Heavy vehicles are major emitters of noise. Especially at idle or low vehicle speeds a large portion of the noise emanates from the fan that forces the flow through the cooling module. The aim of this work is to investigate and reveal aerodynamic and acoustic installation effects linked to the cooling package. This introduces a multidisciplinary approach involving examination of the flow field, sound generation and sound propagation. The work includes two main parts: an experimental and a numerical part. The cooling module used throughout this work, named reduced cooling module, primarily includes a radiator, a shroud, a fan and a hydraulic engine to simplify the aeroacoustics analysis. The experimental part comprises measurements of the sound emanated from the cooling package. A new approach to the spectral decomposition method is developed yielding the fan sound power or spectrum to be formulated as a product of a source part and a system part scaling with the Strouhal number and the Helmholtz number. Also, a separate determination of the transmission loss of the radiator is performed. The impact of the radiator on the transmitted noise was found to be negligible. The numerical part incorporates comparisons from two aeroacoustics studies; a configuration where the fan is forced to operate at a fixed operation point and measured flow and turbulence statistics are available and the reduced cooling module. A hybrid turbulence modeling technique, IDDES, is adopted for the flow simulations. The sound propagation is calculated by the Ffowcs-Williams and Hawkings acoustic analogy when assuming a free-field sound propagation and by a finite element solver in the frequency domain to capture the installation effects. The simulated SPL conforms to the measured SPL and the blade response to the turbulent inflow and to the tip resolution, respectively, produce noise which spectral shape distribution is modified in accordance with earlier experimental findings published. Furthermore, the influence of an upstream radiator in close contact with the fan on the flow and sound fields is investigated. Here, the simulated aeroacoustic characteristics were found to change similarly to the acoustic measurements with and without radiator.

Fuel consumption and noise reduction trigger the evolution of aircraft engines towards Ultra High Bypass Ratio (UHBR) architectures. Their short air inlet design and the reduction of their interstage length lead to an increased circumferential inhomogeneity of the flow close to the fan. This inhomogeneity, called distortion, may have an impact on the tonal noise radiated from the fan module. Usually, such a noise source is supposed to be dominated by the interaction of fan-blade wakes with Outlet Guide Vanes (OGVs). At transonic tip speeds, the noise generated by the shocks and the steady loading on the blades also appears to be significant. The increased distortion may be responsible for new acoustic sources while interacting with the fan blades and the present work aims at evaluating their contribution. The effects of distortion on the other noise mechanisms are also investigated. The work is based on full-annulus simulations of the Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) equations. A whole fan module including the inlet duct, the fan and the Inlet and Outlet Guide Vanes (IGVs/OGVs) is studied. The OGV row is typical of current engine architecture with an integrated pylon and two different air inlet ducts are compared in order to isolate the effects of inlet distortion. The first one is axisymmetric and does not produce any distortion while the other one is asymmetric and produces a level of distortion typical of the ones expected in UHBR engines. A description and a quantification of the distortion that is caused by both the potential effect of the OGVs and the inlet asymmetry are proposed. The effects of the distortion on aerodynamics are highlighted with significant modifications of the fanblade wakes, the shocks and the unsteady loading on the blades and on the vanes. Both direct and hybrid acoustic predictions are provided and highlight the contribution of the fan-blade sources to the upstream noise. The downstream noise is still dominated by the OGV sources but it is shown to be significantly impacted by the inlet distortion via the modification of the impinging wakes.

