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At least 19 records

Acoustic scattering of point sources by a moving prolate spheroid

The theories of geometrical optics and diffraction are used to investigate the scattering of sound generated by a distribution of point sources in the neighborhood of a prolate spheroid. Source positions, source frequencies, and spheroid sizes which correspond to source distributions and fuselage sizes in jet aircraft are selected. The alteration of the scattered field due to the simultaneous forward motion of the body and sources is illustrated. It is observed that the sound levels produced by rapidly moving point sources are significantly higher than those produced by the moving source and body system. The results suggest that scattering of acoustic sources should be considered in any theoretical or experimental study of aircraft flyover noise.

Padula, S. L.↗

Acoustic scattering from locally homogeneous turbulence

An equation is derived for acoustic scattering from the velocity and temperature fields of a drifting blob of air turbulence. The equation is solved for scattering from the mean and turbulent portions of both fields, and the time autocorrelation and power spectral density of the received signal are calculated. The mean velocity and temperature fields, as well as the corresponding turbulence intensity distributions, are allowed to be spatially nonuniform. The turbulent fields are required to be only locally homogeneous and locally stationary. It is shown that the common practice of representing antenna patterns by either truncating the flow or tapering the strength of the flow is, at least in the case of the transmitting pattern, not a bad approximation. Spectral broadening of the receiver signal due to convection of the small scattering eddies by macroeddies and by the mean flow in modeled, and the broadening by macroeddy convection is seen to render negligible the broadening which arises from the drift of the target flow through the antenna beam. The analysis reveals that only for target flows having a high degree of spatial uniformity and/or symmetry does the received positive-frequency power spectral density turn out to be symmetrical about a center frequency.

Ramsey, V. W.↗

Acoustic scattering from ellipses by the modal element method

The modal element method is used to study acoustic scattering from ellipses, which may be acoustically soft (absorbing) or hard (reflecting). Because exact solutions are available, the results provide a benchmark for algorithm performance for scattering from airfoils and similar shapes. Numerical results for scattering from rigid ellipses are presented for a wide variety of eccentricities at moderate frequencies. These results indicate that the method is practical.

Kreider, Kevin L.↗

Acoustic scattering by circular cylinders of various aspect ratios

The effects of acoustic scattering on the useful frequency range of pressure gradient microphones were investigated experimentally between ka values of 0.407 and 4.232 using two circular cylindrical models (L/D = 0.5 and 0.25) having a 25 cm outside diameter. Small condenser microphones, attached to preamplifiers by flexible connectors, were installed from inside the cylindrical bodies, and flush mounted on the exterior surface of the cylinders. A 38 cm diameter woofer in a large speaker enclosure was used as the sound source. Surface pressure augmentation and phase differences were computed from measured data for various sound wave incidence angles. Results are graphically compared with theoretical predictions supplied by NASA for ka = 0.407, 2.288, and 4.232. All other results are tabulated in the appendices. With minor exceptions, the experimentally determined pressure augmentations agreed within 0.75 dB with theoretical predictions. The agreement for relative phase angles was within 5 percent without any exceptions. Scattering parameter variations with ka and L/D ratio, as computed from experimental data, are also presented.

Maciulaitis, A.↗

Application of the Discontinuous Galerkin Method to Acoustic Scatter Problems

The application of the quadrature-free form of the discontinuous Galerkin method to two problems from Category 1 of the Second Computational Aeroacoustics Workshop on Benchmark problems is presented. The method and boundary conditions relevant to this work are described followed by two test problems, both of which involve the scattering of an acoustic wave off a cylinder. The numerical test performed to evaluate mesh-resolution requirements and boundary-condition effectiveness are also described.

