An algorithm to separate wind tunnel background noise from turbulent boundary layer excitation

Abstract

Wall pressure fluctuations generated by Turbulent Boundary Layers (TBL) provide a significant contribution in reducing the structural vibration and the aircraft cabin noise. However, it is difficult to evaluate these fluctuations accurately through a wind tunnel test because of the pollution caused by the background noise generated by the jet or the valve of the wind tunnel. In this study, a new technology named Subsection Approaching Method (SAM) is proposed to separate the wall pressure fluctuations from the background noise induced by the jet or the valve for a transonic wind tunnel test. The SAM demonstrates good performance on separating the background noise from the total pressure compared to the other method in this study. The investigation considers the effects of the sound intensity and the decay factor on the sound-source separation. The results show that the SAM can derive wall pressure fluctuations effectively even when the level of background noise is considerably higher than the level of the wall pressure fluctuations caused by the TBL. In addition, the computational precision is also analyzed based on the broad band noise tested in the wind tunnel. Two methods to improve the precision of the computation with the SAM are also suggested: decreasing the loop gain and increasing the sensors for the signal analysis.