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In this paper we develop a uniformly valid, second-order theory for calculating the unsteady incompressible flow that occurs when an airfoil is subjected to a convected sinusoidal gust. Explicit formulae for the airfoil response functions (i.e. fluctuating lift) are given. The theory accounts for the effect of the distortion of the gust by the steady-state potential flow around the airfoil, and this effect is found to have an important influence on the response functions. A number of results relevant to the general theory of the scattering of vorticity waves by solid objects are also presented.

Analytical and numerical analyses are developed for the interaction and scattering of incident acoustic and vortical disturbances by an unloaded annular cascade in a swirling flow. The mathematical formulation uses the Euler equations linearized about an axial and swirling mean flow. The incident disturbances are decomposed into nearly sonic and nearly convected disturbances using the results of a normal-mode analysis, namely the unsteady pressure is predominantly associated with the former. Exact non-reflecting inflow/outflow conditions are derived in terms of the normal modes using the group velocity to segregate the modes propagating downstream and upstream. An inflow condition is also derived for the nearly convected disturbances. An explicit primitive-variable scheme is implemented and validated by comparison with the uniform flow and narrow annulus limits. Acoustic and aerodynamic results are presented to examine how swirl modifies the scattering from that of the uniform flow and narrow annulus limits and to determine the conditions leading to strong scattering. The results indicate that the swirl changes the physics of the scattering in three major ways: (i) it modifies the number of acoustic modes in the duct, (ii) it changes their duct radial profile, and (iii) it causes significant amplitude and radial phase variations of the incident disturbance. The results also show that when the radial phase of the incident disturbance is different from that of the duct modes, weak scattering into the duct acoustic modes occurs. These results suggest that analysis of the radial variation of the incident disturbance and duct modes can provide an indication of the efficiency of the scattering process.

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It is shown that for a thin airfoil with small camber and small angle of attack moving in a periodic gust pattern, the unsteady lift caused by the gust can be constructed by linear superposition to the Sears lift of three independent components accounting separately for the effects of airfoil thickness, airfoil camber and non-zero angle of attack to the mean flow. This is true in spite of the nonlinear dependence of the unsteady flow on the mean potential flow of the airfoil. Specific lift formulas are derived and analysed to assess the importance of mean flow angle of attack and airfoil camber on the gust response.