Aerodynamic noise separation of helicopter main and tail rotors using a cascade filter with Vold-Kalman filter and cyclic Wiener filter

Abstract

The noise issue has become an important factor limiting the massive application of helicopters as the requirements for helicopter reliability and comfort continue to increase. As the primary noise source of helicopters, the main and tail rotor aerodynamic noise should be separated for individual noise reduction investigations. According to the frequency domain characteristics, the rotor aerodynamic noise can be divided into tonal noise and broadband noise. A cascade filtering method with Vold-Kalman filter and cyclic Wiener filter is proposed in this paper to separate the tonal and modulated broadband noise of the main and tail rotors, respectively. The classical method only considers the periodic characteristics of the main and tail rotor aerodynamic noise for harmonic separation. The broadband noise is not considered within the separation of interest due to its randomness, which leads to the inaccuracy of the conventional method for the aerodynamic noise separation of the main and tail rotors. The broadband noise exhibits a second-order cyclostationarity due to the periodic modulation of the rotational motion of the rotor. According to its cyclostationarity, while considering the periodicity of tonal noise for harmonic separation, the proposed cascade filtering method also performs the separation of broadband noise. More precise separations of the main and tail rotor can be obtained by this method. The efficacy of the proposed cascade filtering method is demonstrated in both the simulation and wind tunnel noise measurement.