Aerodynamic noise is a huge priority for the aircraft industry. When this noise is audible at ground level, according to a briefing document for the House of Commons, “aviation noise is a source of constant annoyance to those who live under airport flight paths.”
The complexity of aero-acoustic noise generation means that the numerical prediction of such broadband noise is challenging. The computational requirements to ensure a high level of accuracy necessitates high fidelity software which runs on supercomputers for days, or in some cases, for weeks.
As a result, there are lengthy timescales for accurate computational aero-acoustic (CAA) noise predictions, making it difficult to include mitigation in the design cycles for new aircraft.
Mark Allan, Zenotech Lead for Noise and Vibration, commented:
“Current technologies within the aerospace industry are able to provide quite accurate noise predictions. However, the computational expense can make including aerodynamic noise prediction prohibitive as part of a design process.”
To work towards a better solution, Zenotech has recently developed a rapid stochastic method for automotive broadband aero-acoustics, based on its high order ZCFD technology. This platform enables efficient, fully parallel computation, on the latest many-core hardware.
Nick Crew, Chief Operating Officer at Airbus Endeavr Wales, commented:
“Airbus Endeavr welcomes collaborations with leading tech SMEs, as in this exciting project with Zenotech, to bring fresh thinking to industry challenges and drive innovation.”
With this in mind, Airbus Endeavr commissioned a project to establish the applicability of this method for aerospace landing gear, together with experts from Airbus. The work was based on open and standard cases drawn from the BANC Workshop of 2016.
Faster, accurate results
The results are in, and we are delighted to report that they compare well against existing computational methods in terms of broadband noise prediction. They are also significantly quicker – between 1 and 2 orders of magnitude. Valuable insight can be gained in the early stages of design where the reduced turnaround time makes this a viable process to include in the R&D of future aircraft.
“Rather than replace current methods, this tool is designed to complement existing scale-resolving techniques,” explained Mark Allan. “This approach is equally useful in other engineering sectors, such as automotive.”
Zenotech will continue to develop and integrate the technology with Airbus Endeavr, to help design quieter and more efficient aircraft. This work will make a difference not only to the engineers involved in these projects but also to those who live under the flight paths of the world’s airports.
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