Aircraft noise and its nearfield propagation computations

Noise generated by civil transport aircraft during take-off and approach-to-land phases of operation is an environmental problem. The aircraft noise problem is firstly reviewed in this article. The review is followed by a description and assessment of a number of sound propagation methods suitable for applications with a background mean flow field pertinent to aircraft noise. Of the three main areas of the noise problem, i.e. generation, propagation, and radiation, propagation provides a vital link between near-field noise generation and far-field radiation. Its accurate assessment ensures the overall validity of a prediction model. Of the various classes of propagation equations, linearised Euler equations are often casted in either time domain or frequency domain. The equations are often solved numerically by computational aeroacoustics techniques, bur are subject to the onset of Kelvin-Helmholtz (K-H) instability modes which may ruin the solutions. Other forms of linearised equations, e.g. acoustic perturbation equations have been proposed, with differing degrees of success.