Source characterization of a subsonic jet by using near-field acoustical holography

In the present study, patch near-field acoustical holography was used in conjunction with a multireference, cross-spectral sound pressure measurement to visualize the sound field emitted by a subsonic jet and to predict its farfield radiation pattern. A strategy for microphone array design is described that accounts for the low spatial coherence of aeroacoustic sources and for microphone self-noise resulting from entrained flow near the jet. In the experiments, a 0.8-cm-diameter burner was used to produce a subsonic, turbulent jet with a Mach number of 0.26. Six fixed, linear arrays holding eight reference microphones apiece were disposed circumferentially around the jet, and a circular array holding sixteen, equally spaced field microphones was traversed along the jet axis to measure the sound field on a 30-cm-diameter cylindrical surface enclosing the jet. The results revealed that the jet could be modeled as a combination of eleven uncorrelated dipole-, quadrupole-, and octupole-like sources, and the contribution of each source type to the total radiated sound power could be identified. Both the total sound field reconstructed in a three-dimensional space and the farfield radiation directivity obtained by using the latter model were successfully validated by comparisons to directly measured results.     

三通管路管壁声传递损失测试方法

针对汽车进气系统三通管路的特点,提出了多通管路的管壁传递损失测试方法。并以某车型的双涡轮增压发动机进气三通管道为例,采用该方法评价其用塑料代替铝后的声学性能,主要以声传递损失来评价涡轮增压器噪声通过三通连接管路管壁的辐射和透射特性。测试过程中,三通管道的两个连接涡轮增压器端口分别用声源两次发声,靠近进气歧管端口采用两种不同反射末端,然后在每段管路布置两个压力场扬声器进行测试,并基于平面波分离入射波和反射波,同时在三通管道外用声功率半球面十点分布法自由场扬声器测试,经过3次测量来计算管道管壁的声传递损失。由于声传递损失是管道本身特性决定,所以该测试方法能够准确找出塑料件和金属件在不同频率的声学特性差异。而后,在声传递损失测试结果的基础上,结合近场声全息方法和波束形成原理进行声源识别,可知该三通管路材质改为塑料后主要噪声来自焊缝薄弱处的中高频透射声和管壁结构的低频辐射声。     

Numerical and experimental investigations of the unsteady aerodynamics and aero-acoustics characteristics of a backward curved blade centrifugal fan

A numerical study of the aerodynamic and aeroacoustic behaviors of a backward curved blade centrifugal fan was conducted under two important flow conditions: BEP and 1.3 × BEP. Three-dimensional numerical simulations of the complete unsteady flow field for the whole impeller-volute configuration were used to determine the aeroacoustic sources. To locate the unsteady flow and perturbations, the near field wall pressure fluctuations at different strategic points on the volute were computed using the URANS approach. Thus the intensities and positions of the aeroacoustic sources were identified by analyzing frequency spectra. The aeroacoustic sources caused by fluctuations in the interactions of the flows leaving the impeller and volute were close to the volute tongue, and the most effective noise sources related to the flow rate were near the impeller shrouds. In addition, the unsteady flow variables provided by CFD calculations were used as inputs in the Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings equation to estimate the noise tones of the fan. The aeroacoustic calculation results showed that the volute noise was much larger than the blade noise, and the noise mainly propagated from the outlet duct of the fan. Moreover, to account for the noise propagation, three calculation methods were used by applying different solid boundaries. Compared with the other methods, the FEM method, which accounted for the complex solid boundaries, produced good agreement and showed that the complex solid boundaries cannot be neglected in aeroacoustic predictions. The calculation results showed good agreement with the experimental results.     

Reconstruction of the unsteady rotating forces of fan’s blade from far-field sound pressure

The aim of this paper is to investigate an inverse method used to evaluate the unsteady rotating forces acting on the fluid by the fan’s blade. A simple model based on the tonal noise produced by an axial fan and validated with a directivity experience is used to derive a discretized form of the direct problem and to simulate acoustic pressures at known spatial positions in the radiated field. The inversion of this direct problem is ill-conditioned and requires a regularization technique to stabilize the solution for small perturbations in the measured acoustic pressures. The reconstruction reveals that the conditioning of the inverse problem depends on the aeroacoustic source and the far-field microphones number as well as on the studied frequency. Tikhonov regularization can provide an appropriate regularization parameter leading to an accurate reconstruction of imposed unsteady rotating forces even with the presence of measurement noise.     

