ACTA ACUSTICA UNITED WITH ACUSTICA

Vol. 98 (2012) 188 – 194

DOI 10.3813/AAA.918504

Tone-Like Signal in the Wind-Induced Noise of

Perforated Plates

Leping Feng
MWL, KTH (The Royal Institute of Technology), 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden. fengl@kth.se

Summary
In some special situations the wind-induced noise of perforated plates may show strong power enhancement in a
certain frequency band and hence exhibits a “tone-like” character. This problem is investigated experimentally in
laboratory and some test results are presented in this paper. It is shown that the “tone-like” phenomenon happens
only when the incident angle of the wind is relatively large to the perforated panel; say between 60 and 80 degrees.
There seems an “optimum” wind speed corresponding to the size of the holes for this phenomenon. The peak
frequency of the tone-like signal is mainly determined by the thickness of the plate and the size of the holes and
can be roughly estimated from the geometry of the plate and the wind speed. The condition when the tone-like
phenomenon may happen seems very much dependent on the perforation pattern along the wind direction. Same
perforated plate may produce totally different sound in the same wind condition if the orientation of the plate
is changed. Randomized hole size and distribution may help to reduce the tone-like signal and hence the total
wind-induced noise. Possible explanations of the phenomenon are discussed.
PACS no. 43.28.Hr, 43.28.Ra

1. Introduction x- (horizontal when mounted in the test condition) and y-

Perforated plates are often used as decoration plates. When
used in out wall, they may produce extra noise in windy
days, since the holes will introduce more turbulence. In
these outdoor applications, the diameter of the holes is
usually much larger than the thickness of the plate, hence
the feedback mechanism as described in reference [1] is
usually not a problem. The wind-induced noise of a perfo-
rated plate in those cases in principle exhibits a broad band
character. However, in some special situations, the sound
power in a certain frequency band can be enhanced greatly
and the level can be more than 10 dB higher than those in
other frequency bands. One effect of this sound power en-
hancement, besides the increase of the total sound power
level, is a strong tone-like signal in a windy condition.
High tone-like signal is always not wanted for buildings
since it makes more disturbances to inhabitants.
This paper reports laboratory measurements of wind-in-
duced noises for some perforated plates in different condi-
tions. Results are presented as the sound power level ra-
diated per test sample (400 × 400 mm). They may supply
some useful information for the design of perforated plates
working in a windy condition.
2. Test method and test samples
Five samples with different perforations are tested in the
laboratory. The holes are uniformly distributed along the
Received 7 April 2011,
accepted 26 October 2011.
(vertical) directions (see Table I). For all plates but plate
1 the repetition length (length after that the pattern is re-
peated) of the perforation pattern is the same as the dis-
tance between the holes, Lcc (centre-to-centre). The rep-
etition length of the perforation pattern for plate 1 is the
double of the distance between the holes since the perfo-
ration pattern of the adjacent lines are shifted. All plates
are made of 1.5 mm thick aluminium. The plates are of the
size 400 × 400 mm and are screwed at eight points to a
frame made of 25 × 25 mm L-beam in order to be able to
stand the strong wind.
The measurements are made in the laboratory consists
of an anechoic chamber and the adjacent reverberation
chamber. An air channel is made in the common door be-
tween the two rooms. The anechoic chamber is set in con-
stant over pressure and served as the air tank to supply a
quiet air flow. The reverberation room is qualified by stan-
dard EN ISO 3741:2010 for the precision measurement of
sound power level. It is shown in the qualification mea-
surement that, when the measurements are made accord-
ing to the standard, the standard deviation of the sound
pressure level is less than 0.5 dB for 100–200 Hz 1/3 oc-
tave bands, and is less than 0.1 dB for the 1/3 octave bands
250–5000 Hz [2]. There are four openings, each of the size
about 0.15 m2 , at the upper corners of the reverberation
room connected to the ventilation system via mufflers to
keep the balance of the air pressure inside the room. This
design also ensures the constant flow speed through the air
channel between the two chambers when the over pressure
in the anechoic chamber keeps constant.

