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The present work reports an investigation on the use of adaptive metamodels based on radial basis functions (RBFs) for aeroacoustic applications of highly innovative configurations. The relevance of the topic lies on the paramount importance of metamodelling techniques within the design optimisation process of disruptive aircraft layouts. Indeed, the air traffic growth, consequently the hard environmental constraints imposed by regulations, will make a technological breakthrough, an imperative need within few years. As a consequence, the engineering community is paying particular attention to the development of innovative techniques for the design of unconventional configurations. For this class of applications, the designer cannot successfully rely on historical data or low-fidelity models, and the expensive direct simulations remain the only valuable design strategy. In this regard, it can be demonstrated that the use of surrogate models, i.e., metamodels, significantly reduces the computing costs, especially in view of a robust approach to the optimised design. In order to further improve the efficiency of metamodel-based techniques, dynamic approaches based on hyperparameter optimisation and adaptive sampling procedures have been recently developed. The case study presented here pertains the exploiting of dynamic RBF-based metamodels for noise shielding applications. The analysis of the metamodel performances and its convergence properties shows how the final number of direct simulations is significantly reduced by the hyperparameter optimisation algorithm, still strongly depending on the choice of the RBF kernel function.

This work deals with the investigation and modelling of wall pressure fluctuations induced by a supersonic jet over a tangential flat plate. The analysis is performed at several nozzle pressure ratios around the nozzle design Mach number, including slightly over-expanded and under-expanded conditions, and for different radial positions of the rigid plate. Pitot measurements and flow visualizations through the background oriented schlieren technique provided a general overview of the aerodynamic interactions between the jet flow and the plate at the different regimes and configurations. Wall pressure fluctuations were measured using a couple of piezoelectric pressure transducers flush mounted over the plate surface. The spectral analysis has been carried out to clarify the effect of the plate position on the single and multivariate wall pressure statistics, including the screech tone amplitude. The experimental dataset is used to assess and validate a surrogate model based on artificial neural networks. Sound pressure levels and coherence functions are modelled by means of a single fully connected network, built on the basis of a recently implemented fully deterministic topology optimization algorithm. The metamodel uncertainty is also quantified using the spatial correlation function. It is shown that the flow behaviour as well as the screech and broadband noise signatures are significantly influenced by the presence of the plate, and the effects on spectral quantities are correctly reproduced by the proposed data-driven model that provides predictions in agreement with the available data.

The aeroacoustics of laminar wings and the noise abatement provided by flap-tip fences are studied experimentally on a scaled model installed in the closed test section of a subsonic wind tunnel. The activity has been developed under an international project funded by the European Union through the H2020 Framework Program. The model reproduces an innovative regional aircraft mounting aft-engines and adopting the Natural Laminar Flow concept. Both take-off and landing settings are tested for several combinations of wind tunnel speeds and angles of attack; these configurations being the most critical from the viewpoint of airframe noise generation. A baseline configuration without flap-tip fences is also tested for a comparative study. Noise sources are identified by measuring pressure fluctuations through a phased microphone array. Data are processed using both Conventional Beamforming and CLEAN-SC algorithms to retrieve the sound source maps and the integrated spectra over the areas of interest. Directivity effects are investigated as well by moving the microphone array in different axial positions corresponding to different aircraft polar directivity angles. The wind tunnel data are eventually extrapolated to full scale and projected to flight condition allowing the analysis of the results in terms of Effective Perceived Noise Level (EPNL). Tests provided an extensive characterization of the acoustic behavior of the analyzed model demonstrating the capability of measurements carried out in a non-anechoic environment, to provide reliable data. The longitudinal traversing of the microphones array allowed us to compute, even though qualitatively, the EPNL and thus demonstrated the feasibility of a procedure that can be a reference for the design of future aeroacoustic tests. The effectiveness of the flap-tip fences to successfully reduce the flap side-edge noise has been definitely verified both through the analysis of the acoustic maps retrieved from the beamforming investigation and by the estimation of the overall variation of the EPNL with respect to a baseline reference configuration without low-noise devices.

