Aeroacoustic Prediction of Overwing Propulsion at Incidence

The premise of over-the-wing mounted rotors is that a favorable aerodynamic effect is achieved by interaction with the lifting wing, which also acts as noise shield. A physics-based low-order model is proposed that accounts for aerodynamic interactions in the prediction of the aeroacoustic footprint of the installed rotor. The nonuniform inflow of the rotor disk is modeled by an analytical description of the inviscid potential effects of the wing’s circulation, given as a function of the blade sectional coordinates. Furthermore, the ingestion of the separated boundary layer is considered at large angles of attack. The related steady inflow distortion serves as input to an aeroacoustic noise prediction chain that computes the unsteady loading on the blades and the resulting tonal noise emission by helicoidal surface theory. The model is validated by measurements from a single over-the-wing mounted rotor for a wide range of angle of attack, advance ratios, and rotor positions over the wing’s chord. The predictions and experimental data show an equivalent increase in the tonal components relative to the isolated rotor, and a minimization of the tonal noise for a midchord rotor position, for emission directions around the rotor disk plane over the wing’s suction side.