188 © S. Hirzel Verlag · EAA

Feng: Tone-like signal ACTA ACUSTICA UNITED WITH ACUSTICA
Vol. 98 (2012)

The sketch of the test setup is shown in Figure 1. The

test structure is located in the reverberation chamber and
is in the front of, and 0.75 m away from, the opening of the Reverberation chamber

air channel. The frame of the plate can be rotated about the
vertical axis and hence make different angles between the Anechoic
chamber in
flow direction and the plate. The opening of the air channel constant over
Rotating
pressure microphone
is of the size 420 × 420 mm, a little larger than the test Test
plate. With this design, a roughly uniform wind with the sample

desired wind speed can be obtained and blow to the test

plate.
Due to the limited size of the test plate, the influence
from the edge of the frame is unavoidable, especially when Figure 1. Sketch of the test setup There are four openings at the
upper corner of the reverberation chamber to keep balance of air
the plate is with some angles to the air-flow. In order to
pressure in the room.
take into account of this effect, a reference plate made
of the same material but without perforation is made and
tested in the exactly same way as the other plates do. The Table I. Test samples. ϕ: Hole diameter, mm. Lcc : Distance be-
difference between the results of a test plate and the refer- tween holes, centre-to-centre.
ence plate can be then considered as the “pure” contribu-
tion of the holes at the test condition. Sample ϕ Lcc
The sound power levels of the flow-induced noise of the 1 20 x direction: 25 mm
tests plates, under five different flow speeds, are measured y-direction: 32 mm
in the reverberation room by using the comparison method (two lines shifted)
with a reference sound source in accordance with the in- 2 12 x-direction: 27 mm
ternational standard EN ISO 3741:2010. A rotating micro- y-direction: 17.5 mm
phone is used to register the average sound pressure level
3 8 x-direction: 18 mm
inside the reverberation room. y-direction: 11.6 mm
The test conditions are listed in Table II. The “flow-
4 11 x-direction: 23 mm
speed” in the table is the average wind speed of the free-
y-direction: 15 mm
flow at the sample location, i.e., the flow-speed when the
test plate does not exist. The “incident angle” in the ta- 5 10 x-direction: 21 mm
y-direction: 13.5 mm
ble denotes the angle between the plate normal and the
flow direction. Zero degree means the plate is perpendicu- Reference – –
lar to the flow, and 90◦ means the plate is in parallel with
the flow. For most measurements shown below (all results
measured in 1/3 octave band), the y-direction of the plate Table II. Test conditions. u: Mean flow-speed, m/s. x*: For the
is fixed and the incident angle is changed by rotating the case of 90◦ , only plate 1, 4, 5 and the reference plate are tested.
plate about the y-axis. If the direction of the wind is de-
noted as the z-direction, the incident angle shown in the Incident angle, degrees
table is at the xoz plane. In some comparison measure- u 0◦ 30◦ 60◦ 75◦ 90◦
ments, we rotate the plate by 90◦ to see the possible in-
3 x x x x x
fluence of the pattern of the perforation. In that case the
6 x x x x x
incident angle is located at yoz plane. The maximum wind 9 x x x x x
speed tested is 15 m/s, since the wind speed higher than 12 x x x x x
this is not common in Stockholm area. 15 x x x x x*

3. Test results
3.1. Small angle or 90 degrees
When the incident angle is small or when it is 90◦ , the
wind-induced sound exhibits only broadband character, as
was expected. Results for 0◦ and 90◦ incident angles are
shown in Figure 2–Figure 3. Situations for 30◦ incidence
is similar as that for 0◦ incidence. Compared with the ref-
erence plate under the same condition, the A-weighted
sound power level for those perforated plates are about
5.5–7 dB higher. All plates behave rather similar. No tone-
like signals can be detected.
3.2. Large angles
When the incident angle is increased to about 60 degrees,
the situation is totally different. While plate 1 (hole diam-
eter 20 mm) still keeps broadband character, for all other
plates the sound power levels start to be enhanced in some
frequency bands. For plate 4 and 5 (hole diameter 11 and
10 mm), it is even possible to hear a weak tone-like sig-
nal. The power spectra of the wind-induced noise, when
the wind speed is 12 m/s and the incident angle is 60◦ , are
shown in Figure 4. In this condition, the A-weighted flow-
induced sound power levels of the perforated plates are

