Tactical Airplane Noise Reduction via Advanced Automated Computational Airframe Aft-End Integration Technologies

Cascade Technologies and its collaborators from Stanford University propose to develop an efficient and robust computational framework to optimize the aerodynamic interactions between vortices shed by designed control surfaces/devices on the airframe aft-end and the engine exhaust plume, as a mechanism to appropriately modified the jet development and reduce the radiated noise, without impacting performance. In Phase I and I Option, the proposed approach will focus on geometry and operating conditions relevant to tactical aircraft, and will be carried out in three steps: first, explore with Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations a range of enhanced jet/airframe interaction leading to substantial modification of the jet development; Second, assess with high-fidelity large eddy simulations (LES) the effectiveness of a few selected alteration of the jet plume for noise reduction. Third, iterate on the configuration within a RANS/LES optimization framework to further enhanced the jet flow field modifications for maximum noise mitigation. The specific choice, design and wind-tunnel testing of the practical devices or airframe modification necessary to achieve the optimized jet/airframe interactions would then be tackled in Phase II, in close collaboration with experimental collaborators.