An extensive aeroacoustic and aerodynamic investigation of an innovative regional turboprop aircraft has been carried out experimentally and numerically under the framework of two research projects funded by the European Union through the CleanSky Research Programme. Experimental tests have been performed in the RUAG Large Subsonic Wind Tunnel in Switzerland and CFD results have been validated against the experimental data. The A/C high-lift performance, stability and control derivatives, aerodynamic noise sources, and low-noise solutions for high-lift devices, have been investigated under representative conditions in cruise, take-off, and landing configurations. The aerodynamic and aeroacoustic investigation has been carried out parametrically, in terms of several reference quantities, including the propellers’ thrust and rpm, the speed of the air-flow, the incidence angle of the aircraft and the position of the microphone array used for the acoustic investigation. The present paper gives an overview of relevant results obtained for selected aircraft configurations which have been tested in the wind tunnel and analyzed through CFD simulations. The focus lies on the overall aerodynamic characterization and on the noise sources identification carried out using standard beamforming techniques.

The use of surrogate models in recent times plays a key role in the design process and, overthe past few years, machine learning algorithms are adapting to the use of active metamodellingtechniques. In the present study, Artificial Neural Networks formulation is used as a data–driven nonlinear model aimed at describing the dynamics of an experimental test campaignrelated to the noise emitted by a single–stream jet in under–expanded conditions. The architectureof the neural network is selected employing a deterministic optimization algorithm,coupled with data informed tuning of the input parameters. The data set explored here wasacquired in the state–of–the–art aeroacoustic facility at the University of Bristol. Both the nearandfar–field acoustic measurements were carried out for a cold under–expanded jet for Machnumbers ranging from 1.1 to 1.4. The predictions by the metamodel are in good agreementwith the experimental data, and the results demonstrate the capability of metamodels as areliable tool to estimate jet noise in under-expanded flow conditions for a wide range of Machnumbers and near–field locations.

The present work deals with the multiobjective, multidisciplinary optimisation of takeoff and approach operations of a commercial aircraft aimed at the mitigation of the impact of aviation noise on the population. The innovative approach used here couples the minimisation of the aircraft noise level at the certification points with the improvement of the sound quality. The latter objective represents the main novelty of the present work and is addressed using a spectral–matching approach to make the aircraft noise as close as possible to a target sound. The rationale underlying the research is the development of a community–oriented approach to the assessment airport operations in view of the complete redefinition of the future airport scenarios. Indeed, the air traffic growth, the rapid expansion of urban areas around airports, and the expected advent of urban air mobility, are transforming the aviation noise into a serious hazard to the sustainable development of society. The sound–quality–based objective imposes a comprehensive multidisciplinary approach also in the procedural optimisation, due to the detail required to estimate the noise spectrum composition. Two merit factors are minimised, specifically the EPNL at the noise certification points and the Lp –norm of the difference between the noise produced by the configuration under analysis and a target sound. The target sounds are obtained by using sound engineering techniques aimed at the sound quality improvement, on the basis of the results of the psychometric tests campaigns performed within the projects SEFA and COSMA. The minimisation is achieved adopting a global evolution method, and the results are presented in terms of approximated Pareto frontiers for a single–aisle aircraft in both takeoff and landing conditions.

The paper deals with a community-oriented approach to the multiobjective optimisation of sustainable takeoff and landing procedures of commercial aircraft. The objective functions to be minimised are defined as the measure of area surrounding the airport where the Sound Exposure Level (SEL) is higher than 60 dBA, and the amount of fuel burned during the procedure. The first merit factor is a measure of the number of citizens affected by a potentially harmful noise level, whereas the second is proportional to the chemical emissions. The novelty of the present approach is the use of a criterion based on sound quality for the selection of the optimal procedure from the Pareto front set. The spectrum of the noise produced by each non-dominated solution is compared to a reference spectrum, the target sound. This is synthesised to meet the acceptance requirements that emerged by a campaign of psychometric tests. The rationale underlying the research is tightly linked to the expected transformation of civil aviation, with the advent of new air transport solutions in urban and suburban environments. The breakthrough nature of the emerging scenarios requires a drastic renewal of the approaches used in the management of operations, and the present work represents a contribution to this evolution. The optimisation is attained adopting a global, deterministic method, and numerical results are obtained for single- and twin-aisle aircraft.

