Effect of Initial Condition on Subsonic Jet Noise from Two Rectangular Nozzles

Differences in jet noise data from two small 8:1 aspect ratio nozzles are investigated experimentally. The interiors of the two nozzles are identical but one has a thin-lip at the exit while the has a perpendicular face at the exit (thick-lip). It is found that the thin-lip nozzle is substantially noisier throughout the subsonic Mach number range. As much as 5dB difference in OASPL is noticed around Mj =0.96. Hotwire measurements are carried out for the characteristics of the exit boundary layer and, overall, the noise difference can be ascribed to differences in the boundary layer state. The boundary layer of the quieter (thick-lip) nozzle goes through transition around Mj =0.25 and at higher Mj it remains „nominally turbulent‟. In comparison, the boundary layer of the thin-lip nozzle is found to remain „nominally laminar‟ at high subsonic conditions. The nominally laminar state involves significantly larger turbulence intensities commensurate with the higher radiated noise.