Aeroacoustic noise prediction of a vertical axis wind turbine using large eddy simulation

This study investigates the numerical prediction for the aerodynamic noise of the vertical axis wind turbine using large eddy simulation and the acoustic analogy. Low noise designs are required especially in residential areas, and sound level generated by the wind turbine is therefore important to estimate. In this paper, the incompressible flow field around the 12 kW straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbine with the rotor diameter of 6.5 m is solved, and the sound propagation is calculated based on the Ffowcs Williams and Hawkings acoustic analogy. The sound pressure for the turbine operating at high tip speed ratio is predicted, and it is validated by comparing with measurement. The measured spectra of the sound pressure observed at several azimuth angles show the broadband characteristics, and the prediction is able to reproduce the shape of these spectra. While previous works studying small-scaled vertical axis wind turbines found that the thickness noise is the dominant sound source, the loading noise can be considered to be a main contribution to the total sound for this turbine. The simulation also indicates that the received noise level is higher when the blade moves in the downwind than in the upwind side.

Fundamental investigation using active plasma control to reduce blade–vortex interaction noise

Blade vortex interaction noise is a problematic and dominant component of rotor noise. Plasma actuators strategically placed at the tip of the rotor blades can reduce the strength of the tip vortices. This reduction has the potential to significantly reduce blade vortex interaction noise. A combined experimental, numerical, and theoretical program shows supporting evidence that low power plasma actuators can effectively lower coherence of the blade tip vortex and reduce blade vortex interaction noise over-pressure by up to 80%. For a nominal small five-bladed unmanned aerial vehicle, we predict an approximate 8.88 maximum ΔdB reduction for a 150 m/s tip speed. Experimental, computational, and acoustic modeling support these predictions. This study represents a fundamental investigation in the fixed-frame, which provides evidence for higher level research and testing in a rotating framework.

Further assessment of a time domain impedance boundary condition for the numerical simulation of noise-absorbing materials

In regard to the mitigation of environmental noise across major industry sectors, the present study focuses on the numerical prediction of passive noise reduction devices. Here, it is further explored how the noise attenuation induced by locally reacting noise absorbing materials (also called acoustic liners) can be simulated using a time domain highly accurate Computational AeroAcoustics (CAA) method. To this end, it is assessed how a classical Time Domain Impedance Boundary Condition (TDIBC) can effectively model acoustic liners of practical interest, including when the latter are exposed to realistic conditions (grazing flow and noise excitation). The investigation consists in numerically reproducing two experimental campaigns initially performed at NASA Langley Research Center. Two different materials are considered (honeycomb superimposed with perforate or wiremesh resistive face-sheet), each being characterized by a specific noise attenuation behaviour ( e.g. dependency on the flow conditions and/or noise excitation). Each material is tested under various flow conditions ( e.g. grazing flow of Mach up to 0.5) and/or noise source excitation ( e.g. multiple tones of level up to 140 dB each). The results demonstrate the ability of the underlying CAA/TDIBC approach to simulate realistic acoustic liners in non-trivial configurations, with enough physical accuracy ( e.g. correct capture of the noise attenuation characteristics) and numerical robustness ( e.g. absence of instabilities). The study also reveals that, independent from the CAA/TDIBC approach itself, some specific pre-processing tasks (e.g. impedance eduction and subsequent TDIBC calibration) may play a bigger role than expected, in practice.

