An experimental and analytical study of the tonal trailing-edge noise of a symmetric NACA-0012 aerofoil and of a cambered SD7003 aerofoil has been achieved. It provides a complete experimental database for both aerofoils and improves the understanding of the underlying mechanisms. The analysis stresses the high sensitivity of the tonal noise phenomenon to the flow velocity and the angle of attack. Several regimes of the noise emission are observed depending on the aforementioned parameters. The contributions of the pressure and the suction sides are found to vary with the flow parameters too. A special attention has been paid to the role of the separation bubble in the tonal noise generation. Hot-wire measurements and flow visualization prove that the separation bubble is a necessary condition for the tonal noise production. Moreover, the bubble must be located close enough to the trailing edge. Several tests with small-scale upstream turbulence confirm the existence of the feedback loop. Analytical predictions with a classical trailing-edge noise model show a good agreement with the experimental data; they confirm the cause-to-effect relationship between the wall-pressure fluctuations and the radiated sound. Finally, previously reported works on fans and propellers are shortly re-addressed to show that the tonal noise associated with laminar-boundary-layer instabilities can take place in rotating blade technology.

A high-fidelity computational analysis carefully validated against concurrently obtained experimental results is employed to examine self-noise radiation of airfoils at transitional flow regimes, with a focus on elucidating the connection between the unsteady behavior of the laminar separation bubble (LSB) and the acoustic feedback-loop (AFL) resonant interactions observed in the airfoil boundary layers. The employed parametric study examines AFL sensitivity to the changes in the upstream flow conditions and the airfoil loading. Implicit Large-Eddy Simulations are performed for a NACA-0012 airfoil in selected transitional-flow regimes for which experimental measurements recorded characteristic multiple-tone acoustic spectra with a dual ladder-type frequency structure. The switch between the tone-producing and no-tone-producing regimes is traced to the LSB size and position as a function of the flow Reynolds number and the airfoil angle of attack, and further substantiated by the linear stability analysis. The results indicate a strong multi-tonal airfoil noise radiation associated with the AFL and attributed to the switch from the slowly-growing Tollmien–Schlichting to the fast-growing Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities occurring in thin LSB regions when those are localized near the trailing-edge (TE) on either side of the airfoil. Such a process eventually results in the nonlinearly saturated flapping vortical modes (“rollers”) that scatter into acoustic waves at the TE.

Several liner-type treatments (three different rectangular grooves covered by three different low porosity wire-mesh screens) on the trailing edge of a flat plate have been investigated in the anechoic wind-tunnel of Université de Sherbrooke. Far-field acoustic directivity measurements have been achieved at Reynolds numbers based on the plate length from $7.3\times {10}^5$ to $1.7\times {10}^6$ , yielding radiation maps of all possible liner combinations that are then compared to the reference solid flat plate and to the plate with inserts alone. Noise from the flat plate corresponds to dipolar trailing-edge scattering with an extra shallow hump attributed to the unsteady flow recirculation behind the thick plate. When grooves are added, the latter contribution is amplified and additional cavity noise is observed with several tones and humps. The tones are shown to be resonance between high order modified Rossiter modes and cavity depthwise modes. The hump is a combination of drag dipoles and cavity monopoles from the groove row. The addition of screens always reduces the amplification of the dipolar edge scattering but exhibits very different non-linear responses for the cavity noise. The combination screen with the smallest cells and the insert with the shallowest cavities (corresponding to the same type of treatment applied previously on the Controlled-Diffusion airfoil) yields the lowest levels overall, while the screen with intermediate cell size almost always triggers noise amplification and the screen with a coarse mesh has an intermediate behavior. At high frequencies, the previously reported roughness noise is also observed.

An automotive cooling module working at three different operating conditions is investigated using a microphone array method. Experiments on an open rotor and on a full module configurations were conducted in the ALCOVES anechoic chamber of the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Belgium. The acoustic data are post-processed using the ROtating Source Identifier algorithm. As first step, the method was applied for the fan-alone configuration at the nominal operating point. The sound maps of one-third octave band are discussed with respect to the minimum resolving frequency emerging by the Rayleigh criterion. Integrated spectra of the whole beamforming maps are used to validate the method whereas acoustic characteristics of the fan are identified by evaluating integrated spectra of each blade separately. Subsequently, the ROSI method was applied to both configurations, demonstrating the acoustic transparency of the automotive heat exchanger. Depending on the adjusted mass flow rate, sound sources are located on the leading or trailing edges of the fan blades. To complement the analysis, sound directivity measurements have been carried out in the anechoic wind tunnel at the University of Sherbrooke, Canada, on an another sample of the same engine cooling module.

An investigation of a flat plate with the liner-type (cavities covered by mesh) trailing-edge treatment is addressed in the present study to understand the influence of the geometrical parameters such as the cavity depth and the wire-mesh cell size on the noise generation mechanism. Previously, this noise control method showed high effectiveness during the test with a Controlled-Diffusion airfoil. The directivity measurements distinguish one configuration with shallow cavity and coarse wire-mesh which have the best noise performance. However, this configuration produces more noise at high frequencies than the configuration without mesh, due to the amplification of the cavity noise. The analysis of a Particle Image Velocimetry results along the treated area shows an increase of the boundary layer thickness and root-mean-square velocity fluctuations due to the liner-type treatment. The penetration of the flow into the treatment has been evidenced as well.