Aeroacoustic Wind Tunnel, University of Bristol

Описание: The National Aeroacoustic Wind Tunnel facility at the University of Bristol can cover a range of velocities from 5 meters per second all the way to 120 meters per second and is used for a range of applications including testing propellers, aerofoils, blades, landing gear systems and jet noise applications, as well as fundamental aerodynamic and aeroacoustic and turbulence studies.

A large number of industrial partners use the facility for their noise measurements including the development of an eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) aircraft for the advanced air mobility market. That aircraft has an unusual configuration resulting in some unusual noise characteristics.

The aeroacoustic tunnel at the University of Bristol is a very well designed tunnel resulting in particularly low background noise levels at low speeds. The tunnel is supported by a very competent team of academics who have great experience in this field particularly that of propeller noise and noise over flaps and wing surfaces.

One of the major challenges facing aviation today is environmental noise. When a propeller is placed very close to the fuselage and it's ingesting the incoming boundary layer flow, the propeller impacts that boundary layer and can generate a significant amount of noise. To measure that noise we need facilities just like this where with a large array of far-field microphone arcs. The equipment and instrumentation at this facility, enables users to visualize the data in new and novel ways enabling a greater understanding of aviation noise.

The facility is modular meaning that the nozzle can be changed allowing different items of different sizes to be tested in the wind tunnel