Effect of a pylon on the broadband noise sources of counter-rotating turbomachinery

Pylons are commonly used for the mounting of engines in the aircraft industry. On the other hand, the installation of a pylon influences the noise generation mechanisms and therefore alters the broadband noise characteristics of a given turbomachinery setup. In this investigation, a counter-rotating open rotor with and without a pylon is investigated in order to determine its effects on broadband noise sources. The various broadband noise sources and their typical frequency ranges have been determined using beamforming maps and spectral analysis. In order to attain a clear impression regarding the broadband noise sources, the Double Filtering beamforming method has been utilized in the investigation. This method removes the tonal components from the recorded signal of a microphone array, resulting in a purely broadband signal. Using beamforming maps, the dominant broadband noise source amplitudes and locations can therefore be investigated in great detail. Compared to other methods, the investigation of measurement data and beamforming maps helps determine the amplitude, the frequency range, and the significance of the various types of broadband noise sources that are truly present in the emitted noise. It has been found for lower frequencies, that the broadband noise sources at the blade root of the aft rotor are dominant, while for higher frequencies, the significant broadband noise sources are localized to the trailing edge region of the forward rotor and the leading edge of the aft rotor. The installation of a pylon has resulted in an additional broadband noise source appearing at the blade tip of the aft rotor.

Practical considerations for ray casting shear layer corrections

Aircraft noise reduction technology development has been aided by the use of acoustic phased arrays to identify component-level locations of noise sources. Acoustic phased arrays are commonly used in both closed-wall and open-jet wind tunnels, thus requiring accurate acoustic propagation models to focus the array. In particular, open-jet wind tunnels have complex flow fields including a free shear layer that the acoustic waves must propagate through. A method using ray tracing is reviewed and an enhancement proposed to reduce the computational time for cases requiring a large number of rays. The proposed reduced ray casting method uses ray tracing to the extreme edges of the region of interest and limits all casted acoustic rays to within that region. The results showed that a hemispherical spiral discretization had lower error in the estimated acoustic propagation time than uniform angular discretization. The proposed reduced ray casting method showed similar accuracy as the original ray casting method but with improvement in the computational times when the number of cast rays was greater than 3200 as needed for modeling acoustic propagation in larger industrial sized open-jet wind tunnels.

Swirling mean flow effects on locally reacting interstage liner

Sound transmission through a finite-lined section in a rigid annular duct with swirling and sheared mean flow is analyzed with a new mode-matching method based on the conservation of the total enthalpy and the mass flow, which does not reduce to the conservation of the pressure and the axial velocity when the swirl is non-zero. It relies on a new projection method based on the property of the Chebyshev polynomials and on the scattering matrix formalism to yield transmission losses. This new method is first validated against a finite elements method tool in the uniform axial flow case, and then provides a parametric study of the effect of swirl. At low azimuthal mode order [Formula: see text], the swirl amplifies the attenuation of the contra-rotating modes and makes the attenuation of the co-rotating modes decrease with a trend of a general shift of the transmission loss curve toward contra-rotating modes. A small rotation of the transmission loss curves at low [Formula: see text] is also generally observed. The boundary condition in the lined section has a small effect on the transmission loss, except close to the cut-on thresholds. Finally, the duct boundary-layer thickness has a significant effect on the cut-on modes and the transmission loss but not its profile.

High fidelity modeling tools for engine liner design and screening of advanced concepts

With aircraft engines trending toward ultra-high bypass ratios, resulting in lower fan pressure ratios, lower fan RPM, and therefore lower blade pass frequency, the aircraft engine liner design space has been dramatically altered. This result is also due to the associated reduction in both the available acoustic treatment area (axial extent) as well as thickness (liner depth). As a consequence, there is current need for novel acoustic liner technologies that are able to meet multiple physical constraints and simultaneously provide enhanced noise attenuation capabilities. In addition, recent advances in additive manufacturing have enabled the consideration of complex liner backing structures that would traditionally be limited to honeycomb cores. This paper provides an overview of engine liner modeling and a description of the key physical mechanisms, with some emphasis on the use of low to high-fidelity tools such as empirical models and commercially available software such as COMSOL, Actran, and PowerFLOW. It is shown that the higher fidelity tools are a critical enabler for the evaluation and construction of future complex liner structures. A systematic study is conducted to predict the acoustic performance of traditional single degree of freedom liners and comparisons are made to experimental data. The effects of grazing flow and bias flow are briefly addressed. Finally, a more advanced structure, a metamaterial, is modeled and the acoustic performance is discussed.