This paper presents an investigation of the aerodynamic and aeroacoustic interaction of propellers for distributed electric propulsion applications. The rationale underlying the research is related to the key role that aeroacoustics plays in the establishment of the future commercial aviation scenario. The sustainable development of airborne transportation system is currently constrained by community noise, which limits the operations of existing airports and prevents the building of new ones. In addition, the substantial saturation of the existing noise abatement technologies inhibits the further development of the existing fleet, and imposes the adoption of disruptive configurations in terms of airframe layout and propulsion technology. Simulation-based data may help in clarifying many aspects related to the acoustic impact of such innovative concepts. Blended-wing-body equipped with distributed electric propulsion is one of the most promising, due to the beneficial effect of the substantial shielding induced by its geometry. Nevertheless, the novelty of the layout requires a thorough investigation of specific aspect for which no previous experience is available. Herein, the interaction between propellers is analysed for a fixed propeller geometry, as a function of their mutual distance and compared to the acoustic pattern of the isolated one. The aerodynamic results have been obtained using a boundary integral formulation for unsteady, incompressible, potential flows which accounts for the interaction between free wakes and propellers. For the aeroacoustic analyses, the Farassat 1A boundary integral formulation for the solution of the Ffowcs Williams and Hawkings equation has been used. These results provide an insight into the minimum distance between propellers to avoid aerodynamic/aeroacoustic interaction effects, which is an important starting point for the development of distributed propulsion systems.

The present work deals with the development of an innovative approach to the weight estimation in the conceptual design of a Hybrid-Electric-Powered (HEP) Blended Wing Body (BWB) commercial aircraft. In the last few decades, the improvement of the environmental impact of civil aviation has been the major concern of the aeronautical engineering community, in order to guarantee the sustainable development of the system in presence of a constantly growing market demand. The sustained effort in the improvement of the overall efficiency of conventional aircraft has produced a new generation of vehicles with an extremely low level of emissions and noise, capable of covering the community requirements in the short term. Unfortunately, the remarkable improvements achieved represent the asymptotic limit reachable through the incremental enhancement of existing concepts. Any further improvement to conform to the strict future environmental target will be possible only through the introduction of breakthrough concepts. The aeronautical engineering community is thus concentrating the research on unconventional airframes, innovative low-noise technologies, and alternative propulsion systems. The BWB is one of the most promising layouts in terms of noise emissions and chemical pollution. The further reduction of fuel consumption that can be achieved with gas/electric hybridisation of the power-plant is herein addressed in the context of multidisciplinary analyses. In particular, the payload and range limits are assessed in relation to the technological development of the electric components of the propulsion system. The present work explores the potentialities of an energy-based approach for the initial sizing of a HEP unconventional aircraft in the early conceptual phase of the design. A detailed parametric analysis has been carried out to emphasise how payload, range, and degree of hybridisation are strictly connected in terms of feasible mission requirements and related to the reasonable expectations of development of electric components suitable for aeronautical applications.

Modern turbofans with high bypass ratios, low blade passage frequencies and short nacelles require continuous development of acoustic linings to achieve the noise reductions expected by the international aviation authorities. Metamaterials and metafluids have been recently proposed as promising technologies for designing innovative acoustic treatments dedicated to reducing aeronautic turbofan noise emissions. In this work, a phase-gradient metasurface treatment is investigated as a way to tackle the noise radiation from an axially symmetric nacelle. This paper aims to study the potential benefits of the mentioned technology, and is not an attempt to design a complete new liner or nacelle. The metasurface is modelled through an equivalent metafluid, and a simulation-based optimisation is used in defining the design parameters. The tonal contribution of the blade passage frequency is considered, and the numerical results with the metafluid optimised on one azimuthal mode at a time show a significant effect in terms of acoustic levels and directivity over an arc of virtual receivers.