Reduction of surface pressure fluctuations is desirable in various aerodynamic and hydrodynamic applications. Over the past few years, studies on canopy surface treatments have been conducted to investigate the fundamental mechanisms of surface pressure attenuation termed as pressure shielding. This work talks about the design, development and experimental testing of unidirectional canopy surface treatments which are evenly spaced arrays of streamwise rods placed parallel to the wall without an entrance condition. The canopy designs are based on surface treatments tested by Clark et al. (2014) inspired by the downy coating on owl wings. The main objective of the work is to establish fundamental physical and mathematical basis for treatments that shield aerodynamic surfaces from turbulent pressure fluctuations, while maintaining the wall-normal transport of momentum and low aerodynamic drag. Experimental testing of these canopy treatments are performed in the Anechoic Wall-Jet facility at Virginia Tech. Different canopy configurations are designed to understand the effect of various geometric parameters on the surface pressure attenuation. The treatment is found to exhibit broadband reduction in the surface pressure spectrum. Attenuation develops in two frequency regions which scale differently depending on two different mechanisms. Canopies seems to reduce the large-scale turbulent fluctuations up to nearly twice the height. Semi-analytical model is developed to predict surface pressure spectra in a wall-jet and canopy flow. The rapid term model shows that the inflection in the streamwise mean velocity profile is the most dominant source of surface pressure fluctuations. Synchronized pressure and velocity measurements elucidate significant features of the sources that could be affecting surface pressure fluctuations. Overall, this study explores the qualitative and quantitative physics behind pressure shielding mechanism which find application particularly in trailing edge noise reduction. / Doctor of Philosophy / Unsteady pressure fluctuations originating from interaction of turbulent flow over surfaces often cause undesirable effects. Trailing edge noise in wind turbines and helicopter blades, cabin noise and interior wind noise are some of noise sources which originate from surface pressure fluctuations. Previous studies have demonstrated that surface treatments help in reducing the unsteady surface pressure fluctuations therefore shielding surfaces and this phenomenon is termed as 'Pressure Shielding'. These are surface treatments inspired from the downy coating on owl's wings. This study is motivated by recent works conducted at Virginia Tech on experimental investigation of unidirectional canopy treatments. These are evenly spaced arrays of streamwise rods held horizontal at the downstream end. Most previous surface treatments contain some entrance condition such as steps, supports or gaps which effect the surface pressure measurements and disturb the incoming flow. In this study, the canopies are developed without any entrance condition therefore assist in capturing the fundamental mechanisms of the flow interaction with the canopy rods.

This research performs an experimental study of a trailing edge blowing system that can adapt to variations in flow parameters and reduce the unsteady stator-rotor interaction at all engine operating conditions. The fan rotor of a 1/14 scale turbofan propulsion simulator is subjected to spatially periodic, circumferential inlet flow distortions. The distortions are generated by four struts that support a centerbody in the inlet mounted onto the simulator. To reduce the unsteady effects of the strut wakes on the rotor blades, the wake is re-energized by injecting mass from the trailing edge of the strut. Each strut is provided with discrete blowing holes that open out through the strut trailing edge. Each blowing hole is connected to a MEMS based microvalve, which controls the blowing rate of the hole. The microvalve is actuated by a signal voltage, generated by a PID controller that accepts free stream and wake axial flow velocities as inputs and minimizes their difference. To quantify the effectiveness of trailing edge blowing the far-field noise is measured in an anechoic chamber. The experiments are performed for two simulator test speeds, 29,500 rpm and 40,000 rpm, with and without trailing edge blowing. The maximum reduction recorded at 29,500 rpm is 8.2 dB, and at 40,000 rpm is 7.3 dB. Reductions of 2.9 dB and greater are observed at the first five harmonics of the blade passing frequency. The sound power level at the blade passing frequency, calculated from measured far-field directivity, is reduced by 4.4 dB at 29,500 rpm and by 2.9 dB at 40,000 rpm. The feasibility and advantage of active control is demonstrated by the ability of the system to respond to a step change in the inlet flow velocity, and achieve optimum wake filling in approximately 8 seconds. / Master of Science

In this research an innovative combination of the Herschel-Quincke tubes and traditional liners is proposed for application in noise reduction of aircraft engines. The approach consists of installing Herschel-Quincke (HQ) tubes on lined rectangular ducts. An analytical model was developed to predict the effects of HQ tubes applied to rectangular lined ducts. The technique involves assuming the tube-duct interfaces as finite piston sources. These sources couple the acoustic field inside the duct with the acoustic field within the HQ tubes. The accuracy of the analytical model was validated with experimental data. Three different types of experimental configurations were tested: liner only, HQ tube with a hard wall duct, and HQ tubes with liners. Analytical predictions were shown to correlate well with the experimental data. Two typical types of liners, perforate and linear, were tested in these investigations. The perforate and linear liners with HQ systems showed better sound attenuations than the HQ tubes with hard walled ducts and liners only systems. The performance of the perforate and linear liners with HQ tubes were investigated in various configurations. The results indicated possible combinations which show great potential for reducing the noise within the ducts. / Master of Science

