JSV Piscaglia Libre

Journal of Sound and Vibration ] (]]]]) ]]]]]]
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Journal of Sound and Vibration

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jsvi
Development of a non-reecting boundary condition

for multidimensional nonlinear duct acoustic computation
F. Piscaglia n, A. Montorfano, A. Onorati
Dip. di Energia, Politecnico di Milano, Via Lambruschini 4, I-20156 Milano, Italy
a r t i c l e i n f o
abstract
Article history:
Received 28 July 2011
Received in revised form
7 September 2012
Accepted 10 September 2012
Handling Editor: D. Juve
The quality of any time-domain nonlinear CFD simulation of silencers is determined by the
modeling procedure used for the anechoic termination at the boundary end of the
computational domain. In this study, a novel anechoic boundary condition based on the
characteristic theory combined with the linear relaxation method has been developed in an
open source CFD code. Wave propagation in ducts and mufers has been analyzed and the
effect of the damping properties of the boundary condition has been studied. The study
shows that the explicit damping of the solution vector produces good performance at all
the frequencies with acoustic waves having varying incidence to the boundary. Also, results
indicate that numerical reection of acoustic waves with high incident angles is reduced if
the damping is applied at the boundary within the semi-implicit solution of the governing
equations. Finally, the boundary condition has been applied together with a nonlinear
solver to evaluate the acoustic attenuation performance of circular ow-reversing
chambers and single-plug perforated mufers with and without mean ow velocity of
the gas. Code validation has been carried out against experimental data.
& 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
A suitable compromise between high acoustic attenuation and low pressure drop represents the desirable characteristic
of acoustic silencers and also the actual challenge for their designer. Nowadays, numerical models are often used for the
uid-dynamic and the acoustic optimization of the silencers. Among the different models available, those based upon onedimensional acoustics (linear and nonlinear) are the most used, because of their very low computational cost. Their main
limit is in the assumption of planar wave propagation, that does not hold when the contribution of the higher order modes
is not negligible. When a more detailed description of the wave propagation within the silencer is required, multidimensional simulation looks as a reliable methodology to describe the features of realistic mufer geometries. In the
linear acoustic theory, multidimensional simulation is performed by the nite element method (FEM) or by the boundary
element method (BEM) with satisfactory results, in particular when no mean ow of the gas is considered. When
simulations with mean gas ow velocity are performed by the linear approach, the acoustic eld is superimposed over a
decoupled mean ow imported from a steady-state calculation, where dissipative effects in the ow are neglected and
only the convective effects are accounted for [1]. Finally, a further step is represented by the three-dimensional timedomain CFD approach, that accounts also for the dissipative effects of the mean ow on the sound propagation in silencers
and resonators. The major advantages of the time-domain approach to calculate the transmission loss of complex silencers
have been presented in other studies [2,3].
Corresponding author. Tel.: 39 02 2399 8620; fax: 39 02 2399 3863.

