Aerodynamic sound generation in thermoviscous fluids: A canonical problem revisited

Although the Lighthill–Curle acoustic analogy theory is formally exact, the presence of linear source terms related to viscous stresses and non-isentropic density changes makes it unsuitable for studying aerodynamic sound generation in low Reynolds number thermoviscous flows. Here we use an extension of the Ffowcs Williams and Hawkings formulation, with thermoviscous effects explicitly included, to find an analytical solution to the canonical problem of sound radiation from a circular cylinder immersed in a viscous heat-conducting fluid and rotating sinusoidally about its axis. Existing published solutions are compared and an earlier null result is explained. The new analysis reveals the dominant source of sound at low Mach numbers to be unsteady viscous dissipation rather than Reynolds-stress quadrupoles, unless the fluid parameter B=αc²/c_p is zero.