Leading Edge Serrations Research Articles

Aeroacoustic characteristics of owl-inspired blade designs in a mixed flow fan: effects of leading- and trailing-edge serrations

There is an increasing need in industry for noise reduction in fans. Inspired by owls’ silent flight, we propose four owl-inspired blade designs for a mixed-flow fan to examine whether leading-edge (LE) and/or trailing-edge (TE) serrations can resolve the tradeoff between sound suppression and aerodynamic performance. We investigate the blades’ aeroacoustic characteristics through various experimental methods and large-eddy simulation (LES)-based numerical analyses. Experimental results suggest that ‘slotted’, simply-fabricated LE serrations can achieve a lowering of the noise level while sustaining the aerodynamic performance of the fan, whereas TE serrations fail. In addition, the inclination angle can improve LE serration performance in aeroacoustic and aerodynamic performance with a reduction in the specific noise level by around 1.4 dB. LES results and noise spectral analysis indicate that the LE serrations can suppress flow separation, reducing the broadband noise at low-to-middle frequencies (40–4k Hz). This passive-flow-control mechanism, likely due to local higher incidence angles associated with LE serrations, is capable of alleviating the intensive pressure gradient while suppressing wall-pressure fluctuations over the LE region, hence weakening the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability. The tonal noise also shows a marked reduction at the highest peak frequency associated with fan–vane interaction. Moreover, we find that the high-frequency noise by-product radiates mainly from the LE serrations andsurroundings, due to the small eddies broken up when the vortical flows pass through the LE serrations. Our results demonstrate that the biomimetic design of the LE serrations can facilitate the break-up of LE vortices passively and effectively without negatively impacting aerodynamic performance, which can be utilized as an effective device to improve the aeroacoustic performance of fan blades.

A BRIEF REVIEW ON VARIOUS NOISE REDUCTION TECHNIQUES EMANATING FROM WINGS OF AN AIRCRAFT

— One of the challenges and a point of need in the aviation industry is the problem of high level of noise emanation. There are various sources of noise emanating from aircraft which are the noises from engine and airframe including the wings. Noise from the wing is an important phenomenon to be put into consideration as it contributes significantly to the noise emanating from aircraft especially during take-off and landing. Airfoil noise emission emanate on the wing section of an aircraft due to the interaction of the airfoil turbulent boundary layer with the sharp leading edge. Noise reduction then becomes a thing of concern for many engineers and researchers who took it upon their shoulder the responsibility of coming up with design that can help reduce noise emanating from aircrafts to mitigate the noise. Due to this, many researchers have focused on reducing the noise emanating from the aircraft through various means and approaches which include theoretical, computational, and experimental analysis. In a means of compiling and making available a brief review of such work, for easy and quick access necessitate the need of this work. This paper focused on giving a summary and review of different work done by past and current researchers in the field. The review was based on selected current papers on the cutting-edge technology towards enhancing aerodynamic performance of the wing of aircraft and reduction of noise emanating from it. Although fruitful results have been achieved in the aerodynamic noise control, but only little work has been done to summarize the main findings and progresses in this area. This work focused on review of work carried out by many researchers in this area which involves various techniques and attempts ranging from leading edge serration, trailing edge serration, active flow actuation, flexible wing using theoretical, computational, and experimental approach etc. Additionally, some suggestions were made towards further study and improv

Aerodynamic and aeroacoustic investigations of multi-copter rotors with leading edge serrations during forward flight

Inspired by the silent flight of owl wings, this paper adopts leading edge (LE) serrations for noise reduction of isolated multi-copter rotors. By choosing different serration parameters of height and wavelength, aerodynamic loading and noise emissions of these multi-copter rotors are measured and analyzed at the forward flight condition through a force balance and microphones in an anechoic wind tunnel. Rotors with add-on LE serrations generate slightly lower thrust than the Baseline (BL) rotor at the same rotation speed. In order to assess the noise reduction of different serration designs from the application perspective, a comparison of rotor noise emission is conducted at the same thrust. All serrated rotors considered in this study show lower tonal, broadband, and overall noise levels than the BL rotor. The noise reductions of all serrated rotors are observed to generally follow a scaling law with the Strouhal number in the mid-to-high frequency range. The height-to-wavelength ratio is a potential critical parameter that determines the coupled aerodynamic and aeroacoustic performance of the serrated rotors. The directivity of the rotor noise reduction is also shown through the data of a circular microphone array.

