Toroidal propellers, a new type of drone propellers capable of significantly reducing noise, offer new possibilities for future low-altitude flying platforms. In this study, a numerical model was established to analyze the aerodynamic noise of the toroidal propeller under normal atmospheric conditions. The aerodynamic calculations for the toroidal and benchmark propellers were performed to obtain noise source information using a transient large eddy simulation. The hybrid computational aeroacoustic method was employed to calculate the noise spectrum at different speeds and locations. Moreover, an experimental system for propellers was designed and built within an anechoic chamber to investigate the aerodynamic performance and noise characteristics at various speeds. The noise reduction effect of the toroidal propeller compared to the benchmark propeller was analyzed, taking into account the sound pressure level, lift coefficient, and figure of merit. At the same thrust level, the lift coefficient of the toroidal propeller increased by 187% relative to the benchmark propeller. The radial and axial sound pressure levels decreased by 5.2 dB(A) and 19.6 dB(A), respectively. The toroidal propeller significantly reduced noise while improving aerodynamic performance. This study provides a theoretical basis, experimental methods, and data support for the aerodynamic and noise calculations of toroidal propellers. It has significant engineering implications for the development of low-noise propellers for drones.

A hydraulic pipe is a basic component of the aero hydraulic system, while high pressure and high speed lead to the enhancement of multiple field coupling effects, such as the structure, fluid, heat, and sound of the aero hydraulic pipe. A larger elastic deformation of the pipe and the more common unsteady flow of fluid can aggravate the vibration and noise of the hydraulic pipe system. Based on the 14-equation model of fluid-structure-interaction (FSI) vibration of aero hydraulic pipe, a model suitable for a wide Reynolds number range is proposed by comparing and analyzing various kinds of friction coupling models. This model is used for the FSI dynamic behavior analysis of aero hydraulic pipes, which improves the accuracy of FSI frequency-domain solutions under high Reynolds number conditions. Second, based on the 14-equation model of FSI vibration of aero hydraulic pipe and the transfer matrix method, the mathematical model of airframe deformation load of an aero hydraulic pipe is established, and the evolution law of the FSI dynamic behavior of the aero hydraulic pipe under different airframe deformation loads is analyzed. All the above analysis results were verified by the experimental analysis. The error of the analysis results of the FSI vibration frequency is smaller than 5% compared with the experimental results. The results show that the proposed method is feasible and effective for predicting the hydrodynamic behavior of the aero hydraulic pipes under load conditions.

This paper aims at studying the axial vibration response characteristics of Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) vibration of aircraft hydraulic pipe when considering the friction coupling. Based on the Brunone empirical model and the Zielke weighting function, an expression of fluid shear stress of the hydraulic pipeline is presented for a wide range of Reynolds number, and the friction model of the FSI 14-equation for high-speed and high-pressure hydraulic pipeline is modified. On this basis, a left-wing hydraulic pipeline of the C919 airplane is taken as the verification object and modeled, then the FSI vibration 14-equation is solved using frequency-domain transfer matrix method in MATLAB to analyze the modal and the axial vibration characteristics of the pipeline. Ultimately, a test experiment is given and discussed by being compared with the numerical simulation results, which confirmed the correctness of the friction model and demonstrated that the analytic accuracy of axial velocity response of FSI vibration could be improved by considering the friction coupling.

Hydraulic torque converter is a kind of high speed rotating machine using viscosity hydraulic oil as working medium, and its internal flow field is very complex. Thereby cavitation can occur easily in the working process, resulting in severe degradation of torque converter performance, noise, vibration and even failure. In order to reveal the effect of rotating speeds on the cavitation characteristics, a full flow passage geometry and a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model with cavitation were developed to analyze the flow behavior in the torque converter. The results show that cavitation occurs when the speed difference between pump and turbine exceeds 1400 rpm for the basic model torque converter, which could be used as a useful indicator for the occurrence and degree of severity of flow cavitation. The increase of pump rotating speed or the decrease of speed ratio will intensify cavitation, which reduces the hydraulic transmission capacity and efficiency by over 20%, and seriously alters the shape, size, vapor volume fraction and region of cavitation bubbles. In extreme cases, more than 80% of the area on the suction side of the stator blade could be covered by cavitation bubbles. Moreover, the increase of pump rotating speed also changes the critical cavitation number and extends the cavitation range towards high speed ratio conditions not previously affected. These findings can provide guidance on how to choose the operating conditions of the hydraulic torque converter and how to improve its hydrodynamic performance and stability.

Hydraulic torque converters are prone to cavitation due to their high impeller rotational speeds and their complex three-dimensional flow characteristics. Since the blades are the core components of torque converters, the shapes of the blades are important to the hydraulic performance and cavitation characteristics. Different cavitation computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models for a torque converter were developed to simulate the internal cavitation flow for different pump and turbine blade exit angles, and the influence of the blade angles on the cavitation characteristics and cavitation flow field in the torque converter was investigated. Experimental prototypes were produced and tested for verification. The results indicate that the pump and turbine blade exit angles had significant effects on the cavitation number of the torque converter. Increasing the pump and turbine blade exit angles promotes the generation and intensification of cavitation, resulting in severe changes in the shapes and locations of the cavitation bubbles due to changes in the fluid impact angles. Additionally, cavitation is quickly suppressed and the performance is improved when the blade exit angles are reduced within an appropriate range, in particular, that of the turbine blade. These research results can provide guidance for the design of a high-performance hydraulic torque converter cascade system and the suppression of cavitation for practical engineering applications.