On the reductions of aerofoil-turbulence interaction noise through multi-wavelength leading edge serrations

Abstract

This paper provides an experimental study into the use of multi-wavelength sinusoidal leading edge ( LE) serrations for enhancing the aerofoil-broadband noise reductions. The noise reduction performances of multi-wavelength serration profiles introduced on a flat plate are compared against those generated by single-wavelength profiles when applied separately. The multi-wavelength leading edge serration is made in such a way that its maximum amplitude is kept same as that of each single-wavelength ones to be compared. The present study reveals that the dual-wavelength serrations provide higher noise reductions over a narrow band of frequencies as compared to single and triple wavelength ones. Further, it reveals that the noise reduction characteristics of dual-wavelength serrated airfoils are similar to the flat plates. It shows that the baseline plate generate higher noise radiations for all emission angles as compared to leading edge serrated plates, but the common feature among them is the downstream directivity. For the range of frequencies 0.9 to 5 kHz, the highest directivity is seen at an emission angle of 55° for the baseline, while it occurs at 75° for the serrated plates. The dual wavelength serrations generate lowest acoustic radiations as compared to single and triple ones for all the emission angles. Also, it is noticed that the radiation levels of the dual serrations decrease with increase in amplitude of the serration, which shows that the longer dual serrations generate lowest acoustic radiations. Thus, the present study illustrates that the dual wavelength leading edge serrations act as the best passively modified serration profiles for achieving the highest noise reductions over a wide range of frequencies as compared to single and triple wavelength ones.