Experimental and numerical investigations on rotor noise in axial descending flight

Abstract

While various aerodynamic noise generation mechanisms and characteristics have been extensively studied for drone research, the noise features during the descending flight state have not been well addressed. In this work, we investigate the aerodynamics and aeroacoustics of a two-bladed drone rotor operating in descent using both experimental and numerical approaches. First, we measure the rotor thrust and torque in an anechoic wind tunnel at various rotational speeds and descent rates. The results reveal a significant loss of mean thrust and strong thrust fluctuations with the increase of descent rates due to the formation of highly unsteady vortex rings. The measured acoustic spectra show multiple humps occurring at the blade passing frequency and its harmonics. Next, we perform numerical simulations based on the delayed detached eddy simulations to gain more understanding of the noise generation mechanisms. The computed integrated aerodynamic forces and acoustic spectra agree well with the experimental results. We present nearfield flow structures that demonstrate the gradual formation process of the vortex ring and the complex turbulent wake structures. Notably, the computed aeroacoustic characteristics exhibit a similar tendency with respect to the descent rate to the experimental results. Moreover, the simulation results suggest that the additional noise has a radiation directivity in the axial direction perpendicular to the rotation plane. Finally, we conduct a noise source analysis on the blade surface based on the simulation results, revealing that the strong leading-edge sources are likely related to the blade-wake interaction process during descending flight.