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At least 163 records · Page 9

Preliminary experiments on active control of fan noise from a turbofan engine

In the preliminary experiments reported here, active acoustic sources positioned around the circumference of a turbofan engine were used to control the fan noise radiated forward through the inlet. The main objective was to demonstrate the potential of active techniques to alleviate the noise pollution that will be produced by the next generation of larger engines. A reduction of up to 19 dB in the radiation directivity was demonstrated in a zone that encompasses a 30-deg angle, near the error sensor, while spillover effects were observed toward the lateral direction. The simultaneous control of two tones was also demonstrated using two identical controllers in a parallel control configuration.

Thomas, R. H.↗

The Accuracy of Parameter Estimation in System Identification of Noisy Aircraft Load Measurement

This thesis focuses on the subject of the accuracy of parameter estimation and system identification techniques. Motivated by a complicated load measurement from NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, advanced system identification techniques are needed. The objective of this problem is to accurately predict the load experienced by the aircraft wing structure during flight determined from a set of calibrated load and gage response relationship. We can then model the problem as a black box input-output system identification from which the system parameter has to be estimated. Traditional LS (Least Square) techniques and the issues of noisy data and model accuracy are addressed. A statistical bound reflecting the change in residual is derived in order to understand the effects of the perturbations on the data. Due to the intrinsic nature of the LS problem, LS solution faces the dilemma of the trade off between model accuracy and noise sensitivity. A method of conflicting performance indices is presented, thus allowing us to improve the noise sensitivity while at the same time configuring the degredation of the model accuracy. SVD techniques for data reduction are studied and the equivalence of the Correspondence Analysis (CA) and Total Least Squares Criteria are proved. We also looked at nonlinear LS problems with NASA F-111 data set as an example. Conventional methods are neither easily applicable nor suitable for the specific load problem since the exact model of the system is unknown. Neural Network (NN) does not require prior information on the model of the system. This robustness motivated us to apply the NN techniques on our load problem. Simulation results for the NN methods used in both the single load and the 'warning signal' problems are both useful and encouraging. The performance of the NN (for single load estimate) is better than the LS approach, whereas no conventional approach was tried for the 'warning signals' problems. The NN design methodology is also presented. The use of SVD, CA and Collinearity Index methods are used to reduce the number of neurons in a layer.

Kong, Jeffrey↗

Effect of Trailing Edge Flow Injection on Fan Noise and Aerodynamic Performance

An experimental investigation using trailing edge blowing for reducing fan rotor/guide vane wake interaction noise was completed in the NASA Glenn 9- by 15-foot Low Speed Wind Tunnel. Data were acquired to measure noise, aerodynamic performance, and flow features for a 22" tip diameter fan representative of modern turbofan technology. The fan was designed to use trailing edge blowing to reduce the fan blade wake momentum deficit. The test objective was to quantify noise reductions, measure impacts on fan aerodynamic performance, and document the flow field using hot-film anemometry. Measurements concentrated on approach, cutback, and takeoff rotational speeds as those are the primary conditions of acoustic interest. Data are presented for a 2% (relative to overall fan flow) trailing edge injection rate and show a 2 dB reduction in Overall Sound Power Level (OAPWL) at all fan test speeds. The reduction in broadband noise is nearly constant and is approximately 1.5 dB up to 20 kHz at all fan speeds. Measurements of tone noise show significant variation, as evidenced by reductions of up to 6 dB in the 2 BPF tone at 6700 rpm.: and increases of nearly 2 dB for the 4 BPF tone at approach speed. Aerodynamic performance measurements show the fan with 2 % injection has an overall efficiency that is comparable to the baseline fan and operates, as intended, with nearly the same pressure ratio and mass flow parameters. Hot-film measurements obtained at the approach operating condition indicate that mean blade wake filling in the tip region was not as significant as expected. This suggests that additional acoustic benefits could be realized if the trailing edge blowing could be modified to provide better filling of the wake momentum deficit. Nevertheless, the hot-film measurements indicate that the trailing edge blowing provided significant reductions in blade wake turbulence. Overall, these results indicate that further work may be required to fully understand the proper implementation of injecting flow at/near the trailing edge as a wake filling strategy. However, data do support the notion that noise reductions can be realized not only for tones but perhaps more importantly, also for broadband. Furthermore, the technique can be implemented without adversely effecting overall fan aerodynamic performance.

Fite, E. Brian↗

Method and apparatus for spur-reduced digital sinusoid synthesis

A technique for reducing the spurious signal content in digital sinusoid synthesis is presented. Spur reduction is accomplished through dithering both amplitude and phase values prior to word-length reduction. The analytical approach developed for analog quantization is used to produce new bounds on spur performance in these dithered systems. Amplitude dithering allows output word-length reduction without introducing additional spurs. Effects of periodic dither similar to that produced by a pseudo-noise (PN) generator are analyzed. This phase dithering method provides a spur reduction of 6(M + 1) dB per phase bit when the dither consists of M uniform variates. While the spur reduction is at the expense of an increase in system noise, the noise power can be made white, making the power spectral density small. This technique permits the use of a smaller number of phase bits addressing sinusoid look-up tables, resulting in an exponential decrease in system complexity. Amplitude dithering allows the use of less complicated multipliers and narrower data paths in purely digital applications, as well as the use of coarse-resolution, highly-linear digital-to-analog converters (DAC's) to obtain spur performance limited by the DAC linearity rather than its resolution.

