Acoustic sensing provides a possibility of measuring propulsion flow fields non-intrusively, and is of great interest because it may be applicable to cases that are difficult to measure with traditional methods. In this work, some of the successes and limitations of this technique are considered. In the first main result, the acoustic time of flight is shown to be usable along with a calibration curve in order to accurately estimate the thrust of two turbofan engines (1.0-1.5%). In the second, it is shown that acoustic tomography methods that only use the first ray paths to arrive cannot distinguish some relevant propulsion flow fields (i.e., different flow fields can have the same times of flight). In the third result we demonstrate, via the first validated acoustic tomography experiment on a turbofan engine, that a reasonable estimate of the flow can be produced despite this challenge. This is also the first successful use of acoustic tomography to reconstruct a compressible, multi-stream flow. / Doctor of Philosophy / Sound may be used to measure air flows, and has been used for this purpose in studies of the atmosphere for decades. In this work, the extension of the method to measure air flows in aircraft engines is considered. This is challenging for two main reasons. The first challenge is that aircraft engines are very loud, which makes it harder to accurately measure the sounds that are needed to determine the speeds and temperatures. In this work, we show that the thrust (the force made by an engine) may be accurately measured using sound despite this difficulty. The second challenge is that the temperatures and velocities involved are very large compared to those in the atmosphere. We show that these large variations in temperature and velocity can make it impossible to distinguish between two different air flows in certain circumstances. We also show that despite this limitation, sound can be used to produce a reasonable, though imperfect, estimate of the flow. In particular, the technique was successfully used to measure the varying temperatures and velocities in a jet engine, which has not been done successfully before.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/117267 |
| Date | 21 December 2023 |
| Creators | Gillespie, John Lawrie |
| Contributors | Aerospace and Ocean Engineering, Lowe, Kevin T., Ng, Wing Fai, Kapania, Rakesh K., Devenport, William J. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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