The effect of the incoming boundary layer thickness on the aeroacoustics of finite wall-mounted square cylinders

This paper is concerned with the influence of the incoming wall boundary layer thickness on the noise produced by a square finite wall-mounted cylinder in cross-flow. Acoustic and near wake velocity measurements have been taken in an anechoic wind tunnel for a cylinder in two different near-zero-pressure gradient turbulent boundary layers with thicknesses of 130% and 370% of the cylinder width, W. The cylinders have an aspect ratio of 0.29≤L/W≤22.9 (where L is the cylinder span) and were examined at a Reynolds number, based on width, of ReW = 1.4 × 104. The results presented in this paper demonstrate that increasing the height of the boundary layer delays the production of acoustic tones to higher aspect ratios. The height of the boundary layer changes the balance between upwash and downwash across the cylinder span, resulting in a delayed onset of the shedding regimes and correspondingly, the production of acoustic tones.