Aeroelastic structural acoustic coupling: Implications on the control of turbulent boundary-layer noise transmission

Abstract

A method of formulating a model to evaluate the aeroelastic structural acoustic response of a panel subjected to turbulent boundary layer (TBL) noise sources and coupled with full potential flow aerodynamics is presented. Reduced-order models of both the aerodynamics and the structural acoustic coupling are presented such that a state-variable realization of the entire system dynamics can be developed for future active control system design and synthesis with modern and robust control theory. Results from this study demonstrate the importance of including aeroelastic coupling in modeling the structural acoustic response of panels for interior noise control on modern aircraft. At subsonic flow conditions, the aeroelastic coupling serves to increase the transmission loss across the panel with increasing Mach number; however, the power spectrum of the TBL noise source increases with increasing Mach number as well and thus offsets this benefit to some degree. Results from this study also serve to demonstrate that for future analysis of robust stability and performance, variations in the plant dynamics due to variations in flow conditions must be considered in the design of broadband, feedback, active structural acoustic control systems.