Atkins, H. L.↗

On the Assessment of Acoustic Scattering and Shielding by Time Domain Boundary Integral Equation Solutions

Based on the time domain boundary integral equation formulation of the linear convective wave equation, a computational tool dubbed Time Domain Fast Acoustic Scattering Toolkit (TD-FAST) has recently been under development. The time domain approach has a distinct advantage that the solutions at all frequencies are obtained in a single computation. In this paper, the formulation of the integral equation, as well as its stabilization by the Burton-Miller type reformulation, is extended to cases of a constant mean flow in an arbitrary direction. In addition, a "Source Surface" is also introduced in the formulation that can be employed to encapsulate regions of noise sources and to facilitate coupling with CFD simulations. This is particularly useful for applications where the noise sources are not easily described by analytical source terms. Numerical examples are presented to assess the accuracy of the formulation, including a computation of noise shielding by a thin barrier motivated by recent Historical Baseline F31A31 open rotor noise shielding experiments. Furthermore, spatial resolution requirements of the time domain boundary element method are also assessed using point per wavelength metrics. It is found that, using only constant basis functions and high-order quadrature for surface integration, relative errors of less than 2% may be obtained when the surface spatial resolution is 5 points-per-wavelength (PPW) or 25 points-per-wavelength squared (PPW2).

Hu, Fang Q.↗

Finite Element Prediction of Acoustic Scattering and Radiation from Submerged Elastic Structures

A finite element formulation is derived for the scattering and radiation of acoustic waves from submerged elastic structures. The formulation uses as fundamental unknowns the displacement in the structure and a velocity potential in the field. Symmetric coefficient matrices result. The outer boundary of the fluid region is terminated with an approximate local wave-absorbing boundary condition which assumes that outgoing waves are locally planar. The finite element model is capable of predicting only the near-field acoustic pressures. Far-field sound pressure levels may be determined by integrating the surface pressures and velocities over the wet boundary of the structure using the Helmholtz integral. Comparison of finite element results with analytic results show excellent agreement. The coupled fluid-structure problem may be solved with general purpose finite element codes by using an analogy between the equations of elasticity and the wave equation of linear acoustics.

Everstine, G. C.↗

Acoustic scattering from a turbulent vortex

With the aid of the Born approximation, the time autocorrelation and power spectral density are calculated for the received acoustic signal scattered from velocity fluctuations in a turbulent aircraft trailing vortex. The turbulence is required to be globally stationary, but only locally homogeneous. The treatment includes the effects of spectral broadening due to convection of the scattering eddies by a spatially varying mean flow and by macroeddies. The 3 db bandwidth of the received signal is related to the scattering angle and the core Mach number of the vortex. A primary feature of the analysis is that it provides a method for inferring the radial intensity distribution of turbulence in a vortex. The analysis technique is also applicable to scattering from other turbulent flows where significant variations of turbulence level occur over distances on the order of the macroeddy size.

Ramsey, V. W.↗

Acoustical scattering from finite compliant surfaces bounding a duct

Acoustic radiation effects of a finite compliant surface covering a transverse slot in a two-dimensional parallel walled rigid duct are investigated. Radiation from a harmonic source external to the duct is shown to impinge on the slot, reradiating to the half plane and propagating through the duct. Integral equation techniques are employed to study the cases of an open slot, a membrane cover, and a flexible plate cover. The total power radiated to the half plane external to the duct and to the region internal to the duct is determined, taking into account slot-width and fluid-loading variations and the effect of the surface on the power radiated.

Smith, M. E.↗

Acoustic Scattering by Three-Dimensional Stators and Rotors Using the SOURCE3D Code: Analysis and Results - Volume 1

This report provides a study of rotor and stator scattering using the SOURCE3D Rotor Wake/Stator Interaction Code. SOURCE3D is a quasi-three-dimensional computer program that uses three-dimensional acoustics and two-dimensional cascade load response theory to calculate rotor and stator modal reflection and transmission (scattering) coefficients. SOURCE3D is at the core of the TFaNS (Theoretical Fan Noise Design/Prediction System), developed for NASA, which provides complete fully coupled (inlet, rotor, stator, exit) noise solutions for turbofan engines. The reason for studying scattering is that we must first understand the behavior of the individual scattering coefficients provided by SOURCE3D, before eventually understanding the more complicated predictions from TFaNS. To study scattering, we have derived a large number of scattering curves for vane and blade rows. The curves are plots of output wave power divided by input wave power (in dB units) versus vane/blade ratio. Some of these plots are shown in this report. All of the plots are provided in a separate volume. To assist in understanding the plots, formulas have been derived for special vane/blade ratios for which wavefronts are either parallel or normal to rotor or stator chords. From the plots, we have found that, for the most part, there was strong transmission and weak reflection over most of the vane/blade ratio range for the stator. For the rotor, there was little transmission loss.