The current work deals with multi-objective optimisations including financial merit factors in the multi- disciplinary conceptual design of a commercial aircraft with a specific focus on noise social cost. The results of optimisations using financial and performance-oriented objective functions have been analysed and combined in a multi-objective optimisation problem using a three-dimensional objective vector. The main novelty of the present work is the analysis of social cost noise fees effectiveness integrated in financial models embracing a wider group of stakeholders’ interests. The foundations of this research lie on the air traffic increase envisaged in the next decades and the contextual growth of the urban areas nearby airport facilities. This scenario requires the aeronautical industry to handle the environment challenge taking into account all the social and economic effects. Indeed, the consolidated technology has approached a saturation point, therefore breakthrough concepts and configurations are mandatory. This matter is addressed as a highly multi-disciplinary problem within conceptual design framework. The financial model proposed is shown to highlight the need of appropriate noise fees as instruments to push all stakeholders towards a technology radical renewal and encourage the aeronautical industry towards a shared strategy in the development of an eco-friendly commercial aviation system.

The airframe noise of a 1:2 scaled aircraft model is investigated through a series of experiments in the hard walled closed test section of a large non-anechoic wind tunnel. A surface mounted phased microphone array is used to acquire the wall pressure fluctuations generated by the interaction of the wind tunnel flow and the propagating noise. Data from two measurement campaigns are analysed. The wind tunnel acoustic behaviour and the array performance are first assessed evaluating the results obtained from a reference sound source installed in the centre of the test section. The combination of different airflow speeds, array positions and sound sources are tested. The airframe noise is evaluated acquiring pressure fluctuations in different configurations. The main parameters varied during the tests are the flight configuration, the speed of the airflow, the incidence angle of the model and the position of the microphone array. Data are processed and then analysed in the frequency domain and using a conventional beamforming algorithm to retrieve the sound source maps over the regions of interest. Source maps are deconvolved with a CLEAN-SC routine and single source contributions determined through integration of auto-powers. The resulting spectra are finally scaled determining the exponents of the pertinent scaling laws.

The aeroacoustics of an innovative regional turboprop aircraft is experimentally investigated on a 6.5 scaled model. The measurement campaign was performed at the RUAG Large Subsonic Wind Tunnel in Emmen. The model was mounted on a ceiling strut in the 7-by-5 meters test section, not acoustically treated. The aeroacoustic noise generated by the aircraft model was evaluated analyzing the pressure fluctuations acquired through a phased array of 144 microphones installed on a flat-plate on the test section floor. Pressure fluctuations were acquired in different configurations the most important ones being: the baseline solution (no innovative device applied) with engine on and the model equipped with lined Flap. For the engine on configuration, take-off and approach settings were tested, whereas only the landing configurations was investigated for the baseline lined flap comparison. The main parameters varied during the tests were: the propeller thrust, the propeller revolutions per minute, the speed of the air-flow, the incidence angle of the aircraft and the position of the microphone array. Data were processed and then analyzed in the frequency domain and using a conventional beamforming algorithm to retrieve the sound source map over the areas of interest. Source maps were deconvolved with a CLEAN-SC routine and single source contributions determined through integration of auto-powers.

Metasurfaces that exploit the so-called generalized Snell's law are suitable for the manipulation of acoustic waves in the subwavelength regime, exhibiting extraordinary refracting and reflecting behaviours. This attracted the interest of the aeroacoustic community for their potential as a disruptive technology for noise abatement and acoustic field control. New acoustic treatments have, hence, been imagined for highly innovative aircraft configurations, to be placed also in unconventional positions over the airframe, fully exploiting their characteristics. However, the direct simulation of metamaterials and metasurfaces in the aeroacoustic context can be computationally very expensive, even when involved geometries are not particularly complex, limiting the possibility to include metamaterial effects into multidisciplinary design process for applications of aeronautical interest. In this paper a generalized Snell law-based lining installed on the upper side of an airfoil is explored as a way to enhance its shielding of the noise emitted by a point source. This shall be seen as a 2 dimensional schematization of the center body of a Blended Wing Body configuration with the propulsion system mounted on top of it. A model of metafluid is used to reduce the computational burden, allowing a simulation-based optimization process to be conducted, maximizing the shielding factor of the airfoil.