A boundary element model for lined circular ducts with uniform flow

A boundary element method has been developed for predicting the acoustics in a circular duct in which a uniform flow propagates. Such a model may be used to predict the performance of different liner designs for inlets of turbo fan engines, which is important for the aeronautics industry. For this application the prediction of attenuation at very high frequencies (up to ka=30) is important. However, it was found that the computational costs of a three-dimensional model would by far exceed the performance of a normal workstation. Therefore, an axisymmetric model with significantly reduced calculation time and storage requirements has been developed, and the model has been extended with a new formulation to allow for non-axisymmetric excitation. These co-called spinning modes are very important for the application to aeroacoustics. Another innovation of this work is the development of an iterative procedure that allosws an infinite duct to be modelled as a finite duct with non-reflecting boundary conditions. The numerical results are compared with the results of an analytical model for the case of an infinite circular duct with a lined section of constant impedance.