Characterization of multi-rotor aircraft using truss support structure

Abstract

Characterization of multi-rotor drone aircraft noise is vital to expanded use within the United States. To provide compatibility with current propagation and perception models, acoustic noise characterization focuses on the creation of equivalent lower hemispheres, and application of methods developed for manned aircraft for description of the noise directivity patterns. But a previous measurement determined that a refinement of these methods was required for the application to drone noise. One of these refinements was the use of a larger truss support rig, which was selected to provide sufficient clearance for the aircraft. The rig also provided regular holes where the microphones’ support arms could be mounted; the rigid structure possessed no flat faces and minimal cylindrical truss structures to minimize scattering of reflected signals. In addition to the lighting rig array, a number of additional microphones were placed along the flight path, and in-plane but outside of the measurement array for validation of the acoustic sources. With this improved array, another measurement of a multi-rotor aircraft was conducted, equivalent acoustic sources constructed, and validation performed. This measurement validates the use of the square array to characterize these types of aircraft.