NASA Glenn Research Center: Integrated fluid dynamics - acoustics simulation approach of aircraft fan noise
An innovative computational approach, integrating mesh generation, CFD simultaneous analysis of noise source and propagation, with acoustic radiation, is presented and applied to the simulation of the Advanced Noise Control Fan (ANCF) developed by NASA Glenn Research Center. The tonal noise source and the sound propagation in the nacelle duct and in the nacelle near field are simultaneously predicted, starting from the engine geometry and parameters,with a single CFD analysis based on an efficient Nonlinear Harmonic (NLH) method. The sound radiation to the far field is computed with the Green’s function approach implemented in a BEM frequency domain solver of the convective Helmholtz equation.
The present method provides to a gain of close to two orders of magnitude compared to standard approaches, based on full unsteady flow simulations, followed by a near-fieldFEM based approach and a BEM method for the far-field noise propagation.
The final comparison between the numerical results and the measurements highlights the capability of the methodology to efficiently predict the unsteady flow field and the radiated sound field.
Click here to read more.
Piergiorgio FERRANTE earned a master’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering at the Polytechnic of Milan. He worked for more than a decade in design, simulation and testing of low noise technologies for turbofan aero-engine nacelles, within an industrial company active in aeronautics. He is currently Application Engineer in the Acoustic Group at NUMECA International (Brussels)