Trailing-edge serrations are add ons retrofitted to wind-turbine blades to mitigate turbulent boundary-layer trailing-edge noise. This manuscript studies the physical mechanisms behind the noise reduction by investigating the far-field noise and the hydrodynamic flow field. A conventional sawtooth and a combed-sawtooth trailing-edge serration are studied. Combed-sawtooth serrations are obtained by filling the empty space between the teeth with combs (i.e. solid filaments). Both serration geometries are retrofitted to a NACA 0018 aerofoil at zero degree angle of attack. Computations are carried out by solving the explicit, transient, compressible lattice Boltzmann equation, while the acoustic far field is obtained by means of the Ffowcs Williams and Hawkings analogy. The numerical results are validated against experiments. It is confirmed that the combed-sawtooth serrations reduce noise more than the conventional sawtooth ones for the low-and mid-frequency range. It is found that the presence of combs affects the intensity of the scattered noise but not the frequency range of noise reduction. For both configurations, the intensity of the surface pressure fluctuations decreases from the root to the tip, and noise sources are mainly located at the serrations root for the low-and mid-frequency range. The presence of the filaments generates a more uniform distribution of the noise sources along the edges with respect to the conventional serration. The installation of combs mitigates the interaction between the two sides of the aerofoil at the trailing edge and the generation of a turbulent wake in the empty space between teeth. As a result, the inward (i.e. from the serration edge to the centreline) and outward (i.e. from the serration centreline to the edge) flow motions, due to the presence of the teeth, are mitigated. It is found that the installation of serrations affects the surface pressure fluctuations integral parameters. Both the spanwise correlation length and convective velocity of the surface pressure fluctuations increase with respect to the baseline straight configuration. When both quantities are similar to the one obtained for the straight trailing edge, the effect of the slanted edge is negligible, thus corresponding to no noise reduction. It is concluded that the changes in sound radiation are mainly caused by destructive interference of the radiated sound waves for which a larger spanwise correlation length is beneficial. Finally, the difference between measurements and the literature is caused by an incorrect modelling of the spanwise correlation † Email address for correspondence: F.Avallone@tudelft.nl Noise reduction mechanisms of sawtooth and combed-sawtooth trailing edges 561 length, which shows a different decay rate with respect to the one obtained for a straight trailing edge.
Computational results for an 18%-scale, semi-span Gulfstream aircraft model are presented. Exa Corporation's lattice Boltzmann PowerFLOW® solver was used to perform time-dependent simulations of the flow field associated with this high-fidelity aircraft model. The simulations were obtained for free-air at a Mach number of 0.2 with the flap deflected at 39º (landing configuration). We focused on accurately predicting the prominent noise sources at the flap tips and main landing gear for the two baseline configurations, namely, landing flap setting without and with gear deployed. Capitalizing on the inherently transient nature of the lattice Boltzmann formulation, the complex time-dependent flow features associated with the flap were resolved very accurately and efficiently. To properly simulate the noise sources over a broad frequency range, the tailored grid was very dense near the flap inboard and outboard tips. Extensive comparison of the computed time-averaged and unsteady surface pressures with wind tunnel measurements showed excellent agreement for the global aerodynamic characteristics and the local flow field at the flap inboard and outboard tips and the main landing gear. In particular, the computed fluctuating surface pressure field for the flap agreed well with the measurements in both amplitude and frequency content, indicating that the prominent airframe noise sources at the tips were captured successfully. Gear-flap interaction effects were remarkably well predicted and were shown to affect only the inboard flap tip, altering the steady and unsteady pressure fields in that region. The simulated farfield noise spectra for both baseline configurations, obtained using a Ffowcs-Williams and Hawkings acoustic analogy approach, were shown to be in close agreement with measured values.
NomenclatureAOA = angle-of-attack C L = lift coefficient Cp' rms = unsteady RMS pressure coefficient Cp = pressure coefficient c = local chord DNS = Direct Numerical Simulation DES = Detached Eddy Simulation MDDES = Modified Delayed Detached Eddy Simulation GAC = Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation Hz = Hertz, cycles per second LES = Large Eddy Simulation M = Mach number PSD = power spectral density in [psi 2 /Hz] or [dB/Hz] psi = pounds per square inch Re = Reynolds number RMS = root mean square * Aerospace Engineer, Computational AeroSciences Branch, Associate Fellow AIAA AIAA 2014-2481 AIAA Aviation 2 RNG = Re-Normalization Group s = second URANS = unsteady Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes VR = variable resolution X, Y, Z = right handed coordinate system
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.