Compact rotating two-blade loading source 2026-10-07
Two diametrically opposite rotating blades with equal tangential loads have zero total rotating force. Their leading compact acoustic dipoles cancel, but their retarded positions and moving-surface retarded Jacobians leave an acoustic quadrupole. For line load and angular speed , the first radiating density is . The twofold geometry gives frequency , while projection into the rotor plane gives the amplitude directivity .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 78 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Let use the Heaviside step function, and , so that points from the body into the fluid. The kinematic boundary condition gives on the surface. In the exterior, mass conservation and the Euler equations for an inviscid fluid areProducts with are understood distributionally, using and . With , the extended continuity equation isThe corresponding extended momentum equation isbecause its advective surface term is . Differentiate continuity in time and substitute the divergence of momentum. Subtracting gives the Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings equationwhere the inviscid Lighthill stress tensor isIf denotes total pressure, this tensor includes the constant ambient pressure . Its contribution cancels the corresponding surface term exactly. For radiation integrals it is convenient to subtract from both terms, making with . The displayed source identity is unchanged by this consistent pressure-gauge subtraction.
Assume no incoming sound and no free initial acoustic field. Put , , , and . Convolution with the retarded acoustic Green function gives the three source integrals, for an observer outside the body:These are the surface thickness, surface loading and volume quadrupole contributions. The retarded surface Dirac delta distributions must remain inside the integrals: integrating them over a moving retarded surface produces the moving-surface retarded Jacobian, and is not generally the same as simply substituting one retarded time into an instantaneous surface integral.
For an acoustic compact-source approximation, suppose the dominant sources have size , source frequency scale , and . Also require and the acoustic far field . Then , , and the leading source integrals use the common time . Slow source motion relative to is implicit in this leading retardation approximation. DefineThus is net displaced mass per unit time, is the fluid pressure force on the body, and is the integrated excess Lighthill stress tensor. The minus sign in fixes the requested loading convention; the force on the fluid is opposite. On the radiating terms, , givingSpatial derivatives of produce near-field terms of orders and , omitted here. Neglecting source delays is a separate approximation from discarding those observer near-field terms. If a leading integrated source vanishes by symmetry, its first nonzero delay correction can be as important as another retained multipole.
For the translating sphere, write its center as , with a unit vector, and its velocity as . Let , and . Impermeability gives . Since its volume is constant,in the leading compact formula. The individual local thickness sources have scale , but their net monopole cancels.
At first order in amplitude and leading order in , the exterior incompressible velocity potential is , where is measured from the mean center. It has at . Linear Bernoulli equation gives there. Since ,This is the added mass of a sphere. The explicit leading loading contribution isIt scales as . In homentropic small-amplitude flow the volume stress is quadratic to leading order, over volume , so the volume acoustic quadrupole has scaleIt is smaller than the linear dipole by and can contain a second harmonic.
For completeness, the exact thickness-source integral has a nonzero first delay correction even though . Its first spatial moment isExpand its integrand at . The leading nonzero translating-sphere acoustic thickness dipole is thereforeIt too scales as . Thus zero net-volume monopole does not mean zero thickness radiation. The full leading linear sound, summing thickness and loading, isThe leading compact equation gives the requested zero and added-mass terms; this extra delay calculation is necessary to obtain the complete linear field when its nominal monopole has cancelled.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 70 1 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Put , and take the retarded acoustic Green function for :This selects the causal, outgoing acoustic density perturbation, with no additional incoming homogeneous wave equation solution. Convolving the acoustic dipole forcing with this Green function and moving its spatial derivative outside the integral givesThe surface delta distribution converts the spatial integral to the moving surface. At fixed surface labels , setThe radial Mach number enters the moving-surface retarded Jacobian, because and henceLet be a root of the retarded time equationThe delta change-of-variable rule now givesHere is the surface-area factor from the orthogonal surface coordinates. For a subsonic surface, , the retarded equation is monotone in and has one root when the motion is defined for the required past times. For more general motion, sum the displayed contribution over all simple retarded roots. A root with requires a separate limiting treatment; the simple-root formula does not apply there.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 70 1 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Write and , where . Label the two arms by . Their positions are . To radiating far-field accuracy,The retarded time equation therefore gives, with ,For the first arm, , this is the requested phase expansion. The more explicit geometric error also makes the dimensional meaning of the printed term clear.
Apply the Taylor theorem to the rotating line force. Since , its first two orders, expressed in a common reference frame, areAlso , so the radial Mach number isThe absolute value causes no change of sign in this subsonic limit. Multiplying these two expansions before summing is essential: both the shifted force and the moving-surface retarded Jacobian contribute at the same order.
Denote the integrated numerator, including that Jacobian, by . Pairing the two blades cancels all terms odd in , including the first Doppler correction to the axial load. HenceThe factor comes from . Only the time-dependent term radiates at order . Applying to the integral now gives , and thusThere are also nonradiating terms of order . Multiply by for the acoustic pressure. The stated coefficient uses the rotation convention fixed above; reversing the rotation reverses the corresponding signed load and phase convention.
This is a compact rotating two-blade loading source acting as an acoustic quadrupole. The compact total rotating force cancels, leaving the first spatial moment of the loading. Its two factors of the observer's projection into the rotor plane produce : there is no leading sound on the rotation axis and the density amplitude is maximal in the rotor plane. The configuration repeats after half a rotation, explaining frequency . These statements concern amplitude; the corresponding acoustic intensity has a factor.
If , the displayed first-order contribution vanishes as well. For completeness, expanding the axial Jacobian to its next even order givesThe first remaining axial-load radiation is thenThus the constant axial total force does not produce the lower-order term, even though its moving spatial distribution can radiate at a higher order.
Radial Mach number Created 2026-10-07 Updated 2026-10-18
The radial Mach number is the source velocity projected toward the observer, divided by the sound speed. It enters the moving-surface retarded Jacobian through . The sign is directional: a source moving toward the observer has positive and compressed arrival times.