Effect of reflector with sound-absorbing material on supersonic jet noise

This paper describes an experimental work to investigate the effect of a reflector on supersonic jet noise radiated from a convergent-divergent nozzle with a design Mach number 2.0. In the present study, a metal reflector and reflectors made of three different sound-absorbing materials (grass wool and polyurethane foam) were employed, and the reflector size was varied. Acoustic measurement is carried out to obtain the acoustic characteristics such as frequency, amplitude of screech tone and overall sound pressure level (OASPL). A high-quality schlieren optical system is used to visualize the detailed structure of supersonic jet. The results obtained show that the acoustic characteristics of supersonic jet noise are strongly dependent upon the jet pressure ratio and the reflector size. It is also found that the reflector with sound-absorbing material reduces the screech tone amplitude by about 5-13 dB and the overall sound pressure levels by about 2-5 dB, compared with those of the metal reflector.