A Numerical Study on Aircraft Noise Mitigation Using Porous Stator Concepts

Christopher Teruna,Leandro Rego,Francesco Avallone,Daniele Ragni,Damiano Casalino

doi:10.3390/aerospace9020070

Abstract

This manuscript presents the application of a recently developed noise reduction technology, constituted by poro-serrated stator blades on a full-scale aircraft model, in order to reduce rotor-stator interaction noise in the fan stage. This study was carried out using the commercial lattice Boltzmann solver 3DS-SIMULIA PowerFLOW. The simulation combines the airframe of the NASA High-Lift Common Research Model with an upscaled fan stage of the source diagnostic test rig. The poro-serrations on the stator blades have been modeled based on a metal foam with two different porosity values. The results evidence that the poro-serrations induce flow separation on the stator blades, particularly near the fan-stage hub. Consequently, the thrust generated by the modified fan stage is lower and the broadband noise emission at low frequencies is enhanced. Nevertheless, the tonal noise components at the blade-passage frequency and its harmonics are mitigated by up to 9 dB. The poro-serrations with lower porosity achieve a better trade-off between noise emission and thrust penalty. An optimization attempt was carried out by limiting the application of porosity near the tip of the stator blades. The improved leading-edge treatment achieves a total of 1.5 dB in sound power level reduction while the thrust penalty is below 1.5%. This demonstrates that the aerodynamic effects of a leading-edge treatment should be taken into account during the design phase to fully benefit from its noise reduction capability.

Highlights

Aircraft noise emission is an important aspect in aircraft design as aviation regulations become more stringent
This happens for multiple reasons [5]: (1) turbulence structures in the fan wake are more coherent closer to the fan blades, leading to more intense aerodynamic perturbations on the outlet guide vane (OGV); (2) the unsteady loading on the fan blades due to flow distortion induced by the downstream OGVs; (3) the fan blades scatter the sound waves emitted by the OGVs, generating additional cut-on acoustic modes
Assuming that the thrust penalty does not vary for a small change in the fan RPM, and the aforementioned RPM–thrust relationship is valid for the fan stages with modified stators, it is estimated that the rotational speed of the fan in the M800 configuration should be increased to 1462 RPM to retain the same amount of thrust as the baseline

Summary

Introduction

Aircraft noise emission is an important aspect in aircraft design as aviation regulations become more stringent. With progressively increasing bypass ratios to improve fuel efficiency, the fan wake–OGV interaction noise in a turbofan, especially the tonal component, is expected to become stronger as the axial distance between the fan and the OGV is reduced in order to limit the total engine weight [4] This happens for multiple reasons [5]: (1) turbulence structures in the fan wake are more coherent closer to the fan blades, leading to more intense aerodynamic perturbations on the OGVs; (2) the unsteady loading on the fan blades due to flow distortion induced by the downstream OGVs (i.e., potential flow effect); (3) the fan blades scatter the sound waves emitted by the OGVs, generating additional cut-on acoustic modes. It is necessary to introduce appropriate solutions directly at the source level

Methods

Results

Conclusion