E-mail address: federico.piscaglia@polimi.it (F. Piscaglia).
0022-460X/$ - see front matter & 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsv.2012.09.030
Please cite this article as: F. Piscaglia, et al., Development of a non-reecting boundary condition for multidimensional
nonlinear duct acoustic computation, Journal of Sound and Vibration (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsv.2012.09.030
F. Piscaglia et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration ] (]]]]) ]]]]]]
Similar to what happens in experiments, in nonlinear acoustic simulation the behavior of the anechoic termination
represents a crucial aspect to be considered. An anechoic termination is needed to not include reections, downstream of the
silencer, in the pressure time histories that are recorded to be converted to the frequency domain for the determination of the
transmission loss (TL) of the silencer. The pressure time histories that are Fourier transformed must be only of waves traveling
from the inlet to the outlet of the system. In the measurements, the accuracy penalty due to the imperfect anechoic
terminations is still under study [4]. In the simulations, the accuracy penalty is easier to estimate and it leads to signicant
errors. This aspect is more or less apparent depending on the nonlinear approach followed to simulate the silencer, but it
always occurs as a pressure far-eld boundary condition is set at the outlet boundary. In one-dimensional simulation, the
numerical reection coming from the outlet to the inner domain is very low when compared to the error introduced by the
assumption of one-dimensional ow. The same holds for quasi-three-dimensional approaches [5], where the result is mainly
inuenced by the number of zero-dimensional volumes used for domain discretization rather than by the kind of nonreecting boundary model. In multidimensional nonlinear acoustic simulation, where the complete form of the NavierStokes
equations is solved, the nature and the kind of implementation of the boundary conditions becomes very important;
boundaries may cause articial wave reections, which may include both physical waves and numerical waves, in particular
when the non-reective scheme does not account for full inter-eld coupling.
To try to overcome this issue, in [6] the multidimensional domain of the silencer was coupled with a one-dimensional
long outlet pipe having an anechoic termination. Similarly, in [3] silencers were modeled with long inlet and outlet pipes
in three dimensions, to allow the reected waves from the inlet and outlet boundaries to arrive at the monitoring points at
a time after which all the necessary acoustic data were recorded. In this latter case, the long pipes cause a signicant
increase of the number of computational cells and, therefore, the computational time required by the simulation becomes
higher. A more efcient methodology, compatible with common computer resource limits, consists in removing the
computational domain that is not of primary interest (long inlet and outlet pipes for instance). In this case, the number of
computational cells is much lower and the accuracy of unsteady ow calculations strongly relies on the treatment of
boundary conditions.In most of the CFD codes, the non-reecting boundary conditions attempt to set the instantaneous
value on the boundary as consistent as possible with the value of the incident pressure wave, to create a tendency towards
the undisturbed pressure value p1 dened over an ideal surface, located at an arbitrary distance L1 from the boundary.
The larger the value of L1 , the further the boundary condition will deviate from p1 . On the other hand, the smaller is the
value of L1 , the more reective the boundary tends to be. The cut boundaries may cause articial wave reections, that
appear as high frequency noise in the instantaneous pressure and velocity traces. In authors experience, the applicability
of the far-eld boundary condition for calculations of the transmission loss is still valid up to a frequency of about 1600
1800 Hz, depending on the complexity of the conguration. This is also conrmed by the results shown in [2].
In this work, in order to extend the reliability of the multidimensional nonlinear approach to a wider frequency range,
the anechoic termination has been modeled by a non-reecting outow NavierStokes characteristic boundary condition
(NSCBC) for the numerical solution of the time dependent compressible NavierStokes equations. The boundary condition
has been implemented by the authors in an open-source CFD code [7] and it has been tested together with a time
dependent compressible fully parallel NavierStokes equation solver. The original local one-dimensional inviscid relations
(LODI) in Cartesian coordinates presented in [8] have been extended to local coordinates and have been solved by a
multistage time stepping scheme. A formulation of the linear relaxation term, which should appear fully non-reecting to
plane acoustic waves with normal incidence on the boundaries for all frequencies, has been tested.
The paper is organized as follows: the mathematical formulation of the NSCBC and the implementation of a nonreecting condition to achieve a well-posed problem are discussed. Then, the performance in duct acoustic application is
analyzed, by using a wave splitting method based on characteristic analysis. Finally, the boundary condition together with
a nonlinear solver has been applied to predict the acoustic attenuation performance of silencers with zero and non-zero
mean ow velocity of the gas. Conclusions are given in the nal section.
2. Formulation of the NSCBC framework in local Cartesian coordinates

In the NSCBC theory [9], variables which are not imposed by physical boundary conditions are computed on the
boundaries by solving the conservation equations as in the domain [8]. Wave propagation is assumed to be associated only
with the hyperbolic part of the NavierStokes equations by neglecting waves associated with the diffusion process. At high
Reynolds numbers this approximation is probably well justied, but at low Reynolds numbers the mathematical
justication may be questionable. In spite of this, simulation results at low Reynolds numbers look satisfying, as shown
in the section of the results. The system of governing equations, in Cartesian coordinates is
8
qr
>
>
> qt r ru 0
>
>
>
< qru
r uru rp r T
(1)
qt
>
>
>
>
qrE
>
>
:
r urE r up r T ur q
qt
where
1
2
rE ruk uk
g1
and T is the viscous stress tensor, whose elements are dened as

qui quj 2 quk
ti,j m
dij
qxj
qxi 3 qxk
(2)
(3)
In the above equations, p is the thermodynamic pressure, mi is the momentum density in the xi direction, rE is the total
energy density (kineticthermal), q is the conductive heat ux:
q lrT
(4)
where T is the gas temperature and l is the thermal conductivity, that is expressed as a function of the specic heat
capacity cp of the gas and of the Prandtl number Pr:
mcp
Pr
(5)
In this work, the formulation of the characteristic boundary condition treatment for NavierStokes equations (NSCBC)
originally suggested in Cartesian coordinates by Poinsot and Lele [8] has been extended to local coordinates and it has
been solved by a multistage time stepping scheme. For each cell face at the boundary end, a local reference frame (x, Z, z)
has been dened. Each reference frame has its origin in the cell face center and the vector z is set as perpendicular to the
cell face (Fig. 1).
To transform the conservative system (1) from a physical domain (x, Z, z) to a computational domain (x, y, z), a change
of variables is required because, as it will be discussed later, the characteristic theory to include in the compressible
subsonic NavierStokes equations refers to a wave element that is perpendicular to the outlet domain. Hence, the
following general transformation of the independent variables has been applied:
x xx, Z, z
y yx, Z, z
z zx, Z, z
(6)
Being ui the ow velocity in the local reference frame:

u1 ux
u2 uZ
u3 uz
(7)
and the momentum density in the i-th direction (still written for the local reference frame):
mi r ui
(8)
For a generic boundary end, under the assumption of inviscid ow, the system of governing equations (1) in local
coordinates takes the form:
Mass conservation
qr
qm2 qm3
d1
0
qt
qZ
qz
(9)
Fig. 1. For each cell face at the boundary end, a local reference frame (x, Z, z) has been dened; each reference frame has its origin in the cell face center
with the vector z perpendicular to the cell face.
Energy equation
quj tij
qrE 1
d2
qrE pu2 qrE pu3
uk uk d1
r q
m1 d3 m2 d4 m3 d5
qt
2
qZ
qz
g1
qxi
(10)
Momentum equations
qt1j
qm1
qm1 u2 qm1 u3
u1 d1 rd3
qt
qZ
qz
qxj
qm2
qm2 u2 qm2 u3
qp qt2j
u2 d1 rd4
qZ
qt
qZ
qz
qxj
qm3
qm3 u2 qm3 u3
qp qt3j
u3 d1 rd5
qt
qZ
qz
qxj
qz
(11)
The different terms of the system of Eqs. (11) contain derivatives normal to the boundary (d1d5) and derivatives
parallel to the boundary like q=qZm2 uZ .
According to the characteristic analysis of Thompson [10], the vector d can be written as
3
2
qm1
2 3 2 1 L 1 L L 3
qx
d1
1
2 5
7
6 2
c2 2
7 6 qc m1 u qp 7
6d 7 6
1
1 qx 7
7
6
L
q
x
5
1
6 27 6
2
7
7 6
6 7 6
7 6 u qu1 1 qp 7
1
7 6
(12)
d6
7 6 1 qx
r qx 7
6 d3 7 6
2rc L5 L1
7
6
6
7
6d 7 6
7
7 6
qu2
4 45 4
L3
u
7
5 6
1 qx
5
4
d5
L4
3
u1 qu
qx
where Li represents the amplitude variation of the ith characteristic wave crossing the boundary [9]:
3
2
qp
qu1
2 3 6 l1 qx rc qx 7
L1
6 qr qp 7
6L 7 6
l2 c2 qx qx 7
7
6 27 6
7
6 7 6
6
7
qu2
6
7
L
L6 376
l3 qx
7
7
6L 7 6
6
7
qu
4 45 6
l4 qx3
7
6
7

L5
4
5
qp
qu1
l5 qx rc qx
Li are the amplitudes of characteristic waves associated with each characteristic velocity li :
8
>
< l1 u1 c
l2 l3 l4 u1
>
: l u c
5
(13)
(14)
In particular, in (14), c is the local speed of sound, l1 and l5 are the velocity of sound waves moving along the positive and
negative stream-wise direction, l2 is the velocity for entropy advection, while l3 and l4 are the velocity at which u2 and u3
are advected in the x direction.
The complete system of governing Eqs. (9)(11) for compressible and viscous ows can therefore be written at the
boundary as

8
>
> qr 1 L2 1L5 L1 qm2 qm3 0
>
> qt c2
qZ
qz
2
>
>
>
>
>
qp
1
q
r
E
pu

q
r
E
pu3
>
2
>
>
L5 L1
r q
>
>
qt
2
q
q
Z
z
>
>
>
< qu
1
qm1 u2 qm1 u3
1
L5 L1
0
2rc
qt
qZ
qz
>
>
>
>
>
qu2
qm2 u2 qm2 u3
qp
>
>
L3

>
>
>
qZ
qt
qZ
qz
>
>
>
>
qu3
qm3 u2 qm3 u3
qp
>
>
>
: qt L4 qZ qz qz
The chain rule for changing variables in Eq. (1) requires the operators:
q q
q
q
x
y
z
qx
qx x
qy x
qz x
q q
q
q
xZ
y
zZ
qZ
qx
qy Z
qz
q q
q
q
x
y
z
qz
qx z qy z
qz z
(15)
The partial derivatives in these equations occur in the differential expressions:

32
3
2 3 2
xx xZ xz
dx
dx
7
7
6
6 7 6y
4 dy 5 4 x yZ yz 54 dZ 5
zx zZ zz
dz
dz
(16)
In a similar manner, from the inverse transformation equations, the differentials can be derived as
3
2
3 2
xx xy xz 2 dx 3
dx
6 dZ 7 6
7
Z Zy Zz 7
76
4
56
54 dy 5
4 x
zx zy zz
dz
dz
The transformations (16) and (17) are inverse of each other and so we
31
2
2
3 2
Zy zz Zz zy
xx xy xz
xx xZ xz
7
6
6y
7 6
Z
Z
Z
7
6
6
y
y
9J9 4 Zz zx Zx zz
y
z5
Z
z54 x
4 x
zx zZ zz
Zx zy Zy zx
zx zy zz
can write:
xz zy xy zz
xx zz xz zx
xy zx xx zy
where 9J9 is the determinant of the Jacobian matrix J, not singular:

