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At least 127 records · Page 7

Advanced turboprop noise prediction: Development of a code at NASA Langley based on recent theoretical results

The development of a high speed propeller noise prediction code at Langley Research Center is described. The code utilizes two recent acoustic formulations in the time domain for subsonic and supersonic sources. The structure and capabilities of the code are discussed. Grid size study for accuracy and speed of execution on a computer is also presented. The code is tested against an earlier Langley code. Considerable increase in accuracy and speed of execution are observed. Some examples of noise prediction of a high speed propeller for which acoustic test data are available are given. A brisk derivation of formulations used is given in an appendix.

Farassat, F.↗

Flow structure generated by perpendicular blade vortex interaction and implications for helicopter noise predictions

Activities carried out in support of research on flow structure generated by perpendicular blade vortex interaction and implications for helicopter noise prediction are summarized. Progress in the following areas is described: (1) construction of 8 inch-chord NACA 0012 full-span blade; (2) Acquisition of two full-span blades; (3) preparation for hot wire measurements; (4) related work on a modified Betz's theory; and (5) work related to helicopter noise prediction. In addition, a list of publications based on the results of prior experimentation is presented.

Devenport, William J.↗

Jet Noise Modeling Using an Acoustic Analogy: From Theoretical Formulation to Practical Noise Predictions

In this presentation an overview of the development of an acoustic analogy formulation, and its implementation into a reduced-order prediction method for turbulent jet mixing noise, will be given. The definition and rationale of an acoustic analogy approach to the prediction of flow-generated noise will be provided. A high-level description of the mathematical processes involved will be outlined in the context of a particular formulation developed at NASA Glenn Research Center. The modelling approximations needed to implement the general theoretical formulation into a practical noise prediction tool will be discussed. Sample results obtained using a noise prediction code based on the NASA Glenn formulation, and comparisons with experimental data, will be presented for a series of turbulent jet test cases. A view on the prospects for continued use of acoustic analogy-based methods for the prediction of flow-generated noise and the assessment of noise-reduction technologies will conclude the presentation.

Jet noise↗

Advances in tilt rotor noise prediction

The two most serious tilt rotor external noise problems, hover noise and blade-vortex interaction noise, are studied. The results of flow visualization and inflow velocity measurements document a complex, recirculating highly unsteady and turbulent flow due to the rotor-wing-body interactions characteristic of tilt rotors. The wing under the rotor is found to obstruct the inflow, causing a deficit in the inflow velocities over the inboard region of the rotor. Discrete frequency harmonic thickness and loading noise mechanisms in hover are examined by first modeling tilt rotor hover aerodynamics and then applying various noise prediction methods using the WOPWOP code. The analysis indicates that the partial ground plane created by the wing below the rotor results in a primary sound source for hover.

George, A. R.↗

A practical approach to helicopter internal noise prediction

A practical and well correlated procedure for predicting helicopter internal noise is presented. It accounts for the propagation of noise along multiple paths on an octave by octave basis. The method is sufficiently general to be applicable to conventional helicopters as well as other aircraft types, when the appropriate structural geometry, noise source strengths, and material acoustic properties are defined. A guide is provided for the prediction of various helicopter noise sources over a wide range of horsepower for use when measured data are not available. The method is applied to the prediction of the interior levels of the Civil Helicopter Research Aircraft (CHRA), both with and without soundproofing installed. Results include good correlation with measured levels and prediction of the speech interference level within 1.5 db at all conditions. A sample problem is also shown illustrating the use of the procedure. This example calculates the engine casing noise observed in the passenger cabin of the CHRA.

Levine, L. S.↗

NASA/ONERA Collaboration on Small Hovering Rotor Broadband Noise Prediction using Lattice-Boltzmann and Structured Navier-Stokes Solvers

This work compares two lattice-Boltzmann method solvers, PowerFLOW and ProLB, and two structured Navier-Stokes solvers, OVERFLOW2 and FAST, used by NASA and ONERA, respectively, for the broadband noise prediction of an ideally twisted rotor as part of Implementing Arrangement number FR-0685-0, ‘Comparing Computational Fluid Dynamics Solvers for Broadband Noise Prediction.’ Predicted results are evaluated against measured data from both smooth and rough blade sets acquired in the Small Hover Anechoic Chamber at the NASA Langley Research Center. Aerodynamic thrust predictions are seen to agree more favorably with the rough-blade measurements, whereas torque predictions agree better with the smooth-blade measurements. A tonal noise comparison shows better agreement to the measured data with the two structured Navier-Stokes solvers than with the two lattice-Boltzmann solvers, which is thought to be caused by the different geometric discretization associated with each solver paradigm. Broadband noise comparisons show that both lattice-Boltzmann method solvers trend well with the smooth-blade measurements, with the exception of an overprediction by ProLB between 4 kHz and 15 kHz. OVERFLOW2 is seen to capture the measured nondeterministic tonal content between 3 kHz and 8 kHz on a narrowband spectral basis and FAST agrees well with the rough blades on a one-third octave band basis.

