A detailed experimental study on the aerodynamic performance and noise emission of airfoils and fan blades with permeable leading edges under disturbed inflow conditions was performed. The airfoils and fan blades with permeable leading edges were made of an aluminum alloy using a powder bed fusion-based additive manufacturing process. In a first step, a wind-tunnel study was carried out. This consisted of detailed aerodynamic and aeroacoustic measurements on 16 airfoils with different permeable leading-edge designs that were performed for various flow speeds and geometric angles of attack. Based on the results from that study, unskewed fan blades with four different permeable leading-edge designs were manufactured in a second step. With the aim of reducing turbulence interaction noise of axial fans, the fans were examined with regard to their aerodynamic and acoustic properties under grid-generated turbulent inflow conditions. In a third step, a possible transfer of the observed noise emission from airfoils with permeable leading edge to that of fan blades was investigated. It was found that a notable broadband noise reduction can be transferred from airfoil applications to the sound spectra of axial fans. At the same time, the porous modifications can reduce the aerodynamic performance, and hence the fan efficiency.
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