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ACTA ACUSTICA UNITED WITH ACUSTICA Feng: Tone-like signal
Vol. 98 (2012)

60.0 65.0

55.0 60.0

50.0 55.0

Sound power level, dB

Sound power level, dB

45.0 50.0

40.0 45.0
ref.
1 40.0
35.0 2
3 ref.
30.0 4 35.0 1
5 2
3
25.0 30.0 4
5
20.0 25.0
100 200 400 800 1600 3150 100 200 400 800 1600 3150
Frequency, Hz Frequency, Hz

Figure 2. Sound power level of wind-induced noise per plate, 0◦ Figure 5. Noise spectra when the incident angle is 75◦ , 9 m/s.
incidence, 12 m/s Situation of 30◦ incidence is similar.

65.0 75.0

60.0 70.0

55.0 65.0
Sound power level, dB

Sound power level, dB

50.0 60.0

45.0 55.0
ref.
1 50.0
40.0 4
ref.
5
45.0 1
35.0
2
3
30.0 40.0 4
5
25.0 35.0
100 200 400 800 1600 3150 100 200 400 800 1600 3150
Frequency, Hz Frequency, Hz

Figure 3. Sound power level of wind-induced noise per plate, 90◦ Figure 6. Noise spectra when the incident angle is 75◦ , 15 m/s.
incidence, 12 m/s.

speed is only 9 m/s. For this angle, a 5 dB high tone-like

signal can be detected for those three plates even when the
65.0
wind speed is only 6 m/s (not shown). Plates with larger
60.0
holes (plate 1) or smaller holes (plate 3) do not show high
55.0 tone-like signal at this wind speed (9 m/s).
Sound power level, dB

50.0
When the wind speed is increased, the peak for plate
3 (8 mm hole) is increased a lot, while the peaks for the
45.0
ref.
plates with larger holes (10–12 mm) are reduced, and for
40.0 1
2
the plate with even larger holes (20 mm), still no peak can
35.0
3
4
be detected (Figure 6). It seems that there is an “optimum”
5 wind speed for each size of holes if the phenomenon of the
30.0
tone-like signal will happen or not. This “optimum” speed
25.0
100 200 400 800 1600 3150
is lower for larger holes and higher for smaller holes. Be-
Frequency, Hz low or above this speed, the tone-like signal is less evident.
It is also seen that for smaller holes, the tone-like signal is
Figure 4. Noise spectra when the incident angle is 60◦ , 12 m/s. stronger when it happens, since the corresponding “opti-
mum” wind speed is higher.
about 10 (plate 1) to 14 dB (other plates) higher than that
3.3. Same wind speed, different incident angle
of the reference plate.
When the angle is even increased, the tone-like signal Figure 7 shows the influence of the incident angle when
becomes much higher for some plates. As can be seen the wind speed keeps constant (12 m/s). It is clearly seen
from Figure 5 (75◦ , with the wind speed 9 m/s), the peak that the tone-like phenomenon happens only in a certain
of the tone-like signal is about 15 dB high for the plate angles, about 60◦ to 80◦ for our case. The strongest tone-
with the hole diameter of 10–12 mm, although the wind like signal appears when the angle is around 75◦ . This is

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75 75

70 3 m/s
70
6 m/s
0 65 9 m/s
65 30 12 m/s

Sound power level, dB

Sound power level, dB

60 60 15 m/s
75
60 90 55

55 50

45
50
40
45
35
40
30
35 25
100 200 400 800 1600 3150 100 200 400 800 1600 3150
Frequency, Hz Frequency, Hz

Figure 7. Noise spectra for different incident angles when the Figure 9. Influence of the wind speed on the spectra of the wind-
wind speed is 12 m/s, plate 5. induced noise, 75◦ incidence, 8 mm hole (plate 3).

