High Fidelity Simulation of Noise for Wake Interaction With a Propeller
Jie Hua, Samuel Afari, Vladimir V. Golubev, Reda R. Mankbadi
Abstract
This study focuses on understanding the physics of noise generated by the wake interaction with propeller. The wake is taken here as that generated by a circular cylinder. The cylinder-propeller geometry is considered here to investigate the wake effect under 20 m/s freestream conditions. A DES and Ffowcs-Williams–Hawking equation are used to capture the tonal and broadband noise. The results indicate that the cylinder wake leads to unsteady loading, which subsequently reduces thrust and torque. The wake also intensifies the hub vortex and interacts with the tip and trailing-edge vortices, leading to enhanced vorticity and flow separation near impacted regions. Acoustic analysis shows that nonuniform inflow and blade-vortex interactions contribute to increased tonal noise, while interactions between the cylinder and propeller wakes generate significant broadband noise (BBN), especially at higher frequencies.