Leading Edge Blowing to Mimic and Enhance the Serration Effects for Aerofoil

Leading edge serration is now a well-established and effective passive control device for the reduction of turbulence–leading edge interaction noise, and for the suppression of boundary layer separation at high angle of attack. It is envisaged that leading edge blowing could produce the same mechanisms as those produced by a serrated leading edge to enhance the aeroacoustics and aerodynamic performances of aerofoil. Aeroacoustically, injection of mass airflow from the leading edge (against the incoming turbulent flow) can be an effective mechanism to decrease the turbulence intensity, and/or alter the stagnation point. According to classical theory on the aerofoil leading edge noise, there is a potential for the leading edge blowing to reduce the level of turbulence–leading edge interaction noise radiation. Aerodynamically, after the mixing between the injected air and the incoming flow, a shear instability is likely to be triggered owing to the different flow directions. The resulting vortical flow will then propagate along the main flow direction across the aerofoil surface. These vortical flows generated indirectly owing to the leading edge blowing could also be effective to mitigate boundary layer separation at high angle of attack. The objectives of this paper are to validate these hypotheses, and combine the serration and blowing together on the leading edge to harvest further improvement on the aeroacoustics and aerodynamic performances. Results presented in this paper strongly indicate that leading edge blowing, which is an active flow control method, can indeed mimic and even enhance the bio-inspired leading edge serration effectively.

Leading edge serrations for the reduction of aerofoil self-noise at low angle of attack, pre-stall and post-stall conditions

This paper addresses the usefulness of leading edge serrations for reducing aerofoil self-noise over a wide range of angles of attack. Different serration geometries are studied over a range of Reynolds number [Formula: see text]. Design guidelines are proposed that permit noise reductions over most angles of attack. It is shown that serration geometries reduces the noise but adversely effect the aerodynamic performance suggesting that a trade-off should be sought between these two considerations. The self-noise performance of leading edge serrations has been shown to fall into three angle of attack (AoA) regimes: low angles where the flow is mostly attached, moderate angles where the flow is partially to fully separated, and high angles of attack where the flow is fully separated. Leading edge serrations have been demonstrated to be effective in reducing noise at low and high angles of attack but ineffective at moderate angles. The noise reduction mechanisms are explored in each of three angle regimes.

Noise reduction mechanism of airfoils with leading-edge serrations and surface ridges inspired by owl wings

The remarkable characteristics of the silent flight of owls provide infinite inspiration for the low-noise operation of the rotating impeller machinery. However, how the characteristics of owl wings, including the leading-edge serrations, trailing-edge serrations, and plumed surfaces, affect the aerodynamic noise has not been studied comprehensively. According to previous research, the noise reduction level of an airfoil with an extensive sinusoidal profile is limited to a certain degree. In this paper, as a new coupling element, the surface ridge of owl wings is added to the airfoils with leading-edge serrations. Based on the NACA0012 (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) airfoil, the bionic airfoils with sinusoidal, serrated, and iron-shaped leading-edge serrations and surface ridges are reconstructed and studied to reveal the noise reduction mechanism of the coupled elements. The hybrid numerical method of large eddy simulation combined with the acoustic analog equations is adopted to predict the far-field acoustic characteristics. The vortex dynamic method is used to exposit the noise reduction mechanism of biomimetic flow control. The results demonstrate that the airfoil with iron-shaped leading-edge serrations has the best effect of noise reduction. Relative to the original airfoil, the sound pressure level is reduced by 14.3 dB. The change of streamwise vortices caused by the biomimetic structures leads the regular large-scale tubular vortices to separate into smaller horseshoe vortices. In addition, the correlation coefficient of spanwise is reduced, and the change of time-averaged vorticity in the space field promotes the attenuation effect of sound source caused by sound pressure fluctuation radiation.

