Impact of Fluidic Chevrons on Jet Noise

Abstract

The impact of alternating fluidic core chevrons on the production of jet noise is investigated. Core nozzles for a representative 1/9th scale, bypass ratio 5 model system were manufactured with slots cut near the trailing edges to allow for air injection into the core and fan streams. The injectors followed an alternating pattern around the nozzle perimeter so that the injection alternated between injection into the core stream and injection into the fan stream. For the takeoff condition and a forward flight Mach number of 0.10, the overall sound pressure levels at the peak jet noise angle decrease with increasing injection pressure. Sound pressure levels increase for observation angles less than 110o at higher injection pressures due to increases in high frequency noise. Greater increases in high frequency noise are observed when the number of injectors increases from 8 to 12. When the forward flight Mach number is increased to 0.28, jet noise reduction (relative to the baseline) is observed at aft angles for increasing injection pressure while significant increases in jet noise are observed at forward observation angles due to substantial acoustic radiation at high frequencies. A comparison between inflow and alternating injectors shows that, for equal mass injection rates, the inflow nozzle produces greater low frequency noise reduction (relative to the baseline) than the alternating injectors at 90o and aft observation angles and a forward flight Mach number of 0.28. Preliminary computational fluid dynamic simulations indicate that the spatial decay rate of the hot potential core flow is less for the inflow nozzle than for the alternating nozzles which indicates that gentle mixing may be preferred over sever mixing when fluidic chevrons are used for jet noise reduction.