Feedback control of vortex shedding from a circular cylinder

This paper presents an experimental study on the suppressing of vortex shedding from a circular cylinder by feedback sound. Experiments were performed in a wind tunnel, and the feedback sound was generated inside the cylinder and locally introduced into the flow through a thin slit on the cylinder surface. In this way, the shear flow nearest to the slit was directly manipulated during the control. The results show that the suppression of vortex shedding can be achieved at Reynolds numbers ranging from 4×103 to 1.3× 104, according to signals from a hot-wire checking throughout the wake and signals from a remote microphone. This local and one-sided feedback, being different from other control techniques, allows a better understanding of the control mechanism, which in this case probably causes a destructive interaction between two shear flows separated from both sides of the cylinder. The technique has been useful to deepen our understanding to the wake instabilities behind the cylinder.