Flow turning effect and laminar control by the 3D curvature of leading edge serrations from owl wing

This work describes a novel mechanism of laminar flow control of straight and backward swept wings with a comb-like leading edge (LE) device. It is inspired by the LE comb on owl feathers and the special design of its barbs, resembling a cascade of complex 3D-curved thin finlets. The details of the geometry of the barbs from an owl feather were used to design a generic model of the comb for experimental and numerical flow studies with the comb attached to the LE of a flat plate. Due to the owls demonstrating a backward sweep of the wing during gliding and flapping from live recordings, our examinations have also been carried out at differing sweep angles. The results demonstrate a flow turning effect in the boundary layer inboards, which extends downstream in the chordwise direction over distances of multiples of the barb lengths. The inboard flow-turning effect described here, counter-acts the outboard directed cross-span flow typically appearing for backward swept wings. This flow turning behaviour is also shown on SD7003 airfoil using precursory LES investigations. From recent theoretical studies on a swept wing, such a way of turning the flow in the boundary layer is known to attenuate crossflow instabilities and delay transition. A comparison of the comb-induced cross-span velocity profiles with those proven to delay laminar to turbulent transition in theory shows excellent agreement, which supports the laminar flow control hypothesis. Thus, the observed effect is expected to delay transition in owl flight, contributing to a more silent flight.

Prediction of Aerodynamic Performance of Axial Fan with Leading Edge Serration using Computation Fluid Dynamics

Axial fans are found to be one of the major sources of the noise in modern devices such as PCs, HVAC systems, turbo engines and etc. Lot of researches were going on for decades to reduce this unwanted noise. Researchers have found that application of leading-edge serrations will lead to reduction of noise from the bio-inspired study on the wings of barn-owl. This project involves in the study of effect of Aerodynamic performance of axial fan in terms of pressure drop and aerodynamic efficiency using commercial CFD tool ANSYS FLUENT. Analysis have been carried out for a base model without serration and same model with serrations for various flow rates. The results are validated with the experimental results obtained by Krömer et al [1] and found to be in reasonably good agreement.

Numerical investigation of leading edge noise reduction on a rod-airfoil configuration using porous materials and serrations

A lattice-Boltzmann method has been employed to study the aeroacoustics and aerodynamics of airfoils equipped with leading edge treatments, namely the porous leading edge and leading edge serrations. The present study aims to identify the differences in noise reduction mechanisms between the two treatments. Within the context of turbomachinery applications, the airfoils undergo aerodynamic excitation due to the impingement of turbulent wake shed by an upstream rod. Two airfoil profiles are considered: NACA 0012 and NACA 5406; the latter mimics geometrical features and aerodynamic loading distribution of the outlet-guide vane in a turbofan test rig. Simulations are carried out at a freestream Mach number of 0.22, corresponding to Reynolds number based on the rod diameter of 48 000. The serrations are designed to follow a sinusoidal planform shape, whereas the porous leading edge is based on a Ni-Cr-Al metal-foam with homogeneous and isotropic properties. It is found that the porous leading edge attenuates noise by dampening surface pressure fluctuations due to the reduced blockage effect compared to the solid one. Differently, the leading edge serrations promote destructive interference of noise sources along the span. When applied against turbulent inflow with tonal characteristic, such as that induced by the impingement of Kàrmàn vortex street in the rod wake, the latter is more effective. On the other hand, both treatments are found to produce similar broadband noise reduction. When comparing aerodynamic performances, it is found that under a lifting condition, cross-flow is present through the porous material which results in lift reduction and drag increase. A serrated porous leading edge is then proposed to combine the benefits of the two leading edge treatments. This results in optimal noise reduction performances and lower aerodynamic penalty with respect to the fully porous leading edge.

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

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.

Aeroacoustic design and broadband noise predictions of a fan stage with serrated outlet guide vanes

This work, realized in the framework of the European project TurboNoiseBB, presents an advanced aeroacoustic design methodology of Outlet Guide Vanes (OGVs) with leading edge serrations, including details on their broadband noise and aerodynamic performance. The serrated OGV corresponds to a modified stator from an aeroengine fan stage tested at the AneCom AeroTest’s facility (Germany). Sinusoidal leading edge patterns with varying amplitude and wavelength along the span are designed in collaboration with Safran Aircraft Engines. Serrations are adjusted to account for the turbulence characteristics provided by Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) calculations. Optimal parameters are found using simple design rules discussed in this paper. Down selection of serrated OGV designs (patent pending) is conducted through a RANS control of aerodynamic performances and in accordance with industrial specifications, ensuring acceptable penalties on the loss coefficient and isentropic efficiency. Broadband noise simulations are performed using a computational aeroacoustic (CAA) code that solves the linearized Euler equations with a synthetic turbulence model. Additionally, the acoustic response of the serrated leading edge airfoils is also estimated using the most relevant analytical formulation in the literature, based on the Wiener–Hopf technique. Numerical predictions at approach conditions are compared to available experimental measurements (on the untreated baseline case) and analytical Amiet-based and Wiener–Hopf solutions, showing satisfactory agreement in the sound power spectrum in the bypass duct. Finally, the acoustic performances estimated at the design stage are numerically assessed by both the CAA and Wiener–Hopf methods, providing around 2.5 dB and 3.5 dB reduction in the overall power level, respectively.

