On the origin of impinging tones at low supersonic flow

Impinging compressible jets may cause deafness and material fatigue due to immensely loud tonal noise. It is generally accepted that a feedback mechanism similar to the screech feedback loop is responsible for impinging tones. The close of the loop remained unclear. One hypothesis hold up in the literature explains the emanated sound with the direct interaction of vortices and the wall. Other explanations name the standoff shock oscillations as the origin of the tones. Using direct numerical simulations (DNS) we were able to identify the source mechanism for under-expanded impinging jets with a nozzle pressure ratio (NPR) of 2.15 and a plate distance of 5 diameters. We found two different types of interactions between vortices and shocks to be responsible for the generation of the impinging tones. They are not related to screech.