Zimmerman, George A.↗

Optimum radars and filters for the passive sphere system

Studies have been conducted to determine the influence of the tracking radar and data reduction technique on the accuracy of the meteorological measurements made in the 30 to 100 kilometer altitude region by the ROBIN passive falling sphere. A survey of accuracy requirements was made of agencies interested in data from this region of the atmosphere. In light of these requirements, various types of radars were evaluated to determine the tracking system most applicable to the ROBIN, and methods were developed to compute the errors in wind and density that arise from noise errors in the radar supplied data. The effects of launch conditions on the measurements were also examined. Conclusions and recommendations have been made concerning the optimum tracking and data reduction techniques for the ROBIN falling sphere system.

Luers, J. K.↗

High Speed Research Program Structural Acoustics Multi-Year Summary Report

This report summarizes the work conducted by the Structural Acoustics Integrated Technology Development (ITD) Team under NASA's High Speed Research (HSR) Phase II program from 1993 to 1999. It is intended to serve as a reference for future researchers by documenting the results of the interior noise and sonic fatigue technology development activities conducted during this period. For interior noise, these activities included excitation modeling, structural acoustic response modeling, development of passive treatments and active controls, and prediction of interior noise. For sonic fatigue, these activities included loads prediction, materials characterization, sonic fatigue code development, development of response reduction techniques, and generation of sonic fatigue design requirements. Also included are lessons learned and recommendations for future work.

Beier, Theodor H.↗

GPU Accelerated Vector Median Filter

Noise reduction is an important step for most image processing tasks. For three channel color images, a widely used technique is vector median filter in which color values of pixels are treated as 3-component vectors. Vector median filters are computationally expensive; for a window size of n x n, each of the n(sup 2) vectors has to be compared with other n(sup 2) - 1 vectors in distances. General purpose computation on graphics processing units (GPUs) is the paradigm of utilizing high-performance many-core GPU architectures for computation tasks that are normally handled by CPUs. In this work. NVIDIA's Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) paradigm is used to accelerate vector median filtering. which has to the best of our knowledge never been done before. The performance of GPU accelerated vector median filter is compared to that of the CPU and MPI-based versions for different image and window sizes, Initial findings of the study showed 100x improvement of performance of vector median filter implementation on GPUs over CPU implementations and further speed-up is expected after more extensive optimizations of the GPU algorithm .

Aras, Rifat↗

Space vehicle acoustics prediction improvement for payloads

The modal analysis method was extensively modified for the prediction of space vehicle noise reduction in the shuttle payload enclosure, and this program was adapted to the IBM 360 computer. The predicted noise reduction levels for two test cases were compared with experimental results to determine the validity of the analytical model for predicting space vehicle payload noise environments in the 10 Hz one-third octave band regime. The prediction approach for the two test cases generally gave reasonable magnitudes and trends when compared with the measured noise reduction spectra. The discrepancies in the predictions could be corrected primarily by improved modeling of the vehicle structural walls and of the enclosed acoustic space to obtain a more accurate assessment of normal modes. Techniques for improving and expandng the noise prediction for a payload environment are also suggested.

Dandridge, R. E.↗

Determination of the inflight OTF of orbital earth resources sensors

There are no author-identified significant results in this report. A technique has been investigated that is particularly applicable to evaluation of earth-orbiting multispectral sensors. In all programs employing such sensors, simultaneous underflight photography from aircraft is made during passes of the spacecraft. To evaluate the spacecraft imagery, the two sets of photographs are scanned and digitized with a microdensitometer. The data are then Fourier analyzed, and the spatial frequency spectra is calculated. The spatial frequencies in the underflight trace are scaled to those in the spacecraft trace, and the ratio of the spectra gives the in-flight optical transfer function (OTF) for the orbiting sensor. The method has been applied to an Apollo 9 frame and the sensor OTF has been calculated. The results are good enough to encourage use of the technique and to indicate the accuracies required of the various measurements involved in determining in-flight sensor OTF by this method. A technique for determining correct scan registration and scaling between the two sets of imagery and a promising approach to noise reduction, in the form of weighted averaging of OTF's, are discussed.

Slater, P. N.↗

Resume of the status and benefits of the two-segment approach and its applicability to the jet transport fleet

NASA, in cooperation with the FAA, is evaluating the two-segment approach as a routine procedure for reducing aircraft noise. The program calls for separate flight evaluations using a 727 and a DC-8, and an extrapolation of these results to determine the adaptability of the technique to the rest of the fleet. The total program is reviewed. The profile and procedures developed and the noise reduction achievable are presented. The vortex characteristics behind an aircraft on a two-segment path is covered. Finally, cost estimates for retrofitting aircraft with two-segment avionics are presented.

