Low-Frequency Intensity Modulation of High-Frequency Rotor Noise

Rotor noise comprises harmonic features, related to the blade passing frequency, as well as broadband noise. Even though acoustic spectra yield frequency-distributions of acoustic energy within pressure time series, they do not reveal phase-relations between different frequency components. The latter are of critical importance for the development of prediction- and auralization-algorithms, because these phase-relations can result in low- frequency intensity modulation of higher-frequency rotor noise. Baars et al. (AIAA Paper 2021-0713) outlined a methodology to quantify inter-frequency modulation, which in the current work is applied to a comprehensive acoustic dataset of a laboratory-scale rotor at advance ratios ranging from J = 0 to 0.61. PIV measurements of the blade-induced flow disturbances complement the acoustic data to elucidate how the vortical flow structures of one blade impact the inflow of the consecutive blade. The findings strengthen earlier observations for the case of a hovering rotor (J = 0), in which the modulation of the high-frequency noise is strongest at angles of θ ≈ −20° (below the rotor plane). For the non-zero advance ratios, the modulation becomes dominant in the sector −45° ≲. θ ≲ 0°, and is maximum in strength for the highest advance ratio tested (J = 0.61). It is hypothesized that the intensity-modulation of high-frequency noise relates to the appearance of different separated-flow features over the suction side of the low Reynolds-number rotor-blades. As recently detailed in the articles by Grande et al. (AIAA J. 60:2 & AIAA J. 60:9, 2022), with increasing J, the separation goes from a fully laminar separation, to one that reattaches and forms a laminar separation bubble, to one that fully separates in a turbulent state. With an increase of modulation strength with J we conjecture that trailing-edge/shedding noise, associated with the broadband features of the separated flow, causes the modulation due to a far-field observer experiencing a periodic sweep through the noise directivity patterns. Even though the high-frequency noise is more intense in the hover scenario, the degree of modulation is less since the high-frequency noise field is dominated by turbulence- ingestion noise that has a more omnidirectional nature.