Experimental investigation of an inversion technique for the determination of broadband duct mode amplitudes by the use of near-field sensor arrays

This paper is an experimental investigation of an inverse technique for deducing the amplitudes of the modes radiated from a turbofan engine, including schemes for stablizing the solution. The detection of broadband modes generated by a laboratory-scaled fan inlet is performed using a near-field array of microphones arranged in a geodesic geometry. This array geometry is shown to allow a robust and accurate modal inversion. The sound power radiated from the fan inlet and the coherence function between different modal amplitudes are also presented. The knowledge of such modal content is useful in helping to characterize the source mechanisms of fan broadband noise generation, for determining the most appropriate mode distribution model for duct liner predictions, and for making sound power measurements of the radiated sound field.     

Visualization of aerodynamic noise source around a rotating fan blade

The purpose of this study is to understand the aerodynamic noise source distribution around a rotating fan blade by measuring the noise signal and velocity field around the blade. The local noise-level distribution over the fan blade is measured by microphone arrays, and the flow field is visualized by smoke and phase-averaged PIV measurement. The noise source distribution is examined by cross-correlation analysis between noise signal and velocity fluctuation. It is found that the noise source is located near the rotating fan blade, especially around leading and trailing edges. The separation and reattachment of flow are observed near the leading edge, and the tip vortices and vortex shedding are found near the trailing edge. The cross-correlation distribution of the noise signal and the radial velocity fluctuation shows large magnitude in the correlated regions, which indicates the noise generation by the formation of vortex structure around the blade.     

A directional acoustic array using silicon micromachined piezoresistive microphones

The need for noise source localization and characterization has driven the development of advanced sound field measurement techniques using microphone arrays. Unfortunately, the cost and complexity of these systems currently limit their widespread use. Directional acoustic arrays are commonly used in wind tunnel studies of aeroacoustic sources and may consist of hundreds of condenser microphones. A microelectromechanical system (MEMS)-based directional acoustic array system is presented to demonstrate key technologies to reduce the cost, increase the mobility, and improve the data processing efficiency versus conventional systems. The system uses 16 hybrid-packaged MEMS silicon piezoresistive microphones that are mounted to a printed circuit board. In addition, a high-speed signal processing system was employed to generate the array response in near real time. Dynamic calibrations of the microphone sensor modules indicate an average sensitivity of 831 microV/Pa with matched magnitude (+/-0.6 dB) and phase (+/-1 degree) responses between devices. The array system was characterized in an anechoic chamber using a monopole source as a function of frequency, sound pressure level, and source location. The performance of the MEMS-based array is comparable to conventional array systems and also benefits from significant cost savings.     

On the use of a uniformly valid analytical cascade response function for fan broadband noise predictions

The present paper extends an existing analytical model of the aeroacoustic response of a rectilinear cascade of flat-plate blades to three-dimensional incident vortical gusts, to the prediction of the noise generated by a three-dimensional annular blade-row. The extended formulation is meant to be implemented in a fan broadband noise prediction tool. The intended applications include the modern turbofan engines, for which analytical modelling is believed to be a good alternative to more expensive numerical techniques. The prediction noise model resorts to a strip theory approach based on a three-dimensional rectilinear cascade model. The latter is based on the Wiener-Hopf technique, and yields the pressure field in the blade passage and the unsteady blade loading. The analytical pressure solution is derived by making an extensive use of the residue theorem. The obtained unsteady blade loading distribution over the blades is then used as a dipole source distribution in an acoustic analogy applied in the annular rigid duct with uniform mean flow. The new achievements are then tested on three-dimensional annular-benchmark configurations and compared with three-dimensional lifting-surface models and three-dimensional Euler linearized codes available in the literature. The accuracy of the model is shown for high hub-to-tip ratio cases. When used as such in a true rectilinear-cascade configuration, it also reproduces the exact radiated field that can be derived directly. For low hub-to-tip ratio configurations, the model departs from three-dimensional computations, both regarding the blade loading and the acoustic radiation. A correction is proposed to account for the actual annular dispersion relation in the rectilinear-cascade response function. The results suggest that the proposed correction is necessary to get closer to the underlying physics of the annular-space wave equation, but that it is yet not sufficient to fully reproduce three-dimensional results.     