75 75

70 70 3 m/s
6 m/s
65 9 m/s
65
12 m/s
Sound power level, dB

Sound power level, dB

60 15 m/s
60
55
55
50

50 0 45
30
60
45 40
75
90
35
40
30
35
100 200 400 800 1600 3150 25
Frequency, Hz
100 200 400 800 1600 3150
Frequency, Hz

Figure 8. Noise spectra for different incident angles when the

Figure 10. Influence of the wind speed on the spectra of the wind-
wind speed is 15 m/s, plate 1.
induced noise, 75◦ incidence, 10 mm hole (plate 5).

the same for plate 2, 3, 4 and 5. The positions of the peaks,

when expressed in 1/3 octave band, in principle do not 75

change when the incident angle changes if the wind speed 70 3 m/s
6 m/s
is constant. For plate 1 (20 mm holes), no clear tone-like 65 9 m/s
signal can be detected (Figure 8) for any cases. 12 m/s
Sound power level, dB

60 15 m/s

55
3.4. Same incident angle, different wind speed 50

Figure 9–Figure 12 show the influence of the wind speed 45

on the tone-like signals when the incident angle is 75◦ , 40

which is one of the most sensitive angles in the tests, for 35
plates with the diameter of the holes from 8 mm to 12 mm. 30
The phenomenon of the “optimum wind speed” is clearly 25
seen, especially in Figure 12 for the plate with 12 mm hole: 100 200 400 800 1600 3150
Frequency, Hz
The clear tone-like signal is evident only when the wind
speed is about 9 m/s. When the wind speed is lower or Figure 11. Influence of the wind speed on the spectra of the wind-
higher than this value, the signal is either week or is buried induced noise, 75◦ incidence, 11 mm hole (plate 4).
in the broadband noise. The speed interval when the tone-
like signal may happen depends on the size of the hole and
the repetition length of the perforation pattern (and may speed is relatively high, and hence the peak is also rela-
also the thickness of the plate). For large holes, the tone- tively high. The behaviour when the incident angle is 60◦
like signal appears from relatively low wind speed, while is the same as that when the angle is 75◦ . The only differ-
for smaller holes, the signal appears only when the wind ence is that the peak is lower.

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ACTA ACUSTICA UNITED WITH ACUSTICA Feng: Tone-like signal
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Strouhal number is often used to characterize the prop-

65 erties of flow-induced sound [1, 3]. It is defined as
60
fd
Str = . (1)
55 u
Sound power level, dB

50
In the formula f is the frequency, d the characteristic di-
45 mension of the objector and u the mean-flow speed. When
40 the object in the airflow is a cylinder, the famous phe-
nomenon called the Karman vortex street is formed. The
35 3 m/s
6 m/s corresponding vortex shedding frequency can be calcu-
9 m/s
30
12 m/s lated by set the Strouhal number to be 0.2 in most cases
25
15 m/s
[1, 3]. Calculations of the corresponding vortex-shedding
100 200 400 800 1600 3150
Frequency, Hz
frequencies for the test cases are made for a cylinder with
the diameter equal to the thickness of the tested plates, i.e.
Figure 12. Influence of the wind speed on the spectra of the wind- 1.5 mm. Surprisingly, results agree quite well with the fre-
induced noise, 75◦ incidence, 12 mm hole (plate 2). quencies of the tone-like signals when they are expressed
in 1/3 octave band. This indicates that the tone-like signals
may arise from the similar mechanism, and the thickness
of the plate might be an important parameter to determine
the centre frequency, though signals here are distributed in
50
8 mm hole a certain frequency range instead of a single tone.
10 mm hole
45 11 mm hole Besides the influence of the plate thickness, narrowband
Sound pressure level, dB

12 mm hole
40 analysis shows that the frequency of the tone-like signal is
35 also roughly in inverse proportion to the size of the holes.
It seems that the characteristic thickness of the plate is
30
modified somewhat by the size of the holes. Taking into
25 account of this influence, an empirical formula can be ob-
20 tained to estimate the central frequency of the tone-like
signal as
15