Effects of Reynolds Number and Distribution on Passive Flow Control in Owl-Inspired Leading-Edge Serrations.

As a sophisticated micro device for noise reduction, the owl-inspired leading-edge (LE) serrations have been confirmed capable of achieving passive control of laminar-turbulent transition while normally paying a cost of lowering the aerodynamic performance in low Reynolds number (Re∼O[103]) regime. In order to explore potential applications of the owl-inspired serrated airfoils or blades in developing low noise wind turbines or multi-copters normally operating at higher Res, we conducted a large-eddy simulation (LES)-based study of Re effects on the aerodynamic performance of 2D clean and serrated models. Our results show that the LE serrations keep working effectively in mitigating turbulent fluctuations over a broad range of Re (O[103] ∼ O[105]), capable of achieving marked improvement in lift-to-drag ratio with increasing Res. As the aeroacoustic fields are in close association with the propagation of the turbulence sources, it is observed that the tradeoff between passive mitigation of turbulent fluctuations (hence aeroacoustic noise suppression) and aerodynamic performance can be noticeably mitigated at large angles of attack (AoAs) and at high Res. This indicates that the LE serrations present an alternative passive flow control mechanism at high Res through a straightforward local excitation of the flow transition while capable of mitigating the turbulent intensity passively. We further developed a 3D LES model of clean and partially serrated rectangular wings to investigate the effects of the LE serrations' distribution on aerodynamic features, on the basis of the observation that longer serrations are often distributed intensively in the mid-span of real owl's feathers. We find that the mid-span distributed LE serrations can facilitate the break-up of LE vortices and the turbulent transition passively and effectively while achieving a low level of turbulence kinetic energy over the upper suction surface of the wing.

Applicability of Aeroacoustic Scaling Laws of Leading Edge Serrations for Rotating Applications

The dominant aeroacoustic mechanisms of serrated leading edges, subjected to highly turbulent inflow conditions, can be compressed to spanwise decorrelation effects as well as effects of destructive interference. For single aerofoils, the resulting broadband noise reduction is known to follow spectral scaling laws. However, transferring serrated leading edges to rotating machinery, results in noise radiation patterns of significantly increased complexity, impeding to allocate the observed noise reduction to the underlying physical mechanisms. The current study aims at concatenating the scaling laws for stationary aerofoil and rotating-blade application and thus at providing valuable information on the aeroacoustic transferability of leading edge serrations. For the pursued approach, low-pressure axial fans are designed, obtaining identical serrated fan blade geometries than previously analyzed single aerofoils, hence allowing for direct comparison. Highly similar spectral noise reduction patterns are obtained for the broadband noise reduction of the serrated rotors, generally confirming the transferability and showing a scaling with the geometrical parameters of the serrations as well as the inflow conditions. Continuative analysis of the total noise reduction, however, constrains the applicability of the scaling laws to a specific operating range of the rotors and motivates for a devaluation of the scaling coefficients regarding additional rotor-specific effects.

On the use of leading-edge serrations for noise control in a tandem airfoil configuration

Passive noise control for a tandem NACA 65-710 airfoil configuration is experimentally investigated by applying leading-edge serrations on the rear airfoil. With a sliding side-plate mechanism that allows the rear airfoil to move in the vertical direction relative to the front airfoil, the position of maximum turbulence interaction noise is first identified from the far-field noise measurements. Subsequently, detailed static surface pressure distribution and unsteady surface pressure fluctuations are acquired to shed more light on the physical phenomenon and underlying noise-reduction mechanism of the leading-edge serrations. The far-field noise measurements confirm that a notable turbulence interaction noise reduction can be achieved from 600 Hz < f < 3000 Hz, agreeing well with the previous literature on the effectiveness of the leading-edge serrations. The near-field hydrodynamic analyses obtained using remote-sensing techniques of the fluctuating pressure fields over the airfoil show that a significant reduction in the surface pressure fluctuation levels up to 20 dB/Hz can be observed at the serrated-tip plane of the rear serrated airfoil close to the leading-edge regions, over the range of frequencies investigated. Although reduction can also be observed on the serrated-root plane, the magnitude is much less significant. The present results suggest that the modification of the unsteady loading on the rear airfoil by the leading-edge serrations plays a crucial role in the reduction of turbulence interaction noise in the tandem airfoil configuration, which may find practical application for noise reduction in aerodynamic systems involving rows of airfoils, such as contra-rotating open rotors and outlet guide vanes.

