A minimum objective function trim procedure for VTOLs noise reduction

Abstract

The present paper proposes a novel approach for multi-rotor acoustic nuisance mitigation based on the identification of optimal control settings. This strategy is possible thanks to the peculiarity of multi-rotor systems (like, for instance, those involved in urban air mobility applications) to have redundant controls. The idea is to take full advantage of the control redundancy by defining the control settings that guarantee the desired steady-state flight conditions while, at the same time, optimizing selected target functions such as performance or noise emissions. To this aim, the trim problem is recast into a constrained cost function minimization problem. Since the objective is to reduce as much as possible the noise disturbance of trimmed VTOL, an aeroacoustic tool based on the chordwise-compact form of the Farassat 1A formulation for the evaluation of noise radiation is suitably coupled with a trim solver. The numerical investigations consider quadcopter and hexacopter configurations in level flight at several advancing speeds. Comparisons of the proposed minimum-noise trim strategy with two other trim strategies based on the minimization of rotor torque and control effort prove its capability to provide an overall reduction of noise throughout the entire velocity range examined.