Experimental investigation of sound generation by a protuberance in a laminar boundary layer
Sound radiation from a two-dimensional protuberance glued on the wall in a laminar boundary layer was investigated experimentally at low Mach numbers. When the protuberance was as high as the boundary-layer thickness, a feedback-loop mechanism set in between protuberance-generated sound and Tollmien-Schlichting (T-S) waves generated by the leading-edge receptivity to the upstream-propagating sound. Although occurrence of a separation bubble immediately upstream of the protuberance played important roles in the evolution of instability waves into vortices interacting with the protuberance, the frequency of tonal vortex sound was determined by the selective amplification of T-S waves in the linear instability stage upstream of the separation bubble and was not affected by the instability of the separation bubble.