Numerical analysis of tonal airfoil self-noise and acoustic feedback-loops

In this study the role of acoustic feedback instabilities in the tonal airfoil self-noise phenomenon is investigated. First, direct numerical simulations are conducted of the flow around a NACA-0012 airfoil at Re=1×10⁵ and four angles of attack. At the two lowest angles of attack considered the airfoil self-noise exhibits a clear tonal contribution, whereas at the two higher angles of attack the tonal contribution becomes less significant in comparison to the broadband noise. Classical linear stability analysis of time-averaged boundary layer profiles shows that the tonal noise occurs at a frequency significantly lower than that of the most convectively amplified instability wave. Two-dimensional linear stability analysis of the time-averaged flowfield is then performed, illustrating the presence of an acoustic feedback loop involving the airfoil trailing edge. The feedback loop is found to be unstable only for the cases where tonal self-noise is prominent, and is found to self-select a frequency almost identical to that of the tonal self-noise. The constituent mechanisms of the acoustic feedback loop are considered, which appear to explain why the preferred frequency is lower than that of the most convectively amplified instability wave.     

"Ladder" structure in tonal noise generated by laminar flow around an airfoil

The presence of a "ladder" structure in the airfoil tonal noise was discovered in the 1970s, but its mechanism hitherto remains a subject of continual investigation in the research community. Based on the measured noise results and some numerical analysis presented in this letter, the variations of four types of airfoil tonal noise frequencies with the flow velocity were analyzed individually. The ladder structure is proposed to be caused by the acoustic/hydrodynamic frequency lag between the scattering of the boundary layer instability noise and the discrete noise produced by an aeroacoustic feedback loop.     

The effect of a cavity on airfoil tones

The presence of a cavity in the pressure surface of an airfoil has been found via experiment to play a role in the production of airfoil tones, which was attributed to the presence of an acoustic feedback loop. The cavity length was sufficiently small that cavity oscillation modes did not occur for most of the investigated chord-based Reynolds number range of 70,000–320,000. The airfoil tonal noise frequencies varied as the position of the cavity was moved along a parallel section at the airfoil's maximum thickness: specifically, for a given velocity, the frequency spacing of the tones was inversely proportional to the geometric distance between the cavity and the trailing edge. The boundary layer instability waves considered responsible for the airfoil tones were only detected downstream of the cavity. This may be the first experimental verification of these aspects of the feedback loop model for airfoil tonal noise.     

叶片锯齿尾缘对降低空调室外机气动噪声影响的试验研究

依据现有的叶片尾迹宽度计算公式,计算了一空调室外机风机叶片的尾迹宽度,然后,以此尾迹宽度为参考基准,设计了两组不同形状和大小的锯齿形叶片尾缘,制作并试验研究了锯齿形尾缘对风机气动噪声的影响规律。结果表明,锯齿尾缘有明显降噪效果,正弦形锯齿较正三角形更好。锯齿尾缘通过降低宽频噪声降噪,而对离散噪声影响很小。采用与叶片尾迹...     

Measurement of aerodynamic noise and unsteady flow field around a symmetrical airfoil

The purpose of this paper is to study the physics of aerodynamic noise generation from the symmetrical airfoil of NACA 0018 in a uniform flow. The relationship between the noise spectrum and the unsteady flow field around the airfoil is studied in an acoustic wind tunnel using flow visualization and PIV analysis. The discrete frequency noise was generated from the airfoil inclined at small angle of attack to the free stream. The flow visualization result indicates the presence of attached boundary layer over the suction side and the separated shear layer over the rear pressure side of the airfoil, when the discrete frequency noise is observed. It is found from the PIV analysis that a large magnitude of vorticity is generated periodically from the pressure side of the trailing edge and it develops into an asymmetrical vortex street in the wake of the airfoil. The periodicity of the shedding vortices was found to agree with that of the frequency of the generated noise.     

锯齿尾缘降噪翼型优化设计研究

大量研究工作表明旋转风电叶片的主要气动噪声来自叶尖尾缘区域,一直以来都是严重影响居民生活和叶片气动性能发挥的重要因素之一.为此,针对决定叶片重要气动特性单元——二维翼型,采用有别于传统的仿猫头鹰翅膀锯齿尾缘流动控制方法,将锯齿关键尺寸参数融入到风力机翼型设计之中,从而开发仿生锯齿翼型的优化设计方法,获得低噪声与高气动性...     

