The Aeroacoustic Wind Tunnel DNW-NWB

Abstract

*Up to now significant progress in aeroacoustic rese arch was limited because no acoustic wind tunnel of relevant kind, size and quality was available in Europe. The recently conducted refurbishment of the low speed wind tunnel NWB, operated by the foundation Deutsch-Niederlandische Windkanale (DNW), meets future research challenges in aircraft noise reduction. Further progress in aviation noise research including noise prediction and noise reduction technologies but also the possibili ty to transfer research results into application depends on the availability of a suitab le aeroacoustic wind tunnel test facility which up to now was not available in Europe. This s ituation was critical in view of the aggressive noise reduction objectives for aviation noise defined by the EU for the year 2020. In recent years noise reduction at transport aircra ft has become an ever more demanding task since not the engines alone contribute to the overall noise of an aircraft but as well the turbulent flow past the airframe. Many of these complex aeroacoustic sources are not even understood properly. The refurbishment of the NWB wind tunnel in Braunschweig, Germany, addresses these issues and new requirements in the aeronautics research. The