Denery, D. G.↗

Spur-reduced digital sinusoid synthesis

This article presents and analyzes a technique for reducing the spurious signal content in digital sinusoid synthesis. Spurious-harmonic (spur) reduction is accomplished through dithering both amplitude and phase values prior to word-length reduction. The analytical approach developed for analog quantization is used to produce new bounds on spur performance in these dithered systems. Amplitude dithering allows output word-length reduction without introducing additional spurs. Effects of periodic dither similar to those produced by a pseudonoise (PN) generator are analyzed. This phase-dithering method provides a spur reduction of 6(M plus one) dB per phase bit when the dither consists of M uniform variates. While the spur reduction is at the expense of an increase in system noise, the noise power can be made white, making the power spectral density small. This technique permits the use of a smaller number of phase bits addressing sinusoid lookup tables, resulting in an exponential decrease in system complexity. Amplitude dithering allows the use of less complicated multipliers and narrower data paths in purely digital applications, as well as the use of coarse resolution, highly linear digital to analog converters (DAC's) to obtain spur performance limited by the DAC linearity rather than its resolution.

Flanagan, M. J.↗

Parametric study of STOL short-haul transport engine cycles and operational techniques to minimize community noise impact

The effect of aircraft operational techniques in the terminal area on community noise impact of future short haul aircraft was investigated. Aircraft equipped with mechanical flap (MF) and aircraft with externally blown flap (EBF) were used to study the noise impact at four U.S. airports. The four airports were: (1) Hanscom Field (Boston), (2) Washington National (D.C.), (3) Midway (Chicago) and (4) Orange County (California). With the exception of Washington National (D.C.), the study showed that a reduction of approximately 40 percent in the number of people highly annoyed can be obtained by using the recommended operational techniques. The evaluation procedures and methodology developed in the study represent an advance in acoustical state-of-the-art and provide an effective and useful tool for determining aircraft noise impact on the airport community.

Source record↗

Phase-sensitive optomechanical amplifier for quantum noise reduction in laser interferometers

The sensitivity of future gravitational wave interferometers is expected to be limited throughout the detection band by quantum vacuum fluctuations, which can be reduced by applying quantum optics techniques such as squeezed vacuum injection. However, decoherence caused by optical losses in the readout chain will severely limit the effectiveness of such schemes. It was proposed that effect of losses in the final stage of detection can be mitigated by a phase-sensitive amplifier placed in between the output port of the interferometer and the photodetector. In this paper we propose to implement such amplification using an optomechanical device, study some of its practical limitations, and finally, discuss its applicability to next-generation gravitational-wave detectors.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Adaptive Suppression of Noise in Voice Communications

A subsystem for the adaptive suppression of noise in a voice communication system effects a high level of reduction of noise that enters the system through microphones. The subsystem includes a digital signal processor (DSP) plus circuitry that implements voice-recognition and spectral- manipulation techniques. The development of the adaptive noise-suppression subsystem was prompted by the following considerations: During processing of the space shuttle at Kennedy Space Center, voice communications among test team members have been significantly impaired in several instances because some test participants have had to communicate from locations with high ambient noise levels. Ear protection for the personnel involved is commercially available and is used in such situations. However, commercially available noise-canceling microphones do not provide sufficient reduction of noise that enters through microphones and thus becomes transmitted on outbound communication links.

Kozel, David↗

Noise control characteristics of synchrophasing - An experimental investigation

A simplified cylindrical model of an aircraft fuselage is used to investigate the mechanisms of interior noise suppression of the synchrophasing technique. This investigation allows isolation of important parameters to define the characteristics of synchrophasing. The optimum synchrophase angle for maximum noise reduction is found for several interior microphone positions with pure tone source conditions. Noise reductions of up to 30dB are shown for some microphone positions, however, overall reductions are less. A computer algorithm is developed to decompose the modal composition of the cylinder vibration over a wide range of synchrophase angles. The circumferential modal response of the shell vibration is shown to govern the transmission of sound into the cylinder rather than localized transmission.

Jones, J. D.↗

An experimental investigation of the interior noise control effects of propeller synchrophasing

A simplified cylindrical model of an aircraft fuselage is used to investigate the mechanisms of interior noise suppression using synchrophasing techniques. This investigation allows isolation of important parameters to define the characteristics of synchrophasing. The optimum synchrophase angle for maximum noise reduction is found for several interior microphone positions with pure tone source excitation. Noise reductions of up to 30 dB are shown for some microphone positions, however, overall reductions are less. A computer algorithm is developed to decompose the cylinder vibration into modal components over a wide range of synchrophase angles. The circumferential modal response of the shell vibration is shown to govern the transmission of sound into the cylinder rather than localized transmission. As well as investigating synchrophasing, the interior sound field due to sources typical of propellers has been measured and discussed.

Jones, J. D.↗