Aeroacoustic Analysis

The reduction of aerodynamic/hydrodynamic noise caused by violent turbulence is of strategic importance to many military systems. These include modern fighter aircraft, unmanned weapons with sensitive electronics, and underwater vehicles. For all these systems, aerodynamic or hydrodynamic noise can produce unacceptable levels of operational loads or acoustic vibrations, or be detrimental to their stealth. The reduction of aerodynamic noise is also of major importance to many civilian transport systems including aircraft and cars where it offers commercial advantage. For these reasons, there is a pressing need today for a practical and accurate multidisciplinary simulation tool for the prediction of airframe noise and aeroacoustic loads. To this effect, this Phase I research effort focuses on the development within the AERO Suite of Codes deployed at the Edwards Air Force Base of a novel reduced-order computational aeroacoustic procedure for the prediction of aeroacoustic loads and vibrations in the subsonic, transonic, and supersonic regimes, and on the demonstration of its feasibility and order of accuracy for a problem with a simplified geometry. The maturing of this computational aeroacoustic technology and its application to a full aircraft configuration with open bay doors will be performed during Phase II of the proposed effort. BENEFITS: The anticipated long-term benefits of this effort will include a state-of-the-art, comprehensive, and most importantly practical computational technology for the highly accurate aeroacoustic analysis of full aircraft configurations involving open bay doors and external stores in the subsonic, transonic, and supersonic regimes. This computational technology will be seamlessly integrated in the AERO Suite of Codes deployed at the Edwards Air Force Base. It will have a strong potential for commercialization in the aircraft and automobile industries (among others) where noise reduction offers a commercial advantage, particularly in the luxury segments of the markets, and contributes to addressing environmental concerns and noise certification regulations.