Application of frequency-domain linearized Euler solutions to the prediction of aft fan tones and comparison with experimental measurements on model scale turbofan exhaust nozzles

Although it is widely accepted that aircraft noise needs to be further reduced, there is an equally important, on-going requirement to accurately predict the strengths of all the different aircraft noise sources, not only to ensure that a new aircraft is certifiable and can meet the ever more stringent local airport noise rules but also to prioritize and apply appropriate noise source reduction technologies at the design stage. As the bypass ratio of aircraft engines is increased - in order to reduce fuel consumption, emissions and jet mixing noise - the fan noise that radiates from the bypass exhaust nozzle is becoming one of the loudest engine sources, despite the large areas of acoustically absorptive treatment in the bypass duct. This paper addresses this ‘aft fan’ noise source, in particular the prediction of the propagation of fan noise through the bypass exhaust nozzle/jet exhaust flow and radiation out to the far-field observer. The proposed prediction method is equally applicable to fan tone and fan broadband noise (and also turbine and core noise) but here the method is validated with measured test data using simulated fan tones. The measured data had been previously acquired on two model scale turbofan engine exhausts with bypass and heated core flows typical of those found in a modern high bypass engine, but under static conditions (i.e. no flight simulation). The prediction method is based on frequency-domain solutions of the linearized Euler equations in conjunction with perfectly matched layer equations at the inlet and far-field boundaries using high-order finite differences. The discrete system of equations is inverted by the parallel sparse solver MUMPS. Far-field predictions are carried out by integrating Kirchhoff's formula in frequency domain. In addition to the acoustic modes excited and radiated, some non-acoustic waves within the cold stream-ambient shear layer are also captured by the computations at some flow and excitation frequencies. By extracting phase speed information from the near-field pressure solution, these non-acoustic waves are shown to be convective Kelvin-Helmholtz instability waves. Strouhal numbers computed along the shear layer, based on the local momentum thickness also confirm this in accordance with Michalke's instability criterion for incompressible round jets with a similar shear layer profile. Comparisons of the computed far-field results with the measured acoustic data reveal that, in general, the solver predicts the peak sound levels well when the farfield is dominated by the in-duct target mode (the target mode being the one specified to the in-duct mode generator). Calculations also show that the agreement can be considerably improved when the non-target modes are also included, despite their low in-duct levels. This is due to the fact that each duct mode has its own distinct directionality and a non-target low level mode may become dominant at angles where the higher-level target mode is directionally weak. The overall agreement between the computations and experiment strongly suggests that, at least for the range of mean flows and acoustic conditions considered, the physical aeroacoustic radiation processes are fully captured through the frequency-domain solutions to the linearized Euler equations and hence this could form the basis of a reliable aircraft noise prediction method.     

Hybrid active and passive control of fan noise

This paper deals with the global reduction of axial flow fan noise in ducts in a building using a hybrid passive-active noise control method. The effectiveness of using an infra-red device as a reference signal source is also investigated. It is shown that using such a hybrid noise control system over an axial-flow fan reduces the overall sound pressure level by 5 dB(A) in the surrounding environment and global control of the blade passing frequency can also be achieved. This paper also shows that using an infra-red device as a reference signal source produces marginally better control as compared with using a microphone reference sensor. Moreover, long term stability is guaranteed and the possibility of acoustic feedback is eliminated.     

Some benchmark problems for computational aeroacoustics

This paper presents analytical results for high-speed leading-edge noise which may be useful for benchmark testing of computational aeroacoustics codes. The source of the noise is a convected gust striking the leading edge of a wing or fan blade at arbitrary subsonic Mach number; the streamwise shape of the gust is top-hat, Gaussian, or sinusoidal, and the cross-stream shape is top-hat, Gaussian, or uniform. Detailed results are given for all nine combinations of shapes; six combinations give three-dimensional sound fields, and three give two-dimensional fields. The gust shapes depend on numerical parameters, such as frequency, rise time, and width, which may be varied arbitrarily in relation to aeroacoustic code parameters, such as time-step, grid size, and artificial viscosity. Hence it is possible to determine values of code parameters suitable for accurate calculation of a given acoustic feature, e.g., the impulsive sound field produced by a gust with sharp edges, or a full three-dimensional acoustic directivity pattern, or a complicated multi-lobed directivity. Another possibility is to check how accurately a code can determine the far acoustic field from nearfield data; a parameter here would be the distance from the leading edge at which the data are taken.     