Christopher S. Thurman↗

Velocity measurements in a turbulent trailing vortex and their application to BWI noise prediction

The objectives were to observe the turbulence structure and spectral characteristics of the trailing vortex shed by a rectangular NACA 0012 wing over a range of conditions and to incorporate these observations into the blade-wake interaction (BWI) noise-prediction method of Glegg (1989). The following sections are presented: (1) measurements performed during the first year of this two year investigation; (2) presentation and discussion of a representative sample of the results; (3) implications for the BWI noise prediction method; and (4) re-evaluation of work planned for the second year.

Devenport, William J.↗

The Uses and Abuses of the Acoustic Analogy in Helicopter Rotor Noise Prediction

This paper is theoretical in nature and addresses applications of the acoustic analogy in helicopter rotor noise prediction. It is argued that in many instances the acoustic analogy has not been used with care in rotor noise studies. By this it is meant that approximate or inappropriate formulations have been used. By considering various mechanisms of noise generation, such abuses are identified and the remedy is suggested. The mechanisms discussed are thickness, loading, quadrupole, and blade-vortex interaction noise. The quadrupole term of the Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings equation is written in a new form which separates the contributions of regions of high gradients such as shock surfaces. It is shown by order of magnitude studies that such regions are capable of producing noise with the same directivity as the thickness noise. The inclusion of this part of quadrupole sources in current acoustic codes is quite practical. Some of the difficulties with the use of loading noise formulations of the first author in predictions of blade-vortex interaction noise are discussed. It appears that there is a need for development of new theoretical results based on the acoustic analogy in this area. Because of the impulsive character of the blade surface pressure, a time scale of integration different from that used in loading and thickness computations must he used in a computer code for prediction of blade-vortex interaction noise.

Farassat, F.↗

Rotor noise prediction technology: Theoretical approach

Helicopter rotors which are the most complicated noise generators among rotating blade machinery are discussed. The main or the tail rotor can be the dominant source of noise depending on the range of frequencies and the observer position. Significant advances in noise prediction were made. Acoustic analysis is the most successful and general theoretical method to treat the acoustics of helicopter noise. The aerodynamic approach is used to study nonlinear acoustic effects. The results of acoustic analogy depend greatly on the input data.

Farassat, F.↗

Blown flap noise prediction

Theoretical and experimental developments of flow-surface interaction noise with a particular emphasis on blown-flap noise were reviewed. Several blown-flap noise prediction methods were evaluated by comparing predicted acoustic levels, directivity, and spectra with a recently obtained data base. A prediction method was selected and a detailed step-by-step description of this method was provided to develop a computer module to calculate one-third octave band frequency spectra at any given location in the far-field for under-the-wing and upper surface blown configurations as a function of geometric and operational parameters.

Reddy, N. N.↗

Blade-vortex interaction noise predictions using measured blade surface pressures

The generation of helicopter noise by blade-vortex interactions during descent under impulsive conditions is investigated analytically. A noise-prediction technique is developed on the basis of the dipole source term of the Ffowcs-Williams/Hawkings equation and applied to data from simultaneous blade-pressure and acoustic measurements obtained by Cowan et al. (1986) on a 10-ft-diameter 4-blade rotor model in a wind tunnel. Preliminary results show that input-blade-airload azimuth resolution of 1 deg or better and computational azimuth step size of 2 deg or less are required to achieve good agreement between predicted and recorded acoustic time histories. The need for more sophisticated methods to model chordwise input data and for a more extensive experimental data base is indicated.

Ziegenbein, Perry R.↗

Progress Toward Improving Jet Noise Predictions in Hot Jets

An acoustic analogy methodology for improving noise predictions in hot round jets is presented. Past approaches have often neglected the impact of temperature fluctuations on the predicted sound spectral density, which could be significant for heated jets, and this has yielded noticeable acoustic under-predictions in such cases. The governing acoustic equations adopted here are a set of linearized, inhomogeneous Euler equations. These equations are combined into a single third order linear wave operator when the base flow is considered as a locally parallel mean flow. The remaining second-order fluctuations are regarded as the equivalent sources of sound and are modeled. It is shown that the hot jet effect may be introduced primarily through a fluctuating velocity/enthalpy term. Modeling this additional source requires specialized inputs from a RANS-based flowfield simulation. The information is supplied using an extension to a baseline two equation turbulence model that predicts total enthalpy variance in addition to the standard parameters. Preliminary application of this model to a series of unheated and heated subsonic jets shows significant improvement in the acoustic predictions at the 90 degree observer angle.

Khavaran, Abbas↗

Airframe noise prediction evaluation

The objective of this study is to evaluate the accuracy and adequacy of current airframe noise prediction methods using available airframe noise measurements from tests of a narrow body transport (DC-9) and a wide body transport (DC-10) in addition to scale model test data. General features of the airframe noise from these aircraft and models are outlined. The results of the assessment of two airframe prediction methods, Fink's and Munson's methods, against flight test data of these aircraft and scale model wind tunnel test data are presented. These methods were extensively evaluated against measured data from several configurations including clean, slat deployed, landing gear-deployed, flap deployed, and landing configurations of both DC-9 and DC-10. They were also assessed against a limited number of configurations of scale models. The evaluation was conducted in terms of overall sound pressure level (OASPL), tone corrected perceived noise level (PNLT), and one-third-octave band sound pressure level (SPL).

