Numerical study of the rotor thickness noise reduction based on the concept of sound field cancellation

Numerical studies were performed to investigate the mechanism and potential of several active rotors for reducing low-frequency in-plane thickness noise generated by rotating blades. A numerical method coupling the blade element theory, prescribed wake model and Fowcs Williams-Hawkings (FW-H) equation was established for rotor noise prediction. It is indicated that the excitation force on the blade tip can generate anti-noise that to partly cancel the in-plane thickness noise with an appropriate actuation law. Results from the phase, frequency and amplitude sweeps show that the excitation force direction and actuation law are the crucial factors affecting the noise reduction, which determine the noise reduction area in the elevation and azimuth directions, respectively. The active trailing-flap rotor can generate the in-plane excitation force, but because of large lift-drag ratio the anti-noise is mainly from the vertical lift, which is caused by flap deflection similar to a variable camber airfoil. For the harmonic control rotor and active twist rotor, the excitation force is also attributed to the vertical blade lift. The vertical force can reduce the noise near the rotor plane, it will also cause the noise increase in most other areas. Finally, two new active rotors were proposed to generate the in-plane chordwise and spanwise excitation force. With the modified actuation law, the noise in most areas around the rotor was reduced, which improved the acoustic characteristics of rotor significantly.