Meyer, Harold D.↗

Investigating the Numerical Stability of Using an Impedance Boundary Condition to Model Broadband Noise Scattering With Acoustic Liners

Reducing aircraft noise is a major objective in the field of computational aeroacoustics. When designing next generation quiet aircraft, it is important to be able to accurately and efficiently predict the acoustic scattering by an aircraft body from a given noise source. Acoustic liners are an effective tool for achieving aircraft noise reduction and are characterized by a frequency-dependent impedance value. Converted into the time-domain using Fourier transforms, an impedance boundary condition can be used to simulate the acoustic wave scattering by geometric bodies treated with acoustic liners. A Broadband Impedance Model will be discussed in which the liner impedance is specified along a wide range of frequencies. The liner impedance boundary condition will be derived and coupled with a time-domain boundary integral equation to model acoustic scattering by a flat plate consisting of both un-lined and lined surfaces. The scattering solution will be obtained iteratively using both spatial and temporal basis functions and the stability will be demonstrated through eigenvalue analysis. Stability will be assessed for its dependence on time step, spatial discretization, as well as temporal basis function order. Both second- and third-order Lagrange temporal basis functions are considered.

acoustics↗

Investigating the Numerical Stability of Using an Impedance Boundary Condition to Model Broadband Noise Scattering With Acoustic Liners

Reducing aircraft noise is a major objective in the field of computational aeroacoustics. When designing next generation quiet aircraft, it is important to be able to accurately and efficiently predict the acoustic scattering by an aircraft body from a given noise source. Acoustic liners are an effective tool for achieving aircraft noise reduction and are characterized by a frequency-dependent impedance value. Converted into the time-domain using Fourier transforms, an impedance boundary condition can be used to simulate the acoustic wave scattering by geometric bodies treated with acoustic liners. A Broadband Impedance Model will be discussed in which the liner impedance is specified along a wide range of frequencies. The liner impedance boundary condition will be derived and coupled with a time-domain boundary integral equation to model acoustic scattering by a flat plate consisting of both un-lined and lined surfaces. The scattering solution will be obtained iteratively using both spatial and temporal basis functions and the stability will be demonstrated through eigenvalue analysis. Stability will be assessed for its dependence on time step, spatial discretization, as well as temporal basis function order. Both second- and third-order Lagrange temporal basis functions are considered.

acoustics↗

Simulation of Acoustic Scattering from a Trailing Edge

Three model problems were examined to assess the difficulties involved in using a hybrid scheme coupling flow computation with the the Ffowcs Williams and Hawkings equation to predict noise generated by vortices passing over a sharp edge. The results indicate that the Ffowcs Williams and Hawkings equation correctly propagates the acoustic signals when provided with accurate flow information on the integration surface. The most difficult of the model problems investigated inviscid flow over a two-dimensional thin NACA airfoil with a blunt-body vortex generator positioned at 98 percent chord. Vortices rolled up downstream of the blunt body. The shed vortices possessed similarities to large coherent eddies in boundary layers. They interacted and occasionally paired as they convected past the sharp trailing edge of the airfoil. The calculations showed acoustic waves emanating from the airfoil trailing edge. Acoustic directivity and Mach number scaling are shown.

Singer, Bart A.↗

Coupled NASTRAN/boundary element formulation for acoustic scattering

A coupled finite element/boundary element capability is described for calculating the sound pressure field scattered by an arbitrary submerged 3-D elastic structure. Structural and fluid impedances are calculated with no approximation other than discretization. The surface fluid pressures and normal velocities are first calculated by coupling a NASTRAN finite element model of the structure with a discretized form of the Helmholtz surface integral equation for the exterior field. Far field pressures are then evaluated from the surface solution using the Helmholtz exterior integral equation. The overall approach is illustrated and validated using a known analytic solution for scattering from submerged spherical shells.

Everstine, Gordon C.↗