Numerical investigation on the rotor-turbulence interaction noise

Abstract

Noise from a turbomachinery component, such as compressors and turbines, is an important issue to be resolved in aerospace and ocean engineering applications. The rotor of a turbomachinery assembly usually could operate downstream to other flow structures (fuselages, stators, control surfaces, etc.) that produce either large-scale or small-scale turbulence structures, which are highly complex and are being distorted while they are ingested into the rotor, which generate the rotor-turbulence interaction noise. The presented work conducted numerical simulation research on a ten-bladed rotor ingesting different turbulence structures. The large eddy simulation (LES) and Ffowcs-Williams and Hawkings (FW-H) methods were used to predict the flow-induced noise from the rotor. The results show that the time-space evolution of the upstream turbulent structure when it passes towards the rotor. In addition, the differences in the turbulence ingestion noise at different inflow speeds and rotational speeds were studied. Furthermore, the sound generation mechanism of turbulent ingestion noise was explored using a newly proposed near-field sound source analysis method. In summary, this study can help to improve the understanding of the physical mechanisms of unsteady forces and noise generated by a rotor when it interacts with ingesting turbulent flows.