Noise Reduction of UAV Using Biomimetic Propellers with Varied Morphologies Leading-edge Serration

The Leading-Edge (LE) serrations on owls’ wings are known to be responsible for silent flight. However, this design has rarely been applied to reduce the noise of rotational rotor propellers and the morphologies of the existing serration designs are diverse. Here, we present a comparative study of LE serrations with different morphologies in terms of the effectiveness in suppressing noise and promoting thrust forces. The performances of biomimetic propellers are investigated by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations and rotation experiments. The simulation results reveal that LE serrations could reduce velocity fluctuations and change the lamina-turbulent transition and turbulence distribution on the suction surface of propeller, but the morphology of the serrations influences its effectiveness. Rotation testing results indicate that the sawtooth propeller has the best performance on noise reduction (on average 2.43 dB and in maximum 4.18 dB) and simultaneously enhancing the thrust forces (3.53%). The largest practical noise reductions (4.73 dB and 3.79 dB) using the sawtooth propeller are observed when the quad-rotor Unmanned-Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is hovering at heights of 5 m and 8 m, respectively. Our results indicate the robustness and usefulness of owl-inspired biomimetic serration devices for aero-acoustic control and aerodynamic performance promotion on propeller designs. This finding is expected to contribute to suppressing the sound of propeller and the rotor-based aircraft.

Physical mechanisms and performance of slitted leading-edge profiles for the reduction of broadband aerofoil interaction noise

Aerofoil Turbulence Interaction (ATI) noise is an inviscid phenomenon generated by the impingement of turbulent flows onto the leading-edge of an aerofoil. This paper deals with a novel leading-edge serration geometry, composed of narrow slits, to reduce ATI noise. These profiles have been recently found to provide significantly better noise reductions than conventional leading edge geometries. A numerical and analytic investigation is performed into the mechanism and performance of its noise reduction. The far-field radiation is shown to be influenced by a system of induced vortices affecting the distribution of sources on the flat-plate and by destructive interference between the two sources generated at both ends of the slit. A simple two-source model is developed to predict the far-field noise reduction obtained and compared to straight leading-edge aerofoils.

Effect of trailing-edge serrations on noise reduction in a coupled bionic aerofoil inspired by barn owls

Noise reduction is an important development direction for aircrafts and wind turbines. Owl wings have three unique morphological characteristics (leading-edge serrations, trailing-edge serrations and velvet-like surfaces) that effectively suppress aerodynamic noise in low Reynolds numbers. Among them, trailing-edge serrations are widely considered the most effective noise-reduction method. Although different serrations have been studied, the quantitative relationship and influence mechanism between the serration shape, wavelength and amplitude are poorly understood. The acoustic characteristics of asymmetrical aerofoils with different trailing-edge serrations have not been fully studied. This work investigates the flow characteristics and acoustic scattering mechanisms of novel owl-based aerofoils with different trailing-edge serrations. A sensitivity analysis is utilized to quantitatively investigate the influence and interaction mechanisms of the shape, wavelength and amplitude in trailing-edge noise reduction. Numerical simulations of the transient flow over the aerofoil are performed via the large eddy simulation method, and the acoustic far-field is obtained by solving the Ffowcs Williams and Hawkings equation. The results indicate that the sawtooth and sinusoidal serrations provide the most significant noise reduction effects; the maximum noise reduction is 8.74 dB. The wavelength and amplitude play similar roles, but the amplitude has relatively greater influence. For the sawtooth and sinusoidal serrations, the large-scale vortex structures are broken into many small-scale spiral vortex structures due to the presence of the sharp serration tip. The serrations can effectively reduce the coherence of the turbulent fluctuations due to spanwise variations in the edge and may be the main reason for noise suppression. The original owl-based aerofoil generates more low-frequency noise and less high-frequency noise than aerofoils with trailing-edge serrations. The peak noise frequencies of all aerofoils are approximately 400 Hz; hence, low-frequency noise is a dominant influence in noise generation. Furthermore, the acoustic sources generated by transient pressure fluctuations are mainly located on the serration root.