2 qx qx qx 3
qx
6 qZ
6
J 6 qx
4
qz
qx
qy
qZ
qy
qz
qy
qz
7
qZ 7
qz 7
qz
qz
(17)
Zz xy Zy xz
7
Zx xz Zz xx 7
5
Zy xx Zx xy
3
(18)
(19)
By comparing like elements in Eq. (18) it follows:

xx 9J9Zy zz Zz zy
xZ 9J9Zz zx Zx zz
xz 9J9Zx zy Zy zx
yx 9J9xz zy xy zz
yZ 9J9xx zz xz zx
yz 9J9xy zx xx zy
zx 9J9Zz xy Zy xz
zZ 9J9Zx xz Zz xx
zz 9J9Zy xx Zx xy
(20)
The governing equations may be therefore written as

qU qF 1 qF 2 qF 3
rp
qx
qy
qz
qt
(21)
where
U^
9J9
qF 1 F^ 1 xx F^ 2 xZ F^ 3 xz
qx
9J9
^
^
F 1 yx F 2 yZ F^ 3 yz
qF 2
qy
9J9
F^ 1 zx F^ 2 zZ F^ 3 zz
qF 3
qz
9J9
U
If we compare the system equations (9)(11) with Eqs. (21) and (22), it follows:
3
2
rd1
7
6
ru1 d1 rd3
7
6
7
6
^
qF 1
7
6
ru2 d1 rd4
6
7
7
6
qx
ru3 d1 rd5
7
6
5
4
d2
1
2 uk uk d1 g1 m1 d3 m2 d4 m3 d5
(22)
(23)

qm2
qx
7
6 qm 2u
1 2
7
6
7
6
qx2
7
6 qm u
qF^ 2
6 2 2 qp 7
6 qx2
qZ 7
7
6
qZ
6 qm3 u2 7
7
6
qx2
5
4
(24)
qrE pu2
qx2
qm3
qx
6 qm 3u
7
x 3
6
7
6
7
qx3
6
7
^
qF 3
6 qm2 u3 7
6
7
qx3
6
7
qz
6 qm3 u3 qp 7
6 qx3
qz 7
4
5
(25)
qrE pu3
qx3
3. Non-reflecting boundary model

The implementation of the non-reecting boundary condition to model an anechoic termination requires some caution.
The NSCBC approach sets values for the wave amplitude variations in the viscous multidimensional case by examining
a local one-dimensional inviscid (LODI) problem [8], where transverse, viscous and reaction terms are neglected:
8

