Search NASA⌕ Search

Engineering topics

Mehdi R Khorrami

Publications and source records attributed to Mehdi R Khorrami.

At least 19 records

Development of a Field-Deployable Microphone Phased Array for Airframe Noise Flyover Measurements

This technical memorandum describes in detail the construction and use of a large channel-count, field-deployable microphone phased array designed for airframe noise flyover measurements for a range of aircraft types and scales. The array incorporated 185 hardened, weather-resistant sensors suitable for outdoor use. A custom 4-mA current loop receiver circuit with temperature compensation was developed to power the sensors over extended cable lengths with minimal loss of signal-to-noise. Extensive calibrations and performance testing of the sensors were conducted to verify the design specifications. A compact data system combining sensor power, signal conditioning, and digitization was assembled for use with the array. Complementing the data system was a robust analysis system capable of near real-time presentation of beamformed and deconvolved contour plots and integrated spectra obtained from data acquired during flyover passes of the array. Additional instrumentation systems needed to process the array data were also developed, including a commercial 10-meter weather station comprised of a sonic anemometer, aspirated temperature/humidity probe and pressure sensor. Unique methods for assessing the health of the array in-situ were developed and demonstrated. A detailed mock-up of the instrumentation suite (phased array, weather station, and data processor) was performed in the NASA Langley Acoustic Development Laboratory in 2014 to vet the system performance. Issues with the sensors and electronics were identified during the mock-up and subsequently corrected. The array was then deployed for preliminary field testing at Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia in 2015 followed by the array being utilized in three separate full-scale airframe noise test campaigns at Edwards Air Force Base in California from 2016 to 2018 where the system was used to characterize the noise generated by both baseline and treated flaps and main landing gear on a commercial transport-sized vehicle.

Phased Array↗

TPSAS-NF1676L-10819-DND

Additional aerodynamic data for the benchmark configuration of partially-dressed cavity-closed nose landing gear (PDCC-NLG), obtained at a flow Mach number of 0.166, are provided in this presentation. A detailed account of the unsteady surface pressure fluctuations acquired with a Kulite transducer designed to be mobile is also given. The roving nature of the transducer allowed the sensor to be placed at numerous locations where high-amplitude pressure fluctuations are expected. The measured surface pressure spectra are mainly broadband in nature, lacking any local peaks associated with coherent vortex shedding. This finding is in agreement with off-surface flow measurements based on particle image velocimetry, which revealed the flow field to be a collection of separated shear layers without any dominant vortex shedding processes.

Mehdi R Khorrami↗

TPSAS-NF1676L-10874-DND

An unstructured grid flow solver, FUN3D has been used for simulation of unsteady flow on a partially dressed nose landing gear with closed cavities. Results obtained from an hybrid RANS/LES and delayed DES turbulence models are presented. Solutions have been obtained for a series of successively finer grids to quantify the effect of grid refinement. Computed surface pressures and perturbation pressures, and flow quantities in selected planes are compared with the experimental data. The power spectral density at several locations is also compared with the measured data. Overall agreement of FUN3D results with the experimental data is encouraging and the correlation with the measured data generally improves with grid refinement.

Veer N Vatsa↗

TPSAS-NF1676L-10756-DND

Additional aerodynamic data for the benchmark configuration of partially-dressed cavity-closed nose landing gear (PDCC-NLG), obtained at a flow Mach number of 0.166, are provided in this presentation. A detailed account of the unsteady surface pressure fluctuations acquired with a Kulite transducer designed to be mobile is also given. The roving nature of the transducer allowed the sensor to be placed at numerous locations where high-amplitude pressure fluctuations are expected. The measured surface pressure spectra are mainly broadband in nature, lacking any local peaks associated with coherent vortex shedding. This finding is in agreement with off-surface flow measurements based on particle image velocimetry, which revealed the flow field to be a collection of separated shear layers without any dominant vortex shedding processes.

Mehdi R Khorrami↗

TPSAS-NF1676L-10770-DND

An unstructured grid flow solver, FUN3D has been used for simulation of unsteady flow on a partially dressed nose landing gear with closed cavities. Results obtained from an hybrid RANS/LES and delayed DES turbulence models are presented. Solutions have been obtained for a series of successively finer grids to quantify the effect of grid refinement. Computed surface pressures and perturbation pressures, and flow quantities in selected planes are compared with the experimental data. The power spectral density at several locations is also compared with the measured data. Overall agreement of FUN3D results with the experimental data is encouraging and the correlation with the measured data generally improves with grid refinement.