10 0.2u
500 1000 1500 2000 2500 fc = Hz. (2)
Frequency, Hz t∗

Figure 13. Narrow band spectra for sound pressure level, 75◦ in-
cidence, 12 m/s.
3.5. Position of the tone-like signal
It is seen from the previous figures that for the same wind
speed, the position of the tone-like signal is roughly the
same for all plates when expressed in 1/3 octave band.
Narrow band spectra (Figure 13) show that they are ac-
tually not located at the same frequency but rather with
a certain dependence on the size of the hole: The smaller
the hole is, the higher the frequency for the tone-like signal
is. The relative position of the peak is roughly in inverse
proportion to the diameter of the hole. However, the differ-
ences between the peak frequencies for the test cases are
not very big, hence they fall into the same frequency band
when expressed in 1/3 octave band. That is what we see
from the previous figures. Since the only material parame-
ter common for all plates tested is the thickness (1.5 mm),
we may reasonably expect that the thickness of the plate
is an important material parameter to determine the posi-
tion of the peak. The other structural parameters such as
the size of the hole or distance between the holes may give
smaller influence.
In the formula u is the average wind-speed in m/s and t∗ the
“modified characteristic dimension” of the structure and is
defined as
ϕ
t∗ = t. (3)
0.01
In the formula, both thickness t and diameter ϕ are in me-
tres.
3.6. Influence of the perforation pattern
Reference [4] has studies the acoustics effect of a perfo-
rated plate as the termination of a duct. In that study the
plate is always facing the flow and the perforated panel
works mainly as an equivalent orifice. In that case the per-
foration ratio instead of the perforation pattern is an impor-
tant parameter. In our case, wind can blow from different
directions to the plate. The perforation pattern may have
more important influence than the perforation ratio does
since what the wind “sees” from different angles is differ-
ent.
In the measurements shown above the incident angle is
only at the xoz plane. In order to see the possible influence
of the perforation pattern, measurements are compared for
the cases when the incident angle is in the xoz plane and

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if one randomizes the sizes and distribution of the holes,

40 the possibility of the tone-like phenomenon may also be
incident in xoz plane
incident in yoz plane greatly reduced.
35
Sound pressure level, dB

30 4. Discussions
25
It is indicated in reference [1] that the emerging of airflow
from a duct terminated by a perforated plate containing
20
sharp-edged circular orifices may become periodic by a
15 feedback mechanism. This feedback effect occurs only for
orifices whose diameters are one or two times their length.
10
500 1000 1500 2000 2500
This is obviously not our case since the diameter of the
Frequency, Hz holes discussed here is at least five times the length (thick-
ness of the plate) when the plate is facing the wind (zero
Figure 14. Influence of the orientation of the plate 75◦ incidence, degree).
12 m/s, plate 3. However, when the plate has a certain angle with the
wind direction, the situation is different. The perforated
plate performs now somehow like a group of orifices with
50
inclined surfaces. The “length” of the orifice, in the wind
45 incident in xoz plane
direction, is between t cos θ and ϕ sin θ + t cos θ. When the
Sound pressure level, dB

