocity eld. The usage of LES for acoustic simulations is obliga-
tory. The next two pictures compare the static pressure obtained with RANS and
Large Eddy Simulation for a complete simulation until 0.525 seconds. Obviously,
the k-epsilon model underpredicts the strong pressure oscillation after reaching
a dynamically steady state (> 0.3 s) due to its dissipative character. Under-
predicted pressure oscillations lead to underpredicted sound pressure level which
means the acoustic noise is more gentle.
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Modeling Aeroacoustics for a Helmholtz Resonator Using the Direct Method (CAA)
Figure 4: Convergence History of Static Pressure on Point-1 (Transient)
Figure 5: Convergence History of Static Pressure on Point-2 (Transient)
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Modeling Aeroacoustics for a Helmholtz Resonator Using the Direct Method (CAA)
Step 5: Enable Large Eddy Simulation
1. Enter the following TUI command in the FLUENT console:
(rpsetvar les-2d? #t)
2. Enable large eddy simulation eects.
The k-epsilon model cannot resolve very small pressure uctuations for aeroacoustic
due to its dissipative character. Use Large Eddy Simulation to overcome this problem.
Dene Models Viscous...
(a) Enable Large Eddy Simulation (LES) in the Model list.
(b) Enable WALE in the Subgrid-Scale Model list.
(c) Click OK to close the Viscous Model panel.
An Information panel will appear, warning about bounded central-deferencing be-
ing default for momentum with LES/DES.
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Modeling Aeroacoustics for a Helmholtz Resonator Using the Direct Method (CAA)
(d) Click OK to close the Information panel.
3. Retain default discretization schemes and under-relaxation factors.
Solve Controls Solution...
4. Enable writing of two surface monitors and specify le names as monitor-les-1.out and
monitor-les-2.out for monitor plots of point-1 and point-2 respectively.
Solve Monitors Surface...
To account for stochastic components of the ow, FLUENT provides two algorithms.
These algorithms model the uctuating velocity at velocity inlets. With the spec-
tral synthesizer the uctuating velocity components are computed by synthesizing a
divergence-free velocity-vector eld from the summation of Fourier harmonics.
5. Enable the spectral synthesizer.
Dene Boundary Conditions...
(a) Select inlet in the Zone list and click Set....
i. Select Spectral Synthesizer from the Fluctuating Velocity Algorithm drop-down
list.
ii. Retain the default values for other parameters.
iii. Click OK to close the Velocity Inlet panel.
(b) Close the Boundary Conditions panel.
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Modeling Aeroacoustics for a Helmholtz Resonator Using the Direct Method (CAA)
Typically it takes a long time to get a dynamically steady state. Additionally, the
simulated (and recorded for FFT) ow time depends on the minimum frequency in the
following relationship:
flowtime =
10
minimumfrequency
(1)
The standard transient scheme (iterative time advancement) requires a considerable
amount of computaional eort due to a large number of outer iterations performed for
each time-step. To accelerate the simulation, the NITA (non-iterative time advance-
ment) scheme is an alternative.
6. Set the solver parameters.
Dene Models Solver...
(a) Enable Non-Iterative Time Advancement in the Transient Controls list.
(b) Click OK to close the Solver panel.
7. Set the solution parameters.
Solve Controls Solution...
(a) Select Fractional Step from the Pressure-Velocity Coupling drop-down list.
(b) Click OK to close the Solution Controls panel.
8. Disable both the execute commands.
Solve Execute Commands...
9. Continue the simulation with the same time step size for 1500 time steps to get a
dynamically steady solution.
10. Write the case and data les (unsteady-nal.cas.gz and unsteady-nal.dat.gz).
File Write Case & Data...
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Modeling Aeroacoustics for a Helmholtz Resonator Using the Direct Method (CAA)
Figure 6: Convergence History of Static Pressure on Point-1 (Transient)
Figure 7: Convergence History of Static Pressure on Point-2 (Transient)
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Modeling Aeroacoustics for a Helmholtz Resonator Using the Direct Method (CAA)
Step 6: Postprocessing
1. Display the contours of static pressure to visualize the eddies near the orice.
2. Enable the acoustics model.
Dene Models Acoustics...
(a) Enable Ffowcs-Williams & Hawkings from the Model selection list.
(b) Retain the default value of 2e-05 Pa for Reference Acoustic Pressure.
To specify a value for the acoustic reference pressure, it is necessary to activate
the acoustic model before starting postprocessing.
(c) Retain default settings for other parameters.
(d) Click OK to accept the settings.
A Warning dialog box appears. This is an informative panel and will not aect
the postprocessing results.
(e) Click OK to acknowledge the information and close the Warning panel.
3. Plot the sound pressure level (SPL).
Plot FFT...
