Aeroacoustics of viscous vortex reconnection

Reconnection of two anti-parallel vortex tubes is studied by direct numerical simulations and large-eddy simulations of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations over a wide range (2000-50,000) of the vortex Reynolds number (Re). A detailed investigation of the flow dynamics is performed and at high Re, multiple reconnections are observed as the newly formed ``bridges'' interact by self and mutual induction. To investigate acoustics produced by the recoil action of the vortex threads, M\"{o}hring's theory of vortex sound is applied to the flow field and evaluated at varying far-field locations. The acoustic solver is verified against calculations of laminar vortex ring collision. For anti-parallel vortex reconnection, the resulting far-field spectra are shown to be grid converged at low-to-mid frequencies. To assess the relevance to fully turbulent jet noise, the dependence of reconnection upon Reynolds number is investigated.