qr 1
1
>
>
2 L2 L5 L1 0
>
>
>
2
qt c
>
>
>
>
>
qp 1
>
>
L5 L1 0
>
>
qt 2
>
>
< qu
1
1
L5 L1 0
>
2rc
qt
>
>
>
>
qu2
>
>
>
> qt L3 0
>
>
>
>
> qu3
>
>
L4 0
:
qt
For subsonic ows at the exit, the eigenvalue l1 u1 C in (14) associated to the wave amplitude L1 is negative and the
disturbance travels inward the boundary at the speed of sound relative to the moving uid.
The application of the LODI relations into the NavierStokes equations, that does not necessarily always imply a
hyperbolic nature of the system, is questionable. In particular, if the ingoing characteristic is set to zero (perfect anechoic
condition), the problem results to be ill-posed and the information about the static pressure in the outer domain never feds
back into the computational domain [1113]. For a well-posed problem [11], corrections must be added to the treatment
of the non-reecting NSCBC, that becomes therefore partially reective. It is important to note that partial reection also
includes the contributions of spurious reections caused by the numerical approximation of hyperbolic equations at the
boundary [14]; this effect looks stronger if inviscid boundary conditions for the primitive variables are specied and if
transverse terms in the equations are neglected. The acoustic theory proposed to characterize the actual reection
coefcient of numerical non-reecting boundary condition using LRM (linear relaxation method) proposed by Rudy and
Strikwerda [11] has been applied to derive a formulation of the reected characteristic in generalized coordinates [15]:
91M 2 9
L1 K pp1 s p
pp1
2J rl
(26)
that has been included in Eq. (12). In Eq. (26), M is the local Mach number of the boundary cell, l is the characteristic length
of the domain. The preferred range for constant s is in the interval 0:1; p. The difference L5 L1 in Eq. (12) can be still
calculated by one side upwind differencing.
4. Formulation of the solver
The explicit solution proposed in [8] to solve Eqs. (9)(11) requires very small time steps for stability and would
therefore result in a very severe restriction for the global time step of the simulation. In the present study, the system of
equations written in the form of (21) has been solved by a multistage time stepping scheme in
t n,i t n i dt t n
iDt
,
nsteps
i 2 1; nsteps
(27)
where t n,i is a variable local fractional time-step, in order to improve the time accuracy. In the expression above, Dt is the
global time step, K is the total number of fractional time steps. The method consists of two main steps:
a rst step is used to evaluate from the old time tn backward spatial derivatives and uxes at time tn iDt=nsteps , where
i 1,nsteps ; conservation equations are solved sequentially and the solution is rst order in time;
uxes and source terms calculated at tn iDt=nsteps are used to nd the solution at time tn i 1Dt=nsteps . The time
accuracy of this method is of the second order at this stage.
The process is iterated until the solution at the new time t n 1 t Dt is calculated. The Gauss theorem has been used to
compute spatial derivatives over the surface of the boundary, while along the z direction one-sided differences have to be
used because grid points are available only on the interior side of the boundary. This causes a decrease in the accuracy of
the spatial derivatives near the boundaries; on the other hand, if the order of the approximation near the boundary is equal
to the scheme order minus one, the overall accuracy of the scheme is not affected [16]. The time stepping algorithm
requires a relatively small amount of memory storage, it is more stable and accurate and it allows for larger global time
steps in the simulation than a traditional explicit method.
5. Performance of the non-reflecting boundary condition
The performance of non-reecting boundary conditions can depend on a number of different factors [17]: the cut-off
ratio, the ratio between frequency and wavelength (gas sound velocity), the angle of the incident waves relative to the
boundary normal, the mean ow velocity, the damping constant s of the LRM. Also, numerical reection can depend on
the solution algorithm used. The cut-off ratio includes both the effect of the wave frequency content and of the wave angle
a, that is dened as the angle between the wavefront normal and the outward normal to the boundary edge (Fig. 2).
In this study, the effect of these parameters on the performance of the boundary condition was investigated, for a xed
value of the damping constant s in (26), that was set to 0.2. This choice was driven by the idea to evaluate the predictions
of the physical model; also, in authors experience, s 0:2 represents a good compromise to have low reections from the
boundary and to avoid the well-known problem of pressure drift [8].
Tests were performed on the shock tube geometry shown in Fig. 2: the gas modeled was air at ambient temperature
(293 K), the pressure difference p1 p2 between air at high and low pressure was 650 Pa, a non-reecting boundary
condition was set at the open end of the duct. The simulation time was set accurately to allow the compression wavefront
to completely cross the boundary and to avoid any interference between waves reected by the other boundaries.
For a xed value of K in Eq. (26) (which is the case in any computation), the boundary condition does not behave as fully
non-reective in all the frequency range: waves at high frequency will easily leave the computational domain whereas low
frequency waves are strongly reected [18]. In terms of energy content, only a part of the acoustic energy is fed back
into the computational domain with a certain frequency content. A reliable parameter to evaluate the performance of a
non-reecting boundary condition is the reection coefcient R, that represents the permeability of the boundary towards
low frequency waves and that can be calculated according to the characteristic theory as
Rf , a
L1 f , a
L5 f , a
(28)
The behavior of the reection coefcient has been studied in a range of the incident pressure wave angle a in between 01
and 601. In Fig. 3a, the pressure averaged over the surface of the outlet boundary has been plotted for different wave angles
against the physical time; the dependence of the time required to cross the boundary on the wave angle is apparent. In Fig. 3b,
the amplitude of the wave reection coefcient 9R9 of Eq. (28) as a function of the frequency is analyzed. As expected, R is
higher at low frequency and constantly decreases in the low frequency range [0 600] Hz. Differences in magnitude for the
reection coefcient R do not seem appreciable with different wave angles a for frequencies lower than 600 Hz. Beyond this
value, the reection coefcient generally increases with the wave angle. An exception has been found with a wave angle
a 601. In this case, results look very similar to the case with a wave having normal incidence; the explanation of this
unexpected behavior is still under investigation. From the frequency of about 600 Hz, the slope of R becomes positive. Note that
the amplitude of the reection coefcient is always limited to 10 3 in the tests. This value, that looks small if compared to the
wall
wall
wall
Fig. 2. Schematic representation on the xy plane of the three-dimensional shock-tube geometry. Initial pressure conditions: p1 100,650 Pa, p2 100,000 Pa.
1.007
x 10
= 0 deg
= 15 deg
= 30 deg
= 45 deg
= 60 deg
1.006
1.005
p [Pa]
1.004
1.003
1.002
1.001
1
0.999
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
0.06
t [s]
10
= 0 deg
= 15 deg
= 30 deg
= 45 deg
= 60 deg
10
|R|
10
10
10
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
2000
f [Hz]
Fig. 3. (a) Variation in time of the pressure (averaged over the outlet boundary) for different wave angles. (b) Magnitude R of the numerical reection
coefcient with varying wave angles.
values commonly published on similar tests in the literature, may be justied both by the efcient formulation adopted for
the parameter K in Eq. (26) and, as conrmed by the results plotted in Fig. 4, by the use of the semi-implicit algorithm to solve
the governing equations in the boundary condition.
Finally, the advantage of using a multistage time-stepping scheme instead of a pure explicit Euler algorithm to solve the
boundary condition is evidenced. The more accurate solution of the multistage time-stepping scheme leads to a lower numerical
reection, that results in a smaller value of the reection coefcient R for all the frequency content of the signal (Fig. 4).
6. Simulation of the acoustic performance of silencers