incident in yoz plane

40
35
30
25
20
15
10
500 1000 1500 2000 2500
Frequency, Hz
Figure 15. Influence of the orientation of the plate 75◦ incidence,
12 m/s, plate 5.
is in the yoz plane1 . For this comparison, sound pressure
levels in narrow band are used. Two examples are shown
in Figure 14 and Figure 15. As seen from the figures, the
perforation pattern relative to the wind direction does have
a big influence. Although the frequencies of the peaks are
still roughly the same, the relative amplitude is totally dif-
ferent. The tone-like signal appears only when the wind
blows at a certain angle relative to the perforation pattern,
especially for plate 5. The repetition length of the perfo-
ration pattern in the wind direction seems having a strong
influence on if the tone-like phenomenon will happen or
not. This is a very interesting result since in practical cases
it is very possible that the horizontal component of a wind
is much stronger than the vertical component. Arranging
perforated plates in an appropriate way hence may reduce
the possibility of the tone-like signal and hence to reduce
the total wind-induced noise.
Tests are also made when the plates are rotated to other
angles. For all plates tested, the tone-like signal is not evi-
dent unless the wind blows close to the xoz plane. It is no-
ticed that if one looks from directions other than from x- or
y-direction, the perforation pattern is not periodic. Hence,
1 This is practically realized by rotating the plate by 90◦ and then repeat-
ing the measurements. The environment is hence exactly the same for the
two situations.
incident angle is large enough and hence the maximum
“length of the orifice” is larger than the diameter, there
is a possibility that some part of flow is strengthened by
the positive feedback mechanism. For a single hole, this
feedback is weak and no significant effect can be seen.
When there are many holes working together, the situa-
3000 tion is different. The distance between the centres of the
two “orifices” in the wind direction is Lcc sin θ and in the
direction perpendicular to the wind is Lcc cos θ. When the
incident angle is large, the mixture of the airflows from dif-
ferent holes in a line become much easier since Lcc cos θ
is small. The interference between those almost identical
flows may also produce positive feedback and enhance the
turbulence. As a consequence, the sound power in a cer-
tain frequency band is strengthened by the feedbacks. In
this case there is not a tone but only the “enhancement”
of sound in a frequency band since the “feedback” is dis-
tributed in a certain range of length.
Back to our problem, the ratio between the diameter of
the hole and the maximum “length” of the orifices is close
to one for all plates except plate 1 when the incident angle
is larger than about 60 degrees, indicating that a relatively
larger part of the holes may produce a positive feedback.
For plate 1, the condition is fulfilled only when the angle
is very large since the diameter of the holes is more than
13 times the thickness of the plate. Hence the phenomenon
of the strengthened sound power in a frequency band does
not appear. For the angles close to 90 degrees, the holes do
not work like a circular orifice anymore. The above men-
tioned feedback mechanism does not work for that case.
Further investigation may be needed to get more reliable
explanations.
When the orientation of the plate is changed, the solid
part between two adjacent holes, Lcc −ϕ, in the wind direc-
tion is smaller than the diameter of the holes (see Table I
for y-direction distance). The flows from different holes
are not well separated and the possible feedback may be
destroyed. This may explain why the tone-like signal is not

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ACTA ACUSTICA UNITED WITH ACUSTICA
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apparent when the wind blows in the yoz plane. It seems
the possibility of the phenomenon is low if the solid part
between two adjacent holes is much smaller than the diam-
eter of the holes. Randomize the diameter or distribution
of the holes may also help to reduce the possibility of the
tone-like phenomenon.
5. Conclusions
Tone-like signal appears only when the wind is incident at
a certain angle, probably between 60 and 80 degrees, to
the perforated plate. Large holes require lower wind speed
to form a tone-like signal, and also with a lower peak. On
the other hand, small holes need higher wind speed and
also produces higher tone-like signal. When the diameter
of the hole is rather big, for our case (1.5 mm thick plate)
20 mm, no clear tone-like signal is detectable in the fre-
quency band 100 Hz–5 kHz.
The centre frequency of the tone-like signal is deter-
mined by the thickness of the plate and the diameter of the
hole. The corresponding 1/3 octave band can be roughly
estimated from the wind speed and the parameters of the
plate.
The perforation pattern has a very important influence
on the tone-like phenomenon. Same perforated plate in
the same wind condition may produce different noise if
the orientation of the plate is changed. It is noticed that the
194
Feng: Tone-like signal
size of the solid part between two adjacent holes and the
periodicity of the perforation pattern in the wind direction
may play an important role. If one can destroy the peri-
odicity of the perforation pattern or make the solid parts
between two adjacent holes smaller than the diameter of
the holes in the wind direction, it is possible to eliminate
or reduce the tone-like signal and hence to reduce the total
wind-induced noise. This property may be useful in prac-
tical cases to minimize the wind-induced noise.
Only preliminary results are obtained from the current
measurements. Further investigation is needed to get more
definitive conclusions.
References
[1] H. H. Heller, P. A. Franken: Noise of gas flow. – In: Noise
and Vibration Control, Chapter 16. L. L. Beranek (ed.). In-
stitute of Noise Control Engineering, Washington, DC, 1988,
515–524.
[2] L. Feng: Acoustical measurements (5th print). Lecture notes
TRITA-AVE 2007:07, KTH, Sweden, 2011, 53–54.
[3] A. D. Pierce: Acoustics: An introduction to physical princi-
ple and applications. Acoustical Society of America, 1991,
544.
[4] M. Salikuddin: Acoustic behavior of orifice plates and perfo-
rated plates with reference to low-frequency sound absorp-
tion. J. Sound Vib. 139 (1990) 361–381.