Veer N Vatsa↗

TPSAS-NF1676L-31413-DND

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Mehdi R Khorrami↗

TPSAS-NF1676L-19891-DND

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Mehdi R Khorrami↗

TPSAS-NF1676L-18674-DND

Objective - Mitigate radiated airframe noise during aircraft landing - Develop effective noise reduction (NR) concepts for current and future generations of civil transport Execution Plan - Utilize flight tests, wind-tunnel experiments, and computational simulations to generate a comprehensive aerodynamic and acoustic database to: - Better understand the principles of airframe noise generation - Improve airframe noise prediction tools - Develop efficient noise reduction concepts - Evaluate the most promising noise reduction concepts in a realistic environment

Mehdi R Khorrami↗

Slat Noise Control Using a Slat Gap Filler

The leading edge slat of a high-lift system is one of the main noise contributors on many commercial aircraft during approach. This paper continues our previous studies on the gap filler for passive noise control on the 30P30N high-lift airfoil. An improved implementation of the gap filler was applied to minimize the effects of flow leakage encountered in the previous work, which resulted in spurious noise content in the far-field acoustic spectra. To evaluate the effect of passive flow control on the acoustics generated by the unsteady flow field, anechoic wind tunnel experiments are conducted on the two-dimensional, three-element high-lift airfoil with a gap filler mounted to the slat. The slat geometry modification associated with the gap filler alters the flow field in the cove region that dominates the generation of the acoustic field. A single angle of attack (훼푘=8◦) and three flow speeds corresponding to Reynolds numbersof푅푒푐=1.2푒6,1.5푒6, and1.71푒6are selected as the test conditions. Steady surface pressure measurements are conducted to assess the effect of the treatments on the overall lift. Acoustic array measurements are used to evaluate the influence of the gap filler on the radiated noise. Delay and Sum beamforming is applied to locate the noise sources on the model and to provide the integrated spectra. The gap filler is found to eliminate the narrowband peaks in the acoustic spectra and, also, to yield a 10 dB reduction in the broadband noise in comparison with the baseline case. Time-resolved Particle Image Velocimetry results show that the flow features are significantly altered with the presence of the gap filler, which leads to a more stable slat cove shear layer and, thus, to weaker pressure and velocity fluctuations.

Yang Zhang↗

Flight-Test Evaluation of Landing Gear Noise Reduction Technologies

Results from the third Acoustics Research Measurements flight test, conducted under the NASA Flight Demonstrations and Capabilities project, are presented and discussed. The test evaluated landing gear and gear cavity noise mitigation technologies installed on a NASA Gulfstream G-III. Aircraft configurations with and without main landing gear treatments were flown at several flap deflections to determine the acoustic performance of the technolo-gies for aircraft equipped with conventional Fowler flaps. With the aircraft flying an approach path and engines at “ground-idle,” extensive acoustic measurements were acquired with a phased microphone array system. Computed beamform maps were used to examine the effec-tiveness of the tested technologies in reducing the strength of the noise sources generated by the main landing gear. Various integration regions were devised to extract the farfield noise spectra associated with the treated and untreated landing gear configurations. Analyses of the gathered acoustic data demonstrate that significant noise reduction was achieved. How-ever, the full noise reduction potential of the technologies could not be determined because of contamination from flap inboard edge noise and other secondary sources.

Mehdi R Khorrami↗

Effect of Geometric Granularity on the Noise Signature of a Full-Scale Large Civil Transport Nose Landing Gear

Results from a comprehensive simulation campaign focused on characterizing the air-frame noise signature of a full-scale Boeing 777-300ER nose landing gear are presented. The as-flown, installed nose gear geometry was used to assess how accurately the selected computational methodology can predict far-field noise before extending the simulation approach to the complete B777-300ER aircraft in landing configuration. To facilitate direct comparisons with experimental data, the simulations were conducted for conditions matching those recorded for a flyby of the same aircraft over the ground-based phased microphone array used during the 2005 Quiet Technology Demonstrator II test. The far-field acoustic footprint of the nose landing gear was computed via a Ffowcs-Williams and Hawkings integral approach, with pressures on the model solid surface or flow quantities on a permeable data surface enclosing the gear used as input. A grid refinement study performed for the baseline gear con-figuration to establish the convergence behavior of the far-field spectrum indicated that the sound pressure levels had converged at frequencies slightly beyond 5 kHz for the finest spatial resolution attempted. To ascertain the effects of geometric granularity on far-field noise, simulations of a defeatured version of the nose gear were undertaken. Comparisons with fully-dressed gear results indicated that finer geometric details add 2–4 dB to the sound pressure levels at mid- to high-frequencies (800 Hz to 5 kHz), suggesting that for accurate noise prediction such details cannot be neglected.