Yamamoto, Kingo J.↗

User's Guide for GAA_JET_FV (v1): A Jet Noise Prediction Code Based on the Generalized Acoustic Analogy

This document is a user’s guide for the jet noise prediction code GAA_JET_FV, which can be used to make predictions of turbulent mixing noise in high-speed free jets (ie. in the absence of any solid surfaces) of arbitrary cross section. The code requires a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) solution for the mean flow and turbulence as input. A script is provided in the code package which can be used to interpolate structured or unstructured RANS solutions onto a structured grid suitable for the noise calculations. Output file formats for two commonly used RANS solvers are currently supported by this script. The document describes how the code can be obtained and installed on a user’s system. A simple test case is provided that can be run with minimal user knowledge of the code details. General instructions for running the interpolation script and the main code are given along with descriptions of the input and output data files and individual code modules. Several additional test cases are provided which allow the user to exercise additional features of the code. This document is Version 1, Revision 0 of the User’s Guide, which contains examples of round and non-axisymmetric unheated jet test cases. Future versions are planned which will include additional functionality for the code and more complex test cases.

Jet Noise↗

A survey of the broadband shock associated noise prediction methods

Several different prediction methods to estimate the broadband shock associated noise of a supersonic jet are introduced and compared with experimental data at various test conditions. The nozzle geometries considered for comparison include a convergent and a convergent-divergent nozzle, both axisymmetric. Capabilities and limitations of prediction methods in incorporating the two nozzle geometries, flight effect, and temperature effect are discussed. Predicted noise field shows the best agreement for a convergent nozzle geometry under static conditions. Predicted results for nozzles in flight show larger discrepancies from data and more dependable flight data are required for further comparison. Qualitative effects of jet temperature, as observed in experiment, are reproduced in predicted results.

Kim, Chan M.↗

A survey of the broadband shock associated noise prediction methods

Several different prediction methods to estimate the broadband shock associated noise of a supersonic jet are introduced and compared with experimental data at various test conditions. The nozzle geometries considered for comparison include a convergent and a convergent-divergent nozzle, both axisymmetric. Capabilities and limitations of prediction methods in incorporating the two nozzle geometries, flight effect, and temperature effect are discussed. Predicted noise field shows the best agreement for a convergent nozzle geometry under static conditions. Predicted results for nozzles in flight show larger discrepancies from data and more dependable flight data are required for further comparison. Qualitative effects of jet temperature, as observed in experiment, are reproduced in predicted results.

Kim, Chan M.↗

A review of propeller discrete frequency noise prediction technology with emphasis on two current methods for time domain calculations

A review of propeller noise prediction technology is presented which highlights the developments in the field from the successful attempt of Gutin to the current sophisticated techniques. Two methods for the predictions of the discrete frequency noise from conventional and advanced propellers in forward flight are described. These methods developed at MIT and NASA Langley Research Center are based on different time domain formulations. Brief description of the computer algorithms based on these formulations are given. The output of these two programs, which is the acoustic pressure signature, is Fourier analyzed to get the acoustic pressure spectrum. The main difference between the programs as they are coded now is that the Langley program can handle propellers with supersonic tip speed while the MIT program is for subsonic tip speed propellers. Comparisons of the calculated and measured acoustic data for a conventional and an advanced propeller show good agreement in general.

Farassat, F.↗

Unstructured CFD and Noise Prediction Methods for Propulsion Airframe Aeroacoustics

Using unstructured mesh CFD methods for Propulsion Airframe Aeroacoustics (PAA) analysis has the distinct advantage of precise and fast computational mesh generation for complex propulsion and airframe integration arrangements that include engine inlet, exhaust nozzles, pylon, wing, flaps, and flap deployment mechanical parts. However, accurate solution values of shear layer velocity, temperature and turbulence are extremely important for evaluating the usually small noise differentials of potential applications to commercial transport aircraft propulsion integration. This paper describes a set of calibration computations for an isolated separate flow bypass ratio five engine nozzle model and the same nozzle system with a pylon. These configurations have measured data along with prior CFD solutions and noise predictions using a proven structured mesh method, which can be used for comparison to the unstructured mesh solutions obtained in this investigation. This numerical investigation utilized the TetrUSS system that includes a Navier-Stokes solver, the associated unstructured mesh generation tools, post-processing utilities, plus some recently added enhancements to the system. New features necessary for this study include the addition of two equation turbulence models to the USM3D code, an h-refinement utility to enhance mesh density in the shear mixing region, and a flow adaptive mesh redistribution method. In addition, a computational procedure was developed to optimize both solution accuracy and mesh economy. Noise predictions were completed using an unstructured mesh version of the JeT3D code.

Pao, S. Paul↗