Prediction of Noise Generated by a Small Helicopter Rotor

Abstract

The fundamental principles of acoustics and of aeroacoustic noise generation are described, along with specific examples relevant for helicopter rotors. The acoustic analogy approach to computing the propagation of sound is presented, and details are given on the Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings (FW-H) equation. Using an incompressible, laminar Navier-Stokes solver in textsc{Fluent} the flow field around a circular cylinder and a NACA 0015 airfoil is computed. The solution of the flows are then used as the input for a simplified FW-H equation. The simulation results are validated by comparing both the flow parameters and the acoustic solution to numerical data from two different numerical studies. The validation leads to the conclusion that the method used is suitable for the both the flow and noise prediction. The pressure fluctuations are dominated by convected pressure fluctuations in the flow itself, not that radiated from the source. Due to this the FW-H method was not properly validated by the test cases, and no conclusions can be drawn as to its accuracy.