In this thesis, we propose a statistical framework for estimating correlation between sensor systems measuring diverse physical phenomenon. We consider systems that measure at different temporal frequencies and measure responses with different dimensionalities. Our goal is to provide estimates of correlation between all pairs of sensors and use this information to flag potentially anomalous readings. Our anomaly detection method consists of two primary components: dimensionality reduction through projection and Gaussian process (GP) regression. We use non-metric multidimensional scaling to project a partially observed and potentially non-definite covariance matrix into a low dimensional manifold. The projection is estimated in such a way that positively correlated sensors are close to each other and negatively correlated sensors are distant. We then fit a Gaussian process given these positions and use it to make predictions at our observed locations. Because of the large amount of data we wish to consider, we develop methods to scale GP estimation by taking advantage of the replication structure in the data. Finally, we introduce a semi-supervised method to incorporate expert input into a GP model. We are able to learn a probability surface defined over locations and responses based on sets of points labeled by an analyst as either anomalous or nominal. This allows us to discount the influence of points resembling anomalies without removing them based on a threshold. / Ph. D.

Continued growth of the aviation industry and increasingly strict noise requirements set by international bodies and airport authorities alike means that novel methods of reducing aircraft noise must be found. Engine noise represents a majority contribution to total aircraft noise during take-off and turbulent mixing of the exhaust gases is the dominant noise source of the engine at take-off. While bypass ratio has been the historical, and rather convenient means, of reducing jet noise, an upper limit to bypass ratio is now being approached and additional means of reducing jet noise must be found. One method that has shown potential for reducing aeroacoustic jet noise is the application of small, high pressure jets to the circumference of the jet nozzle. These jets, termed microjets, have the advantage over static devices that the microjets can be activated only when the noise benefit is required and deactivated when emitted noise is not an issue, such as in cruise, thereby reducing the thrust penalty associated with the devices over the majority of the flight. Large eddy simulations have been performed to investigate the impact that the addition of microjets has on the aerodynamic flowfield and radiated far-field noise of a high Reynolds number, Mach 0.9, propulsive, laboratory scale jet. Far-field noise was predicted through a new implementation of the permeable Ffowcs Williams Hawkings surface method in the solver. In addition to single-point flowfield statistics and far-field noise, spatio-temporal second- and fourth-order correlations are investigated. Two pairs of simulations were conducted, a coarse mesh containing 100 million elements and a fine mesh with 200 million elements. The coarse mesh included an azimuthal clustering of the cells in the near-microjet region. The non-uniformity of the azimuthal cell size was shown to adversely affect the development of the initial shear layer, yielding a delay in transition to a fully turbulent state and larger coherent structures in regions with larger cells. Radial velocity and turbulent kinetic energy profiles show good agreement with experimental results. A previously unidentified periodic interaction between the main jet and microjets was found. The dynamic interaction gives rise to velocity and pressure fluctuations in the near microjet region that match a tonal frequency found in the microjet far-field spectra that is absent from the clean jet case. Second- and fourth-order correlation distributions show large periodic regions of high correlation amplitude in the near microjet region. The evidence demonstrates that the main-microjet interaction is a clear high-frequency noise source. Despite the high-frequency noise associated with the main-microjet interaction, the addition of microjets yields a 1-2 dB reduction in overall sound pressure level. Additionally, over a significant portion of the length of the potential core the microjets reduce the amplitude of the majority of the six main correlation amplitudes that can be used in far-field noise prediction. Finally, the generation of the counter-rotating vortex pair downstream of the microjets was investigated. It is commonly presumed that this vortex pair is similar in origin to the counter-rotating vortex pair present in a jet in a crossflow. Vortex identification methods, velocity vectors and streamlines in the near microjet region demonstrate that the horseshoe-like vortex is the source of the counter rotating vortex pair that is present downstream of the microjets. The horseshoe-like vortex in the microjet case has the same sense as the vortices in the microjet shear layer and appears to be generated by the development of a recirculation region of microjet fluid during the main-microjet interaction.