Direct numerical simulations of low Reynolds number flow over airfoils with trailing-edge serrations

Direct numerical simulations (DNS) have been conducted of NACA-0012 with serrated and straight flat-plate trailing-edge extensions using a purposely developed immersed boundary method. For the low Reynolds number airfoil flows accessible by DNS, laminar separation bubbles involving laminar-turbulent transition and turbulent reattachment occurs. Comparing results from simulations with serrated and un-serrated trailing-edge extensions, noise reduction for higher frequencies is shown using power spectra and one-third octave averaged pressure contours. The effect of the trailing-edge serrations on an acoustic feedback loop observed in previous simulations and the subsequent effect on the laminar separation bubble is studied via cross-correlations, probability density functions of skin friction and spanwise wavenumber spectra. The results show that the presence of serrations leads to some spanwise variation of transitional structures in the separated shear layer, but does not significantly affect the overall hydrodynamic field on the airfoil upstream of the serrations. Two reasons for why the hydrodynamic field is not considerably affected by the presence of serrations are suggested.     

后掠叶片锯齿尾缘宽频噪声实验研究

本文采用线性传声器阵列分别对具有常规尾缘及锯齿形尾缘的后掠叶片的尾缘噪声进行了实验测量;运用CLEAN-SC数据处理方法精确地识别出叶片尾缘噪声的声学参数.并且基于多组实验结果的对比,深入研究了不同的尾缘锯齿长度、周期、几何比例对后掠叶片尾缘噪声降噪效果的影响.实验结果表明:在低湍流度、自由来流情况下,在总声压级降噪方...     

Noise due to turbulent flow past a trailing edge

A theoretical method [I] for calculating far field noise from an airfoil in an incident turbulent flow is extended to apply to the case of noise produced by turbulent flow past a trailing edge, and some minor points of the theory in reference [1] are clarified. For the trailing edge noise, the convecting surface pressure spectrum upstream of the trailing edge is taken to be the appropriate input. The noise is regarded as generated almost totally by the induced surface dipoles near the trailing edge and thus equal, but anticorrelated, noise is radiated into the regions above and below the airfoil wake, respectively. The basic assumption of the analysis, from which these concepts of appropriate input and dominance of dipole sources follow, is that the turbulence remains stationary in the statistical sense as it moves past the trailing edge. The results show that such trailing edge noise often is quite small, compared say to that produced by typical oncoming turbulence levels of one percent, but that it might be appreciable for an airfoil with a flow separation, or for a blown flap.     

Direct simulations of trailing-edge noise generation from two-dimensional airfoils at low Reynolds numbers

The aeroacoustic sound generated from the flow around two NACA four-digit airfoils is investigated numerically, at relatively low Reynolds numbers that do not prompt boundary-layer transition. By using high-order finite-difference schemes to discretize compressible Navier–Stokes equations, the sound scattered on airfoil surface is directly resolved as an unsteady pressure fluctuation. As the wavelength of an emitted noise is shortened compared to the airfoil chord, the diffraction effect on non-compact chord length appears more noticeable, developing multiple lobes in directivity. The instability mechanism that produces sound sources, or unsteady vortical motions, is quantitatively examined, also by using a linear stability theory. While the evidence of boundary-layer instability waves is captured in the present result, the most amplified frequency in the boundary shear layer does not necessarily agree with the primary frequency of a trailing-edge noise, when wake instability is dominant in laminar flow. This contradicts the observation of other trailing-edge noise studies at higher Reynolds numbers. However, via acoustic disturbances, the boundary-layer instability may become more significant, through the resonance with the wake instability, excited by increasing a base-flow Mach number. Evidence suggests that this would correspond to the onset of an acoustic feedback loop. The wake-flow frequencies derived by an absolute-instability analysis are compared with the frequencies realized in flow simulations, to clarify the effect of an acoustic feedback mechanism, at a low Reynolds number.     