Simulations by the impulse method [5] were carried out to determine the acoustic performance of the mufers.
A pressure pulse was set at the inlet boundary to obtain an excitation with a spectrum as at as possible over all the
frequencies of interest. The frequency content of the pulse was ranging from 20 to 2000 Hz (step of 20 Hz), hence the
fundamental period of the signal was 0.05 s. Measurements of transmission loss were carried out at the experimental test
benches of AVL GmbH. To gather all necessary information for calculating the transmission loss (TL), pressure, temperature
and velocity have been monitored during the simulation for each time step in the position where the experimental probes
were located (Fig. 5):
point 1: 10 mm downstream of the inlet end;

point 2: 20 mm downstream of point 1;
point 3: 10 mm upstream of the outlet end.
10
=1
= 50
10
|R|
10
10
10
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
2000
f [Hz]
Fig. 4. Magnitude of the reection coefcient R for different numbers of sub-cycle iterations in the multistage time-stepping scheme. In the simulations,
the wave angle a is 301.
b [mm]
d [mm]
D [mm]
e1 [mm]
e2 [mm]
L [mm]
S [mm]
x1 [mm]
x12 [mm]
RC-l1
Silencer
17
50
197
17
17
494
50
10
20
x3 [mm]
10
RC-l2
17
50
197
257
17
494
50
10
20
10
RC-m
17
50
197
167
17
377
50
10
20
10
RC-s
17
50
197
17
17
127
50
10
20
10
Fig. 5. Geometric features of the silencer with ow reversal. Diameters reported are inner diameters, wall thickness is 1.5 mm. Geometric details and
experimental measurements are courtesy of AVL.
The evaluation of the TL was performed by an in-house developed post-processing algorithm based on the two-sensor
method [4].
7. Case setup: flow solver and boundary conditions
The models described in this work were implemented as boundary conditions in an open-source CFD code [7] that
makes use of the nite volume discretisation to solve the systems of partial differential equations. In the acoustic
simulations, compressible NavierStokes equations have been solved by a pressure implicit with splitting of operators
(PISO) solver. A second-order semi-implicit CrankNicholson scheme has been chosen for temporal discretisation;
standard nite volume discretisation of Gaussian integration, which requires the interpolation of values from cell centers
to face centers, has been used for differential operators (gradient, Laplacian and divergence operator). The realizable k2E
turbulence model with wall functions was chosen for closure. The working uid has been assumed to be air, and the
boundary conditions have been set as follows:
inlet b.c.: pressure pulse with frequency content in the range between 20 and 2000 Hz (step 20 Hz);
outlet b.c.: subsonic non-reective NSCBC boundary condition (anechoic);
walls have been modeled as adiabatic.
10
The time step has been limited by the CFL criterion

