Mechanistic study of noise source and propagation characteristics of flow noise of a submarine

Abstract

Flow noise, part of hydrodynamic noise, significantly impacts the stealth capabilities of submarines. Investigating the noise source location and formation mechanism of flow noise is crucial for enhancing submarine stealth performance. This study uses large eddy simulation to examine the evolution of vortex structure in the SUBOFF submarine. The propagation of far-field noise from dipole and quadrupole noise sources of the SUBOFF is calculated, by rationally constructing a permeable integral surface in conjunction with the Ffowcs-Williams and Hawkings and “Collapsing-Sphere” formulations. The numerical results for both flow and acoustic fields are consistent with experimental data and previous numerical findings. Sail and rudder are the predominant dipole noise sources, due to turbulence effects from vortex shedding. The permeable integral surface effectively captures the quadrupole noise source. The quadrupole noise in the 2 kHz frequency range contributes 17 % to 26 % of the total noise energy. The location of the quadrupole noise source and its generation mechanism is explored, through the evolution of the vortex structure and the Lamb vector amplitude. Approximate scaling laws for far-field dipole and quadrupole noise spectra are given, thus illustrating the general laws in the frequency domain of the far-field noise.