Leading-Edge Profiles for the Reduction of Airfoil Interaction Noise

Airfoils operating in a turbulent flow are an efficient source of noise radiation by scattering vorticity into sound at the leading edge. Much work has been undertaken demonstrating the effectiveness by which serrations, or undulations, introduced onto the leading edge can substantially reduce broadband leading-edge interaction noise. However, most of this work is focused on sinusoidal leading-edge serration profiles. In this paper, a family of serration profiles is proposed that is capable of providing significantly greater noise reductions than single-wavelength serrations at optimal conditions. This new family of profiles will be shown to reduce interaction noise through a fundamentally different noise reduction mechanism than conventional single-wavelength profiles. Unlike single-wavelength profiles, which produce a single compact dominant source region per serration wavelength, these new profiles are designed to produce two or more dominant compact sources per serration wavelength of roughly the same source strength that are separated in the streamwise direction. Because these sources are arranged to be closer together than the turbulence length scale, they are highly coherent and, at certain frequencies, radiate exactly 180 deg out of phase, leading to very high levels of noise reduction in the far field. The experimental noise reduction spectra are first compared against an analytic model obtained as a solution of the acoustic wave equation using the Wiener–Hopf technique. This approach focuses solely on solving for an acoustic field, and not for any secondary vorticity induced by the edge. As such, this comparison, which shows disagreement, proves that secondary vorticity is a dominant mechanism for these new profiles. A simple supplementary analytical model has therefore been developed to explain this noise reduction mechanism for these new profiles, based on interference between sources distributed along the leading edge. Good qualitative agreement is obtained with the experimental results.

Experimental Investigation of the Sound Emission of Skewed Axial Fans with Leading-Edge Serrations

Axial fans represent a major source of noise in technical systems. Based on investigations on airfoils, a promising measure for reducing the sound emission of such systems with axial fans is the application of leading-edge serrations to the fan blade. Hence in this study, the joint impact of fan-blade skew—as a commonly used noise-reduction approach—and leading-edge serrations on the sound emission of low-speed axial fans was investigated. Forward-, backward-, and unskewed fans with five different leading-edge modifications were used. For each fan, a reference configuration with straight leading edges and four configurations with sinusoidal leading-edge serrations (with two different amplitude values and two different wavelength values) were examined. The results show that, among the reference fans with unmodified leading edges, the forward-skewed fan had the lowest sound emission. The serrations applied to the unskewed fan lead to an increase in the efficiency and a decrease in the sound emission. When applied in combination with fan-blade skew, the serrated fans showed an even lower sound emission and a higher efficiency—even the forward-skewed fan, which already has a low sound emission without any leading-edge modifications. The highest sound reduction was achieved by applying the serrations with the smallest wavelength and the highest amplitude. The findings prove that even for low-noise fans with forward-skewed fan blades, a further sound reduction is possible with the use of leading-edge serrations.

Successive Aeroacoustic Transfer of Leading Edge Serrations From Single Airfoil to Low-Pressure Fan Application

Abstract Leading edge serrations are identified as an effective passive treatment for reducing fan broadband noise due to high turbulent inflow conditions. This paper aims to investigate the isolated effect of serrated applications in a rotating frame, covering the aerodynamic and aeroacoustic performance. With this purpose, a serration design, previously analyzed in the rigid domain, is transferred to the rotating frame, following a successive approach in form of a continuous increase of the fan blade number. This is considered as a feasible way to isolate the serration effects and to provide information on fan blade interaction and possible masking effects. Comparing blades with straight and serrated leading edges by analyzing the spectral noise reduction and the overall level result in deep insights in the underlying noise reduction mechanisms. Furthermore, analysis of phase differences by means of the wall pressure fluctuations leads to the identification of rotating flow phenomena, nonsynchronized with the rotor speed. The results obtained indicate an efficient noise reduction by the serrations in the vicinity of the design point. By use of the presented successive approach, noise reduction phenomena observed with the full rotor could be identified to be of either aeroacoustic or aerodynamic nature. A reduced noise is observed for the full rotor case, showing a reduction of blade interaction effects. At reducing flow coefficients, an improved stall margin of the serrated rotor is identified that also affects the aeroacoustic signature.