A frequency domain numerical method for airfoil broadband self-noise prediction

This paper describes a numerical approach, based in the frequency domain, for predicting the broadband self-noise radiation due to an airfoil situated in a smooth mean flow. Noise is generated by the interaction between the boundary layer turbulence on the airfoil surface and the airfoil trailing edge. Thin airfoil theory is used to deduce the unsteady blade loading. In this paper, the important difference with much of the previous work dealing with trailing edge noise is that the integration of the surface sources for computation of the radiated sound field is evaluated on the actual airfoil surface rather than in the mean-chord plane. The assumption of flat plate geometry in the calculation of radiation is therefore avoided. Moreover, the solution is valid in both near and far fields and reduces to the analytic solution due to Amiet when the airfoil collapses to a flat plate with large span, and the measurement point is taken to the far field.Predictions of the airfoil broadband self-noise radiation presented here are shown to be in reasonable agreement with the predictions obtained using the Brooks approach, which are based on a comprehensive database of experimental data. Also investigated in this paper is the effect on the broadband noise prediction of relaxing the ‘frozen-gust’ assumption, whereby the turbulence at each frequency comprises a continuous spectrum of streamwise wavenumber components. It is shown that making the frozen gust assumption yields an under-prediction of the noise spectrum by approximately 2dB compared with that obtained when this assumption is relaxed, with the largest occurring at high frequencies.This paper concludes with a comparison of the broadband noise directivity for a flat-plat, a NACA 0012 and a NACA 0024 airfoil at non-zero angle of attack. Differences of up to 20 dB are predicted, with the largest difference occurring at a radiation angle of zero degrees relative to the airfoil mean centre line.     

Vortex shedding noise of low tip speed,axial flow fans

Noise and performance tests were conducted on three low tip speed, half-stage, axial flow fans to determine the nature of the vortex shedding noise mechanism. Each fan was 356 mm in diameter and had eight equally spaced, variable pitch blades. The noise measurements were made in a free field environment and the fan back pressure and speed were varied during the tests. An acenaphthene coating on the blades was used to determine the regions of laminar and turbulent flow.Vortex shedding can be a significant source of noise when the fan is operated in a lightly loaded condition. Essentially it is due to instabilities in the laminar boundary layer on the suction side of the blade where these instabilities are in the form of Tollmien-Schlichting (T-S) waves. These instabilities interact with the trailing edge of the blade and generate acoustic waves which radiate from the trailing edge and form a feedback loop with the source of the instabilities. Vortex shedding noise can contribute as much as 5 dB in overall noise level and up to 22 dB at higher frequencies (8–14 kHz).Serrations located at the leading edge, at the mid-chord, or near the trailing edge on the suction side were found to reduce the vortex shedding noise significantly. The mid-chord location was found to be the most satisfactory because, as well as eliminating the noise, the serrations provided a 3% improvement in peak efficiency. This improvement occurred because separation of the laminar boundary layer was prevented on the suction side. On the other hand, serrations placed at the other two locations tended to degrade fan performance.     

Design and performance of an open jet wind tunnel for aero-acoustic measurement

This paper presents the design and performance of an open jet, blow down wind tunnel that was newly commissioned in the anechoic chamber at the ISVR, University of Southampton, UK. This wind tunnel is intended for the measurement of airfoil trailing edge self-noise but can be extended to other aeroacoustic applications. With the primary objectives of achieving acoustically quiet and low turbulence air jet up to 120 m/s through a 0.15 m × 0.45 m nozzle, several novel noise and flow control techniques were implemented in the design. Both the acoustical and aerodynamic performances of the open jet wind tunnel were examined in detail after its fabrication. It is found that the background noise of the facility is adequately low for a wide range of exit jet velocity. The potential core of the free jet is characterized by a low turbulence level of about 0.1%. Benchmark tests by submerging a NACA0012 airfoil with tripped and untripped boundary layers at 0° and 10° angles of attack respectively into the potential core of the free jet were carried out. It was confirmed that the radiating airfoil trailing edge self-noise has levels significantly above the rig noise over a wide range of frequencies. The low noise and low turbulence characteristics of this open jet wind tunnel are comparable to the best facilities in the world, and for its size it is believed to be the first of its kind in the UK.     

Airfoil self noise reduction by non-flat plate type trailing edge serrations

This paper represents the results of a preliminary study which aims to reduce the airfoil trailing edge self noise by employing non-flat plate type trailing edge serrations. This configuration offers better structural strength and integrity, as well as a more straightforward manufacturing process compared to the conventional flat plate type serrations. We found that the non-flat plate serration not only reduces the broadband self noise significantly, but also eliminates the high-frequency noise that was observed by others who used flat plate type serration. However, due to the presence of certain bluntness at the sawtooth root, vortex shedding noise in a narrow frequency bandwidth is also produced. This extraneous noise is found to be less significant if a wider-angle serration is used. To increase the effectiveness of the proposed serration geometry a hybrid configuration composed of a non-flat plate type trailing edge serration with woven-wire mesh screen is employed for the reduction of the narrowband vortex shedding noise.     