Limits of coherence-based aeroacoustic analysis in the presence of distributed sources

Coherence-based analysis techniques utilizing a small number of microphones are often applied in aeroacoustic measurements. These techniques can remove statistically incoherent noise, electronic or hydrodynamic, from acoustic signals measured by microphones, at significantly lower cost than array methods. However, the assumptions involved in the usage of the ordinary coherence function technically limit analysis to a single-source field. In the presence of multiple sources the coherence function breaks down and ordinary analysis techniques under-predict true acoustic levels. This phenomenon is demonstrated mathematically and illustrated using experimental trailing edge noise data.     

上下并联轴流风机室外机气动声学预测模型

本文基于CFD模拟方法,分析了空调器室外机上下并联轴流风机系统噪声源分布,建立了室外机气动声学预测方法.研究发现,上下并联轴流风机系统由宽频和离散频率噪声组成,宽频噪声是影响室外机噪声总声压级的重要因素.涡声分析表明,涡脱落噪声是宽频噪声的主要影响因素.基于CFD的叶片尾缘涡脱落噪声预测方法计算得到宽频声压误差为2 dB,考虑离散频率影响时,室外机A计权总声压级预测误差小于2 dBA.基于CFD的点源时域预测模型,捕捉到了上下并联轴流风机系统的离散频率噪声峰值,且在上下叶轮前二阶谐波处预测值与实验值吻合较好.     

Reduction of motor fan noise using CFD and CAA simulations

Motor fans used for cooling electric motors have long been recognized as one of the major noise sources. Current paper focuses on design of motor fan for electric motors that are used in submarines for pumping sea water. Noise reduction at source is very important and the critical task, for under water applications. An attempt has been made for reduction of motor fan noise by modification of noise sources. For this purpose computational fluid dynamics and computational aeroacoustics code FLUENT package is used to identify the noise sources and to know the overall sound pressure level of motor fan. From these results it is observed that aerodynamic noise is the dominate fan noise source. Aerodynamic noise of motor fan can be reduced by modifying fan geometry. The aerodynamic noise level of motor fan has been reduced by replacing the straight blades with various digits of NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) 65 series airfoil sections. From the numerical results it is observed that the minimum sound pressure level for NACA 65-010 is 65.4 dB(A). These numerical results are compared with measurements in a semi-anechoic chamber. It is found that there is good agreement between numerical and experimental results.     

Reduction of fan noise by annulus boundary layer removal

Much of the noise produced by a fan is due to varying forces caused by the unsteady flow field through which it passes. In the absence of inlet guide vanes, support struts and other mechanical obstructions, the flow irregularities are caused by large scale intake turbulence and temporal and spatial variations in the annulus boundary layer. In many cases the most effective source is the annulus boundary layer, as this interacts with the blade tip which is the fastest part of the blade and is therefore the most effective noise source. This noise can be reduced if the annulus boundary layer is smoothly bled away from the rotor so that the blade tip sees a thin, uniform boundary layer. A one metre diameter ventilation fan has been run in a duct with and without a boundary layer bleed system and a reduction of far field sound power of approximately 5 dB has been obtained for a bleed of 5 % of the main flow with some far field tone reductions of more than 15 dB. Measurements of far field directivities, in-duct acoustic modes and aerodynamic distortions have confirmed the suggested explanation for this phenomenon. The tests have shown that great care must be taken in the design of a bleed system so that residual boundary layer distortions are not in the correct wavelength range to produce propagating acoustic waves at important blade passing harmonic frequencies. If such distortions are present, the far field noise can increase instead of decrease.     

Research on the procedure for analyzing the sound quality contribution of sound sources and its application

Transfer path analysis (TPA) plays an important role for identifying and quantifying the contribution by airborne and structure-borne in the automotive industry. The main bottleneck of the TPA method is the test time consumption and complex procedure. It becomes a key target in many applications to find out the source with dominant contribution to overall noise rather than to identify each source. In recent years the contribution pattern of sources to the vehicle overall interior noise has changed with the reduction of engine noise, which masks all other sources. The panel radiation noise of vehicle body could not be ignored. There is an increasing demand for analyzing the sound quality contribution of sound sources in simple ways. The procedure for analyzing sound quality contribution of panel radiation noise is suggested in this study, in which an operational path analysis (OPA) method combined with partial singular value decomposition (PSVD) analysis is applied and sound quality objective assessment is introduced. The experimental research for verifying the procedure is finished, from which the source with largest sound quality contribution is picked up from three sources. For engineering application, the sound quality contributions of panels to the interior noise of a micro commercial vehicle are analyzed by using the procedure. By investigating the contributions of sound sources to each sound quality attribute, the dominant sound source is determined.     

