This paper presents the experimental results of the effect of Higher Harmonic Control (HHC) and Active Flap on the Blade/Vortex Interaction (BVI) noise. Wind tunnel tests were performed with a 1-bladed rotor system to evaluate the simplified BVI phenomenon avoiding the complicated aerodynamic interference which is characteristically and inevitably caused by a multi-bladed rotor. Another merit to use this 1-bladed rotor system is that the several objective active techniques can be evaluated under the same condition installed in the same rotor system. The effects of the active techniques on the BVI noise reduction were evaluated comprehensively by the sound pressure, the blade/vortex miss distance obtained by Laser light Sheet (LLS), the blade surface pressure distribution and the tip vortex structure by Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The correlation among these quantities to describe the effect of the active techniques on the BVI conditions is well obtained. The experiments show that the blade/vortex miss distance is more dominant for BVI noise than the other two BVI governing factors, such as blade lift and vortex strength at the moment of BVI.

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A low-noise helicopter blade, AT1, was designed with the concept of reducing noise without the drop of rotor performance. In the concept, High-Speed Impulsive (HSI) noise is reduced by applying a thin airfoil in the tip region and a dog-tooth like extension in the leading-edge of the tip region. Blade-Vortex Interaction (BVI) noise is reduced by applying the extension and a strong taper near the tip end. The stall angle of the blade is increased by the effect of the vortex generated from the leading-edge extension. As a result, the drop of rotor performance caused by the thin airfoil and the reduction of rotor rotational speed is recovered. The low-noise characteristics and the performance of AT1 were evaluated by a model rotor test conducted at Deutsch Niederländischer Windkanal (DNW). It is shown that AT1 reduces HSI noise and BVI noise and has good performance in forward flight conditions. However, the improvement of performance in high-lift conditions still remains as a future problem.