Turbulence ingestion noise generation in rotating blades

Abstract

The interaction between ingested turbulence and rotating blades is a key source of broadband noise in engineering applications. In this paper, a far-field noise model accounting for source correlation across the span of the blade and between blades is developed and applied to the study of homogeneous isotropic turbulence ingestion by a model cooling fan, wind turbine and aircraft propeller. The widely used theory of Amiet is revisited and it is shown that previous works produce conflicting results when attempting to account for blade-to-blade correlation. Central to the model is the calculation of the time between blade chops of the same turbulent eddy as heard by the observer. In this paper it is shown that, when derived correctly, Amiet's theory accounts for correlated sources between blades and, thus, can predict haystacking tones. Comparisons with the new rotational formulation and with experimental data enable us to show that Amiet's theory can be used to accurately predict turbulence ingestion noise from open rotors. In particular, it is found that the infinite-span assumption in strip theory and the neglect of correlation effects across the span do not undermine the accuracy of this theory. This is of great importance because, unlike Amiet's theory, models which treat rotational effects and source correlation exactly are expensive to evaluate routinely at high frequencies due to the slow convergence of infinite series with Bessel functions.