Abstract
To further reduce the noise emitted from modern aircrafts, every possibility has to be taken into account. Acoustic liners are successfully used in the inlet or the bypass duct of aircraft engines to mitigate the noise emitted by the fan. Due to the rough environment (high temperature, flow velocity, higher order duct modes), the exhaust duct is of limited use concerning the application of acoustic liners. It is well known that the last stage low pressure turbine (LPT) has a dominant influence onto the emitted noise of an aircraft engine especially at low load conditions such as approach. A noise reduction in this area could lead to a beneficial result of decreasing the noise content which is directly emitted in the environment.
This paper is about noise attenuation using Helmholtz absorbers in various parts of a turbine exit casing (TEC). These single degree of freedom absorbers have been integrated in turbine exit guide vanes (TEGVs), with the openings on the vanes suction side, as well as in the inner and outer duct end walls. Different absorber neck diameters were investigated and combined with different vane designs. The vane designs studied included a state of the art set-up as well as vanes with a lean. Test runs were performed with altered combinations of vanes and end walls under engine relevant operating conditions in a subsonic test turbine facility for aerodynamic, aeroacoustic and aeroelastic investigations (STTF-AAAI) located at the Institute of Thermal Turbomachinery and Machine Dynamics at Graz University of Technology. Comparisons between all these setups and the respective hard wall reference cases were done. The resulting sound pressure levels as well as sound power levels of all investigated combinations are listed and compared concerning each configurations noise attenuation potential. Additionally, the flow field downstream of every setup is analysed if the aerodynamic behaviour is changing.
The investigated operating point is the noise certification point Approach (APP) which is of high importance because of the high acoustical impact onto the environment around airports during the landing procedure of an aircraft.
The acoustical data has been obtained by using flush mounted condenser microphones located downstream of the TEC. The whole test section was rotated over 360 deg around the flow channel. To detect if the aerodynamical behaviour changes by including openings into the flow channel end walls as well as into the vanes, aerodynamic measurements have been performed downstream of the TEC. The aerodynamical data was obtained by using an aerodynamic five-hole-probe (5HP) as well as a trailing edge probe.