u cDt
r1
2Dx
(29)
to ensure a maximum Courant number of 0.4. The maximum time-step resulted to be 10 6 s; this guarantees a sampling
frequency that is much higher than the frequency needed to satisfy the Nyquist sampling law. Simulation time has been
set as multiple of the period of the perturbation T 1=minf min ,f step . In authors experience, at least two periods are
needed to reach full convergence in the simulation. In order to not affect the results by the noise due to non-periodic
effects occurring in the early time steps of the simulation, 10 periods were simulated (0.5 s) and a phase average over the
last eight was performed.
8. Results and discussion
In this study, two different mufer layouts were chosen for validation: the ow-reversing chamber and the single
plug mufer. The aim was to evaluate the behavior of the anechoic boundary condition developed when used with a
three-dimensional time-domain CFD approach to predict the acoustic performance of mufers with and without mean
ow velocity of the gas.
8.1. Flow-reversing chambers
The ow-reversing chamber is a very well-known conguration of expansion chamber, where both inlet and outlet are
located on the same end-plate [19,20]. Extensions of inlet and outlet pipes within the chamber are meant to suppress the
pass-bands of the expansion chamber by means of resonance peaks typical of quarter wave resonators. The higher order
modes are excited at the area discontinuities of these silencers, and they do not decay fully before reaching the other
opening because of the close proximity of inlet and outlet. Hence, multidimensional wave propagation needs to be
RC-l1
50
40
40
Transmission loss [dB]
RC-l2
50
30
20
10
30
20
10
0
0
250
500
750
1000
1250
1500
1750
2000
250
500
RC-m
50
1000
1250
1500
1750
2000
1500
1750
2000
RC-s
50
40
40
750
Frequency [Hz]
Frequency [Hz]
30
20
10
30
20
10
0
0
250
500
750
1000
1250
Frequency [Hz]
1500
1750
2000
250
500
750
1000
1250
Frequency [Hz]
Fig. 6. Transmission loss of the four reverse-chamber geometries. Legend: Experimental (M 0); CFD (M 0); - - - CFD (M 0.15).
11
considered both in the chamber and in the end ducts for an accurate prediction of the acoustic attenuation performance
even at low frequencies. Four congurations, reported in Fig. 5, are considered in this section. The conguration named
RC-l1 is characterized by an overall length of 494 mm and the inlet pipe is 17 mm long; the RC-l2 conguration
has still a chamber length of 494 mm, but the inlet duct has been extended to a total length of 257 mm; the RC-m
(mid length) chamber and the RC-s (short) chamber are respectively 377 and 127 mm long, and their inlet ducts are 167
and 17 mm long. Experimental measurements of TL (Fig. 6) show a rst abatement peak that can be interpreted as the
result of the interference between the quarter wave effect generated by the chamber length and the extension of the inlet
pipe within the chamber. The second peak is the third harmonic of this resonance frequency. The pass bands of the series
chamber are at multiples of the base frequency f 0 c=2L and are dependent on the length of the chamber. As shown in
Fig. 6, multidimensional simulation of the reversing chambers allows to satisfactorily capture the resonance peaks and the
transparency frequencies of the silencers in all the frequency range, with some exception. In particular, the discrepancy
between simulations and experiments for the short reversing chamber at 1250 Hz and 1500 Hz has been studied by
monitoring the acoustic pressure elds inside the mufers. Figs. 710 show that as the spherical wave generated at the
inlet reaches the volume, a transverse propagation pattern, that becomes more apparent for shorter lengths of the
chamber, develops. At some frequencies, the transverse component of non-planar waves near the outlet is present
(Fig. 10); in these cases the base-assumption of one-dimensional planar wave propagation in the inlet and outlet pipes,
required by the post-processing algorithm, is not valid any longer and the calculation of the transmission loss becomes less
accurate. For the same four congurations, the calculated transmission loss for a mean ow Mach number M0.15 is
provided; as expected, mean ow shifts the transmission loss curve because of the convective effect, in particular at high
frequency.
8.2. Single plug muffler
Satisfying results were obtained by the proposed approach also for the single-plug perforated silencer, whose features
are reported in Fig. 11. In this case, the CFD simulation is able to capture the transparency frequency at 825 Hz due to the
main longitudinal resonance, that might be also estimated by f0 a/2L (where L is the length of the chamber). At high
frequency there is some noise in the measurements, but they are still reliable for validation. In Fig. 11 the inuence of the
mean ow on the transmission loss for the same silencer is also shown. As expected, the mean ow causes an increase of
the acoustic attenuation in the medium-low frequency range (01200 Hz), where measurements were available. The mean
ow shifts the transmission loss curve because of the convective effect; part of the sound energy is converted into heat due
to the dissipative effect in the holes, that acts as a resistive impedance.
Fig. 7. Acoustic eld inside the reverse chamber RC-l1 calculated by the CFD method (M 0). Calculations were performed on a mesh having about 590
thousand cells.
12
Fig. 8. Acoustic eld inside the reverse chamber RC-l2 calculated by the CFD method (M 0). Calculations were performed on a mesh having about 530
thousand cells.
Fig. 9. Acoustic eld inside the reverse chamber RC-m calculated by the CFD method (M 0). Calculations were performed on a mesh having about 490
thousand cells.
9. Conclusions
Accurate predictions of the acoustic performance of silencers have been carried out by the implementation of a novel
boundary condition based on the characteristic theory combined with the linear relaxation method. The original
formulation of the NSCBC framework [9] has been extended to local coordinates and the system of governing equations
has been solved by an effective multistage semi-implicit time stepping scheme, that is more stable and accurate than a
traditional explicit method and allows for larger global time steps in the simulation. A formulation of the reected
characteristic in generalized coordinates, to compute the actual reection coefcient for numerical non-reecting
boundary conditions by the linear relaxation method, has been included in the implementation of a non-reecting
13
Fig. 10. Acoustic eld inside the reverse chamber RC-short calculated by the CFD method (M 0). Calculations were performed on a mesh having about
420 thousand cells.
single plug perforated
40
30
20
10
400
800
1200
Frequency [Hz]
Silencer
d [mm]
D [mm]
la [mm]
l p [mm]
tw [mm]
dh [mm]
porosity [%]
P1
57
197
95
15
Fig. 11. (a) Geometric features of the single-plug perforated silencer. (b) Transmission loss of the single-plug perforated silencer with zero (M 0) and
non-zero mean ow velocity of the gas (M 0.05): comparison between simulations and experiments. Experimental measurements are courtesy of AVL.
boundary condition. The resulting boundary condition gives very small reections even for high wave angles of the
incident pressure wave, so it is suitable for the multidimensional nonlinear simulation of silencers. The computational
effort of the proposed approach looks high if compared to the effort required by solvers based on the multidimensional
approach in the frequency domain, where linearization of the NS equations in the inner domain is performed. On the other
hand, complex ow and viscous effects are considered, so the effects of the mean ow on the acoustic attenuation
performance of silencers with complex geometries may be successfully captured. No calibration constants have been used
in the simulations, so this approach may be considered as fully predictive.
Acknowledgments
Authors would like to acknowledge AVL List GmbH (Graz, Austria) for the experimental measurements provided to
validate the model. Computational resources were provided by CINECA (Bologna, Italy) through the Italian SuperComputing Resource Allocation (ISCRA) framework, Project LES4ICE. We greatly appreciated the valuable suggestions of
two anonymous referees and of the scientic editor, which helped to improve the manuscript substantially.
14
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Acoustics 13 (2) (2005) 301316.
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(6) (1988) 22332239.
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[6] G. Montenegro, A. Onorati, A coupled 1d-multid nonlinear simulation of i.c. engine silencers with perforates and sound-absorbing material,
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[9] T. Poinsot, D. Veynante, Theoretical and Numerical Combustion, Edwards, R.T., Philadelphia, PA, USA, 2005.
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(1) (1980) 5570.
[12] J.B. Keller, D. Givoli, Exact non-reecting boundary conditions, Journal of Computational Physics 82 (1) (1989) 172192.
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[15] X. Chen, G.-C. Zha, Implicit application of non-reective boundary conditions for navier-stokes equations in generalized coordinates, International
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[16] S.K. Lele, Direct numerical simulation of compressible free shear ows, in: 27th Aerospace Sciences Meeting, AIAA-89-0374, Reno Nevada, 1989.
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and Vibration 270 (3) (2004) 539557. (2002 I.M.A. Conference on Computational Aeroacoustics).
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[19] A. Selamet, Z.L. Ji, Acoustic attenuation performance of circular ow-reversing chambers, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 104 (5)
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Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Journal of Sound and Vibration

