Broadband Shock Noise from Supersonic Jets

Broadband shock noise from supersonic jets is investigated through acoustic measurements in both the near and far fields. The peak Helmholtz number of broadband shock noise from unheated convergent nozzles is found to be independent of nozzle pressure ratio when based on the length of the shock cells and the ambient speed of sound. Excellent agreement between power spectral densities measured at various far-field angles is obtained at and above the peak shock noise frequency when source convection and directivity effects are included. The directivity of broadband shock noise is found to be pointed in the upstream direction, with omnidirectionality being approached only at high pressure ratios. For both convergent and convergent-divergent nozzles, the relative importance of shock noise with respect to jet-mixing noise is found to be maximum near the pressure ratio at which a Mach disk begins to form in the jet. Near-field measurements point to a limited portion of the shock cell system as the region of dominant broadband noise emission from a highly underexpanded convergent nozzle.