Aerodynamic excitation of the harmonium reed

An investigation of the mechanism responsible for the self-excited oscillations of a harmonium reed is presented. Experiments show that the amplitude of vibration of the reed grows exponentially, and measurements of the growth rate as a function of the flow past the reed are reported. Flow visualization studies lead to the conclusion that jet or wake instability is not important in exciting the reed vibration. An analysis of the flow around the reed as an unsteady potential flow results in the evaluation of the aerodynamic forces exciting the reed. The analysis shows that the pressure which excites the reed motion is of the order of ρ U₀ȧ , where U 0 is the flow velocity and ȧ is the reed velocity.