A compound secondary source for active noise radiation control

Based on the analysis of active noise control system with multi-channel monopole secondary sources, a kind of compound secondary source is proposed in this paper. The proposed compound secondary source consists of two closely located monopole sources with their distance much smaller than a wavelength. The characteristics of the compound source are analyzed, and the performances of the active noise control system with the compound secondary sources on the monopole primary sound field and sound radiated by a plate are investigated both numerically and experimentally. It has been found that the proposed compound secondary sources control system can provide higher noise reduction for free field noise radiation control with the same number of control channels. It is shown that the better performance in noise reduction of the compound secondary sources control system is mainly due to the directivity of the secondary sources where the energy radiation pattern of the compound sources is similar to that of the primary sources.     

Aeroacoustic performance evaluation of axial flow fans based on the unsteady pressure field on the blade surface

Because of the European and global regulation concerning acoustic emission, the goal of manufacturers is to substantially decrease the noise radiated by turbomachines, and in particular axial fans, without degrading their aerodynamic performances. High rotation speed and increasing power add to the overall difficulties. The theoretical study of this paper consists of two parts: (1) an aerodynamic approach based on the vortex surface method and (2) an aeroacoustic approach which mainly concerns the prediction of the tonal noise using the Ffowcs Williams and Hawkings (FW-H) equation. One of the main goals is the evaluation of the unsteady aerodynamic forces applied on the fan blades. A 2D software analysis, based on the vortex surface method (or potential flow method), was carried out. That process enabled evaluation of the potential flow around a mobile grid; first in a steady mode, and secondly in an unsteady mode by introducing an upstream disturbance in the form of an inlet velocity variation. The sources of noise corresponding to the zones with high force fluctuation amplitude are located initially on the blade surface. These fluctuating forces are used to predict the tonal noise radiated by the fan in far field by means of the FW-H equation. Two axial flow fans were used in this study. The theoretical results will be compared to the experimental ones in order to evaluate the aeroacoustic performances of the fans.     

Scan-based near-field acoustical holography and partial field decomposition in the presence of noise and source level variation

Practical holography measurements of composite sources are usually performed using a multireference cross-spectral approach, and the measured sound field must be decomposed into spatially coherent partial fields before holographic projection. The formulations by which the latter approach have been implemented have not taken explicit account of the effect of additive noise on the reference signals and so have strictly been limited to the case in which noise superimposed on the reference signals is negligible. Further, when the sound field is measured by scanning a subarray over a number of patches in sequence, the decomposed partial fields can suffer from corruption in the form of a spatially distributed error resulting from source level variation from scan-to-scan. In the present work, the effects of both noise included in the reference signals, and source level variation during a scan-based measurement, on partial field decomposition are described, and an integrated procedure for simultaneously suppressing the two effects is provided. Also, the relative performance of two partial field decomposition formulations is compared, and a strategy for obtaining the best results is described. The proposed procedure has been verified by using numerical simulations and has been applied to holographic measurements of a subsonic jet.     

Experimental and numerical study on aeroacoustic sound of axial flow fan in room air conditioner

Fan is one of the main noise sources of the room air-conditioners. Axial flow fans are widely used in the outdoor unit of split type air-conditioners. The interaction between the fan and the heat exchanger should be taken into consideration. However, only a few researches have been carried out on predicting the aeroacoustic noise because of the difficulty in obtaining detailed information of the flow field. This paper is to understand the generation mechanism of sound and to develop a prediction method for the flow field and the acoustic pressure field of the outdoor unit. Acoustic measurement is performed in a semi-anechoic chamber. Effects of each components is analyzed. Based on commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code, Fluent, Fukano’s model is used to predict the overall sound pressure level of broadband noise. The predicted sound pressure levels based on original Fukano’s model are 7.66 dB and 7.42 dB lower than measurement results at 780 rpm and 684 rpm, respectively. And the errors are about 13%. However, when wake width and relative velocity are both calculated by numerical simulations and the distance to blade trailing edge is taken into consideration, the difference of sound pressure level between measurement and prediction is less than 3.4 dB and errors less than 5.5% while the distance is less than 10 mm. Thus, the distance to blade trailing edge should also be an important parameter for Fukano’s model. In comparison with experimental results, it is clearly shown that the Fukano method based on numerical simulation can provide more accuracy than the original Fukano model and numerical results are in a reliable level.