This thesis aims to investigate and reduce the aerodynamic noise source known as trailing edge noise, or airfoil self-noise, by using passive flow control techniques. Airfoil self-noise is produced when a turbulent boundary layer generated on an airfoil surface is scattered by the airfoil’s trailing edge. The investigation is of experimental nature, conducted in the aeroacoustic as well as aerodynamic wind tunnel facilities at Brunel University London and the Institute of Sound and Vibration (ISVR) at the University of Southampton. The research is relevant for any application in which airfoil blades encounter a smooth non-turbulent inflow and hence where trailing edge noise is a dominant noise source. Potential applications can therefore be fan or rotor blades in aero-engines, wind turbine blades or industrial cooling fans. The approach taken for the reduction of trailing edge noise utilises passive flow control techniques through the use of trailing edge serrations and the additional support of porous materials. Both of the aforementioned are inspired by the owl’s silent flight due to its unique wing structure. The research presented here can be divided in three parts: The first part comprises an extensive assessment of the performance of non-flat plate trailing edge serrations for airfoil broadband noise and their aerodynamic performance in terms of lift and drag. It is found that serrations can realistically achieve noteworthy broadband airfoil self-noise reductions, however due to the fact that non-flat plate serrations are directly cut into the airfoil body, the blunt sections in the serration root produce an additional noise source of vortex shedding tonal noise. The second part investigates the two flow mechanisms involved. Regarding the mechanism responsible for broadband noise and the subsequent reductions by the serration geometry, the turbulent boundary layer structures are studied in depth on a serrated trailing edge of a flat plate. Experimental techniques such as hot wire anemometry, liquid crystal flow visualisation, unsteady surface pressure measurements and noise measurements are used. A redistribution of the momentum and turbulent energy near the sawtooth tip and side edges appears to reduce the trailing edge noise scattering-efficiency of the hydrodynamic pressure waves. For the study of the flow mechanism responsible for the vortex shedding tonal noise increase, noise and velocity measurements along with flow visualisation techniques are used for the identification and further understanding of this noise source. A highly three-dimensional wake-flow could be identified in the wake past the serration gap, which differs from the longitudinal vortices shed from a straight blunt serration root. The third part presents the concept of poro-serrated trailing edges as a novel method to substantially improve the overall noise performance of the non-flat plate trailing edge serration type. The use of porous metal foams or thin brush bundles which fill the interstices between adjacent members of the sawtooth can completely suppress the bluntness-induced vortex shedding noise. Most importantly a turbulent broadband noise reduction of up to 7 dB can be achieved without compromising the aerodynamic performances in lift and drag. The new serrated trailing edges do not cause any noise increase throughout the frequency range investigated here. Through noise and velocity measurements near the trailing edge of an airfoil, the reduction of the broadband noise is found to be primarily caused by the sawtooth geometry. The new serrated trailing edges have the potential to improve the industrial worthiness of the serration technology in achieving low noise radiation.

With increasing strain on the civil aviation industry to meet strict targets to reduce the adverse effects aviation has on the environment by 2050, significant advances in aircraft design and research are required. Aerodynamic improvements have been a focus for several decades now, however, current and future civil transport aircraft are based on traditional designs originating from the 1950s. Optimisation of aircraft external geometry for aerodynamic gain is reaching maturity and is becoming increasingly non-cost-effective. New advances in sensor and actuator technology has allowed for the development of active flow control (AFC) devices that have shown promising results in laboratory and even full-scale flight conditions, as seen by the joint NASA-Boeing ecoDemonstrator. One such device is the synthetic jet actuator (SJA), that synthesises periodic jets without the requirement for external air supply, while adding momentum to the surrounding flow. For this reason, SJAs are also referred to as zero-net-mass-flux actuators. There exists extensive work on the use of these devices for flow control applications in a laboratory setting. One of the key issues that remains unresolved, hindering successful aircraft application to-date, is the actuator self-noise generated. The noise level of SJAs can be so severe that they were rejected for application on the ecoDemonstrator in favour of a higher authority, quieter AFC device. SJAs were only considered for use in emergency situations on aircraft. Furthermore, the actuators were also not permitted to operate simultaneously at full power, which may severely limit scope for flow control on aircraft. Other applications that would benefit from SJAs include heat transfer for cooling in electronic devices. Studies in this field identify the same problem with noise levels of up to 73 dB reported. It is clear that work towards the self-noise reduction of SJAs is required to harness the full potential of this actuator technology. In the work presented, passive and active noise control measures in the form of lobed orifices and antiphase operation of two jets, respectively, on the noise reduction of SJAs are ii investigated. Noise sources of synthetic jet actuators include mechanical (diaphragm) and jet induced noise, where the focus of this work is on the latter type. Tests were conducted in quiescent conditions using jet velocity measurements, acoustic measurements, and flow visualisation. Tests were carried out using a single chamber SJA with variable cavity height and both circular and lobed orifices. These tests helped identify a SJA self-noise generation mechanism when using a circular orifice. This mechanism is characterised by a constant frequency behaviour visible in acoustic spectra for a specific jet Reynolds number range of 600 < Rej < 750 and Strouhal number range of 0.22 < St < 0.50. The geometries of the lobed orifices used in this work differ in lobe count and penetration. It was shown that a broadband noise reduction is possible with such orifices, with a maximum noise reduction of 14 dB at particular frequencies. The results indicate that a high number of lobes and penetration are preferred for noise reduction, however, at the expense of quickly dissipating downstream jet velocity. Flow visualisation reveals that this adverse effect is caused by enhanced mixing of lobed jets with ambient air that leads to earlier and more aggressive breakup of flow structures. A double chamber SJA is also used to demonstrate the noise attenuation through the antiphase operation of two cavities, caused by the interference pattern of the sound field of each source. The maximum reduction measured using this actuator configuration is 14 dB, depending on directivity.