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Modeling Aeroacoustics for a Helmholtz Resonator Using the Direct Method (CAA)
(a) Click Load Input File... button.
(b) Select monitor plot le for Point-1 (monitor-les-1.out).
(c) Click Plot/Modify Input Signal....
i. Select Clip to Range, in the Options list.
ii. Enter 0.3 for Min and 0.5 for Max in the X Axis Range group box.
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Modeling Aeroacoustics for a Helmholtz Resonator Using the Direct Method (CAA)
iii. Select Hanning in the Window drop-down list.
Hanning shows good performance in frequency resolution. It cuts the time
record more smoothly, eliminating discontinuities that occur when data is
cut o.
iv. Click Apply/Plot and close the Plot/Modify Input Signal panel.
(d) Select Sound Pressure Level (dB) from the Y Axis Function drop-down list.
(e) Select Frequency (Hz) in the X Axis Function drop-down list.
(f) Click Plot FFT to visualize the frequency distribution at Point-1.
(g) Select Write FFT to File in the Options list.
Note: Plot FFT button will change to Write FFT.
(h) Click Write FFT and specify the name of the FFT le in the resulting Select File
panel.
(i) Similarly write the FFT le for monitor plot for point-2 (Figure 9).
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Modeling Aeroacoustics for a Helmholtz Resonator Using the Direct Method (CAA)
Figure 8: Spectral Analysis of Convergence History of Static Pressure on Point-1
Figure 9: Spectral Analysis of Convergence History of Static Pressure on Point-2
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Modeling Aeroacoustics for a Helmholtz Resonator Using the Direct Method (CAA)
In Figures 8 and 9, the sound pressure level (SPL) peak occurs at 125 Hz which is
close to the analytical estimation. Considering that this tutorial uses a slightly large
time step and a 2D geometry, the result is ne.
4. Compare the frequency spectra at point-1 and point-2.
Plot File...
(a) Click Add... and select two FFT les (point-1-fft.xy and point-2-fft.xy)
that you have saved in the previous step.
(b) Click Plot to visualize both spectra in the same window (Figure 10).
Note that the peak for Point-1 is a little higher than for Point-2. This is due to the dissipative
behaviour of the sound in the domain. The bigger the distance between the reciever point
and the noise source, the bigger is the dissipation of sound. This is the reason, why we use
CAA method only for near eld calculations.
Figure 10: Comparison of Frequency Spectra at Point-1 and Point-2
A second issue is the dissipation of sound due to the inuence of the grid size. This applies
especially for which the wave lengths are very short. Thus, a too coarse mesh is not capable
of resolving high frequencies correctly. In the present example, the mesh is rather coarse
in the far-eld. Thus, the discrepancy between both spectra is more evident in the high
frequency range.
This behaviour can be seen in Figure 11.
For high frequencies, the monitor for Point-1 generates much fewer noise than monitor for
Point-2 due to coarse grid resolution.
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Modeling Aeroacoustics for a Helmholtz Resonator Using the Direct Method (CAA)
Figure 11: Spectral Analysis of Convergence history of Static Pressure
The deviation of sound pressure level between the rst two maximum peaks (50 Hz and 132
Hz) is quite small. The postprocessing function magnitude in fourier transform panel is
similar to the root mean square value (RMS) of the static pressure at these frequencies.
We can use the RMS value to derive the amplitude of the pressure uctuation which is
responsible for the SPL-peak. The resolution of frequency spectra is limited by the temporal
discretization. With the temporal discretization, the maximum frequency is
f
max
=
1
2t
(2)
This frequency is dened as Nyquist frequency. It is the maximum educible frequency. To
resolve up to f
max
the maximum allowable time step size is
f
max
=
1
2 f
max
(3)
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Modeling Aeroacoustics for a Helmholtz Resonator Using the Direct Method (CAA)
Figure 12: Spectral Analysis of Convergence History of Static Pressure on Point-1
An instability of the uid motion coupled with an acoustic resonance of the cavity (helmholtz
resonator) produces large pressure uctuations (at 132 Hz). Compared to this dominant
helmholtz resonance the pressure uctuation at 50 Hz is quite small.
18 c Fluent Inc. March 12, 2008
Modeling Aeroacoustics for a Helmholtz Resonator Using the Direct Method (CAA)
Figure 13: Spectral Analysis of Convergence History of Static Pressure on Point-2
Summary
Aeroacoustic simulation of Helmholtz resonator has been performed using k-epsilon model
and Large Eddy Simulation model. The advantage of using LES model has been demon-
strated. You also learned how the sound dissipation occurs in the domain by monitoring
sound pressure level at two dierent points in the domain. The importance of using CAA
method has also been explained.
c Fluent Inc. March 12, 2008 19