Sound generated in the vicinity of the trailing edge of an upper surface blown flap

Far field noise data indicated that for practical upper surface blown flap configurations, the noise radiated below the flap is dominated by the noise generated in the vicinity of the trailing edge. The sound field caused by turbulent mixing in the trailing edge wake is investigated experimentally and theoretically. Hot wire measurements were made downstream of the trailing edge to determine the gross turbulent mixing characteristics of the flow. This information is used as input to a theoretical analysis of the sound field. Favorable agreement is found between predicted and measured far field noise directivity at various frequencies and noise power spectra in various directions.     

Tuning of turbulent boundary layer anisotropy for improved surface pressure and trailing-edge noise modeling

The modeling of the surface pressure spectrum beneath a turbulent boundary layer is investigated, focusing on the case of airfoil flows and associated trailing edge noise prediction using the so-called TNO model. This type of flow is characterized by the presence of an adverse pressure gradient along the airfoil chord. It is shown that discrepancies between measurements and results from the TNO model increase as the pressure gradient increases. The original model is modified by introducing anisotropy in the definition of the turbulent vertical velocity spectrum across the boundary layer and by considering a frequency-dependent vertical correlation length. The degree of anisotropy is directly related to the strength of the pressure gradient. It is shown that by appropriately normalizing the pressure gradient and by tuning the degree of anisotropy, experimental results can be closely reproduced by the modified model. The model is validated against Large Eddy Simulation results and additional wind tunnel measurements. It is further validated in the context of trailing edge noise for which the model formulation makes use of the above surface pressure spectrum.     

Sound radiation from real airfoils in turbulence

Leading edge noise measurements and calculations have been made on a three airfoils immersed in turbulence. The airfoils included variations in chord, thickness and camber and the measurements encompass integral scale to chord ratios from 9 to 40 percent as well as 4:1 ratios of leading edge radius and airfoil thickness to integral scale. Angle of attack is found to have a strong effect on the airfoil response function but for the most part only a small effect on leading edge noise because of the averaging effect of the isotropic turbulence spectrum. Angle of attack effects can therefore be significant in non-isotropic turbulence and dependent on airfoil shape. It is found that thicker airfoils generate significantly less noise at high frequencies but that this effect is not determined solely by the leading edge radius or overall thickness. Camber effects appear likely to be small. Angle of attack effects on the response function of a strongly cambered airfoil are shown to be centered on zero angle of attack, rather than the zero lift angle of attack.     

Self-sustained oscillations of a shock wave interacting with a boundary layer on a supercritical airfoil

A theory is proposed of the self-sustaining oscillations of a weak shock on an airfoil in steady, transonic flow. The interaction of the shock with the boundary layer on the airfoil produces displacement thickness fluctuations which convect downstream and generate sound by interaction with the trailing edge. A feedback loop is established when this sound impinges on the shock wave, resulting in the production of further fluctuations in the displacement thickness. The details are worked out for an idealized mean boundary layer velocity profile, but strong support for the basic hypotheses of the theory is provided by a comparison with recent experiments involving the generation of acoustic “tone bursts” by a supercritical airfoil section.     

Symbolic regression modeling of noise generation at porous airfoils

Based on data sets from previous experimental studies, the tool of symbolic regression is applied to find empirical models that describe the noise generation at porous airfoils. Both the self noise from the interaction of a turbulent boundary layer with the trailing edge of an porous airfoil and the noise generated at the leading edge due to turbulent inflow are considered. Following a dimensional analysis, models are built for trailing edge noise and leading edge noise in terms of four and six dimensionless quantities, respectively. Models of different accuracy and complexity are proposed and discussed. For the trailing edge noise case, a general dependency of the sound power on the fifth power of the flow velocity was found and the frequency spectrum is controlled by the flow resistivity of the porous material. Leading edge noise power is proportional to the square of the turbulence intensity and shows a dependency on the fifth to sixth power of the flow velocity, while the spectrum is governed by the flow resistivity and the integral length scale of the incoming turbulence.     

Covariance-based approaches to aeroacoustic noise source analysis

In this paper, several covariance-based approaches are proposed for aeroacoustic noise source analysis under the assumptions of a single dominant source and all observers contaminated solely by uncorrelated noise. The Crame?r-Rao Bounds (CRB) of the unbiased source power estimates are also derived. The proposed methods are evaluated using both simulated data as well as data acquired from an airfoil trailing edge noise experiment in an open-jet aeroacoustic facility. The numerical examples show that the covariance-based algorithms significantly outperform an existing least-squares approach and provide accurate power estimates even under low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions. Furthermore, the mean-squared-errors (MSEs) of the so-obtained estimates are close to the corresponding CRB especially for a large number of data samples. The experimental results show that the power estimates of the proposed approaches are consistent with one another as long as the core analysis assumptions are obeyed.