The relationship between distinctive characteristic fluid-flow regimes and the sound radiation generated by them has been investigated, over a range of Reynolds numbers, for various single plates and two-plate arrays in nominally two-dimensional flows. In preliminary experiments, the characteristics of flow over single plates with rectangular cross-section and faired leading edges and over tandem arrays of an upstream plate with rectangular cross-section and faired leading edges and a downstream plate of rectangular cross-section were investigated, together with the sound radiation produced. However, the main investigation has been concentrated on single plates of rectangular cross-section with various chord-to-thickness ratios C and on arrays of two plates of rectangular cross-section in tandem having various chord-to-thickness ratios C₁ and C₂ and a range of gaps (with gap-to-thickness ratios G) between them. The range of Reynolds number based on plate thickness t and free-stream velocity U, Re[subscript]t = Ut/ν (where ν is the kinematic viscosity of fluid) covered in the measurements is 3.2 x 10[superscript]3 ≤ Re[subscript]t 53 x 10[superscript]3. Spectra of velocity fluctuations in the flow and radiated sound have been measured and their characteristic frequencies related. An attempt has been made to measure force fluctuations on surfaces of the plates in order to relate them to flow characteristics and radiated sound power. Mean and fluctuating pressures associated with the force fluctuations on the plates have also been obtained. The lengths of separation bubbles on long rectangular plates have also been determined. In most cases, the measurements have been complemented by flow-visualisation in a water tunnel to provide additional detailed insight into the flow patterns. Three flow regimes have been identified for single plates of rectangular cross-section. In the first regime (1 ≤ C ≤ 3.13), shear layers separated from the leading edges form a vortex street downstream of the plate without reattachment to it. Associated force fluctuations on the plate are the main source of acoustic radiation. In the second regime (3.05 ≤ C ≤ 9.65), the separated shear layers reattach intermittently to the streamwise plate surfaces. Vortex formation in the shear layer is the dominant cause of sound radiation but the effect becomes weaker as C increases. In the third regime (6.52 ≤ C ≤ 68), the separated shear layers form closed leading-edge separation bubbles. Weak vortex shedding, with only a small contribution to the sound radiation, occurs only at the trailing edges of the plate. Bistable behaviour of the flow over a plate, with random switching between the regimes, occurs for C ≈ 3 and 6.52 ≤ C ≤ 9.65. A proposed classification of possible flow regimes for the flow around two plates of rectangular cross-section in tandem has been confirmed experimentally. For small G, the flow in the gap between the plates is isolated from the external flow. When the gap G between the plates is increased to or beyond a critical value (between 2 and 3.5), the shear layers separated from the upstream plate form a von Karman vortex street in the gap before interacting with the downstream plate. Flow and acoustic measurements indicate that this transition is associated with dramatic changes in the flow character. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1320474 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Mechanical Engineering, 2008