Development of a non-reecting boundary condition

Corresponding author. Tel.: 39 02 2399 8620; fax: 39 02 2399 3863.

F. Piscaglia et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration ] (]]]]) ]]]]]]

2. Formulation of the NSCBC framework in local Cartesian coordinates

F. Piscaglia et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration ] (]]]]) ]]]]]]

and T is the viscous stress tensor, whose elements are dened as

Being ui the ow velocity in the local reference frame:

F. Piscaglia et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration ] (]]]]) ]]]]]]

F. Piscaglia et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration ] (]]]]) ]]]]]]

The partial derivatives in these equations occur in the differential expressions:

where 9J9 is the determinant of the Jacobian matrix J, not singular:

By comparing like elements in Eq. (18) it follows:

The governing equations may be therefore written as

F. Piscaglia et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration ] (]]]]) ]]]]]]

3. Non-reflecting boundary model

F. Piscaglia et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration ] (]]]]) ]]]]]]

F. Piscaglia et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration ] (]]]]) ]]]]]]

6. Simulation of the acoustic performance of silencers

 point 1: 10 mm downstream of the inlet end;

F. Piscaglia et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration ] (]]]]) ]]]]]]

F. Piscaglia et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration ] (]]]]) ]]]]]]

The time step has been limited by the CFL criterion

Transmission loss [dB]

F. Piscaglia et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration ] (]]]]) ]]]]]]

F. Piscaglia et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration ] (]]]]) ]]]]]]

F. Piscaglia et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration ] (]]]]) ]]]]]]

single plug perforated

Transmission loss [dB]

F. Piscaglia et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration ] (]]]]) ]]]]]]

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen

point 1: 10 mm downstream of the inlet end;