Noise generated by airfoil profiles placed in a uniform laminar flow

Abstract

The present paper is devoted to the experimental study of the noise generated by an airfoil profile placed in a uniform laminar flow. The far-field acoustic spectrum is shown to be composed of a broadband contribution around frequency fs and a discrete contribution at equidistant frequencies fn, which follow power laws of the forms fs ∼ U1.5 and fn ∼ U0.85. Both contributions can be accounted for by a simple model derived from the original suggestions of Tam (1974) and Fink (1975). It is essentially assumed that the diffraction of the Tollmien-Schlichting instabilities by the trailing edge generates acoustic waves which propagate in the far field and also trigger an aeroacoustic feedback loop, whose length is equal to the distance between the trailing edge and the maximum velocity point of the airfoil.