Weakly nonlinear acoustic and shock-wave theory of the noise of advanced high-speed turbopropellers

An acoustic and shock-wave theory of the noise generated by advanced turbo-propellers operating at supersonic tip helical velocity and high-subsonic cruise Mach number is developed. The theory includes the thickness and loading noise of the highly swept propeller blades. When operating at their design conditions these propellers radiate extremely intense sound waves. Because of the weakly nonlinear propagation effects these high-intensity acoustic disturbances steepen up quickly to form shock waves. In the present theory advantage is taken of the fact that in the blade fixed-rotating-coordinate system the acoustic and shock-wave fields are time independent. The problem is formulated in this coordinate system as a boundary-value problem. Weakly nonlinear propagation effects are incorporated into the solution following Whitham's nonlinearization procedure (Whitham 1974). The change in the disturbance-propagation velocity due to fluid-particle motion as well as the change in the speed of sound resulting from compression and rarefaction are all taken into account. It is found that the equal-area rule of Whitham's shock-fitting method is also applicable to the present problem. This method permits easy construction of the three-dimensional shock surfaces associated with the acoustic disturbances of these high-speed turbopropellers. Numerical results of the present theory are compared with the measurements of the JETSTAr flight experiment and the United Technology Research Center low-cruise Mach number open-wind-tunnel data. Very favourable overall agreements are found. The comparisons indicate clearly that, when these supersonic turbopropellers are operated at their high subsonic design-cruise Mach number, weakly nonlinear propagation effects must be included in the theory if an accurate prediction of the waveform of the sound wave incident on the design aircraft fuselage is to be obtained. This is especially true for noise radiated in the upstream or forward directions. In the forward directions the effective propagation velocity of the acoustic disturbances is greatly reduced by the convection velocity of the ambient flow. This allows more time for the cumulative nonlinear propagation effects to exert their influence, leading to severe distortion of the waveform and the formation of shock waves.