airframe noise↗

Airframe Noise Simulations of a Full-Scale Large Civil Transport in Landing Configuration

This paper summarizes the results obtained from an extensive computational campaign to accurately predict full-scale landing gear noise for large civil transports. A highly accurate digital model of a full-scale Boeing 777-300ER aircraft with as-flown nose and main landing gear components was developed for use in the simulations. Two aircraft configurations were selected: nose and main landing gear deployed with wing high-lift devices retracted, and nose and main landing gear deployed with wing high-lift devices deflected. The two configurations were simulated without and with toboggan fairings installed on the main gear to represent the principal configurations evaluated during the 2005 QTD2 flight test. All simulations were performed with the lattice Boltzmann solver PowerFLOW® to resolve and capture the highly complex, unsteady flow field in the immediate vicinity of the aircraft. The far-field noise sig-nature of the aircraft was computed via a Ffowcs-Williams and Hawkings integral approach, with flow quantities on a permeable surface enclosing the source regions used as input. Synthetic pressure records at ground array microphone locations used during the QDT2 test were employed to generate narrowband acoustic maps and integrated far-field noise spectra. With high-lift devices retracted, the predicted spectra showed that landing gear noise is equivalent to total airframe noise, with no other airframe sources appearing within 10 dB of gear peak levels. Application of a toboggan fairing to the main gear produced modest noise reductions of 1-2 dB across the resolved frequency range. With high-lift devices deflected, undercarriage noise was within 3-4 dB of the total airframe noise, thus comprising nearly half of the total airframe noise. For this configuration, the toboggan fairing did not produce a reduction in noise, corroborating trends previously observed in QTD2 flight test data.

airframe noise↗

Aeroacoustic Computations of a Generic Low Boom Concept in Landing Configuration: Part 2 - Airframe Noise Simulations

Aeroacoustic simulations of a sub-scale, generic, low-boom supersonic aircraft model at low speeds were carried out using the Lattice-Boltzmann Very Large Eddy Simulation software PowerFLOW® and a Ffowcs Williams and Hawkings approach. The objective was to characterize the airframe noise signature of the configuration and determine the similarities and differences to conventional subsonic aircraft. We quantified the noise produced by the flap and landing gear by simulating the aircraft with and without deployment of these components. Mach number scaling of the far-field noise levels was examined by performing simulations at different flow speeds. We demonstrate that a solid surface formulation does not capture the aircraft acoustic field properly, while a carefully constructed permeable surface formulation yields far-field spectra that compare very favorably to results from direct probing of the simulated flow field.

low boom↗

Multiplanar Synthetic Arrays and Their Application to Full-Scale Landing Gear Noise Source Identification

Identification and quantification of noise sources generated by the landing gears of large civil transports are critical for the development of viable abatement technologies that can be applied locally to affect solely the source regions. Leveraging validated computational data sets obtained from airframe noise simulations of a full-scale B777-300ER aircraft, a frame-work based on multiplanar synthetic arrays was developed to examine landing gear sources. The position of the arrays relative to the aircraft nose or main landing gears, the number of microphones in each array, and their distribution pattern were judiciously selected to provide adequate spatial resolution of the sources in the primary flyover, sideline, and upstream directions while maintaining reasonable signal-to-noise ratio and beamwidth over a wide frequency range. Overall, seven synthetic arrays with 800 microphones each, for a total of 5,600 microphones, were used in the framework. Fully synchronous synthetic pressure records at each microphone location were obtained from the simulated data sets via a Ffowcs-Williams and Hawkings integral approach, with flow quantities on a permeable data surface enclosing the source regions used as input. Various applications of synthetic multiplanar arrays to acoustic data analysis are presented; the advantages of the framework in properly resolving and identifying the B777 landing gear sources is demonstrated by comparing three-dimensional source distribution maps with those obtained from a synthetic version of the ground-based microphone array used during flight tests of the same aircraft.

airframe noise↗