A new analytical model is developed for the prediction of noise from serrated trailing edges. The model generalizes Amiet's trailing-edge noise theory to sawtooth trailing edges, resulting in a complicated partial differential equation. The equation is then solved by means of a Fourier expansion technique combined with an iterative procedure. The solution is validated through comparison with the finite element method for a variety of serrations at different Mach numbers. The results obtained using the new model predict noise reduction of up to 10 dB at 90 • above the trailing edge, which is more realistic than predictions based on Howe's model and also more consistent with experimental observations. A thorough analytical and numerical analysis of the physical mechanism is carried out and suggests that the noise reduction due to serration originates primarily from interference effects near the trailing edge. A closer inspection of the proposed mathematical model has led to the development of two criteria for the effectiveness of the trailing-edge serrations, consistent but more general than those proposed by Howe. While experimental investigations often focus on noise reduction at 90 • above the trailing edge, the new analytical model shows that the destructive interference scattering effects due to the serrations cause significant noise reduction at large polar angles, near the leading edge. It has also been observed that serrations can significantly change the directivity characteristics of the aerofoil at high frequencies and even lead to noise increase at high Mach numbers.

An analytical model is developed for the prediction of noise radiated by an aerofoil with leading edge serration in a subsonic turbulent stream. The model makes use of the Fourier Expansion and Schwarzschild techniques in order to solve a set of coupled differential equations iteratively and express the far-field sound power spectral density in terms of the statistics of incoming turbulent upwash velocity. The model has shown that the primary noise reduction mechanism is due to the destructive interference of the scattered pressure induced by the leading edge serrations. It has also shown that in order to achieve significant sound reduction, the serration must satisfy two geometrical criteria related to the serration sharpness and hydrodynamic properties of the turbulence. A parametric study has been carried out and it is shown that serrations can reduce the overall sound pressure level at most radiation angles, particularly at small aft angles. The sound directivity results have also shown that the use of leading edge serration does not particularity change the dipolar pattern of the far-field noise at low frequencies, but it changes the cardioid directivity pattern associated with radiation from straight-edge scattering at high frequencies to a tilted dipolar pattern.

We investigate source mechanisms for subsonic jet noise using experimentally obtained datasets of high-Reynolds-number Mach 0.4 and 0.6 turbulent jets. The focus is on the axisymmetric mode which dominates downstream sound radiation for low polar angles and the frequency range at which peak noise occurs. A linearized Euler equation (LEE) solver with an inflow boundary condition is used to generate single-frequency hydrodynamic instability waves, and the resulting near-field fluctuations and far-field acoustics are compared with those from experiments and linear parabolized stability equation (LPSE) computations. It is found that the near-field velocity fluctuations closely agree with experiments and LPSE computations up to the end of the potential core, downstream of which deviations occur, but the LEE results match experiments better than the LPSE results. Both the near-field wavepackets and the sound field are observed directly from LEE computations, but the far-field sound pressure levels (SPLs) obtained are more than an order of magnitude lower than experimental values despite close statistical agreement of the near hydrodynamic field up to the potential core region. We explore the possibility that this discrepancy is due to the mismatch between the decay of two-point coherence with increasing distance in experimental flow fluctuations and the perfect coherence in linear models. To match the near-field coherence, experimentally obtained coherence profiles are imposed on the two-point cross-spectral density (CSD) at cylindrical and conical surfaces that enclose near-field structures generated with LEEs. The surface pressure is propagated to the far field using boundary value formulations based on the linear wave equation. Coherence matching yields far-field SPLs which show improved agreement with experimental results, indicating that coherence decay is the main missing component in linear models. The CSD on the enclosing surfaces reveals that the application of a decaying coherence profile spreads the hydrodynamic component of the linear wavepacket source on to acoustic wavenumbers, resulting in a more efficient acoustic source.

This paper presents a new formulation for trailing edge noise radiation from rotating blades based on an analytical solution of the convective wave equation. It accounts for distributed loading and the effect of mean flow and spanwise wavenumber. A commonly used theory due to Schlinker and Amiet predicts trailing edge noise radiation from rotating blades. However, different versions of the theory exist; it is not known which version is the correct one, and what the range of validity of the theory is. This paper addresses both questions by deriving Schlinker and Amiet's theory in a simple way and by comparing it with the new formulation, using model blade elements representative of a wind turbine, a cooling fan and an aircraft propeller. The correct form of Schlinker and Amiet's theory is identified. It is valid at high enough frequency, i.e. for a Helmholtz number relative to chord greater than one and a rotational frequency much smaller than the angular frequency of the noise sources.

This paper is concerned with the development of a theoretical model for the prediction of the sound radiated by serrated trailing-edges. The proposed model is based on Fourier expansion and Amiet's formulation. By using an iterative PDE-solving procedure, the scattered pressure field on the surface of an airfoil with sawtooth trailing-edge serrations is obtained. The far-field sound is then evaluated using the surface pressure integral based on the theories of Kirchhoff and Curle. The power spectral density (PSD) of the farfield sound is then related to the wavenumber spectral density of the hypothetical surface pressure under the turbulent boundary layer that would exist when the trailing-edge is absent. Numerical evaluation of the new model has shown better agreement than that obtained using Howe's model. Based on the new model, the sound reduction achieved by a trailing-edge with sharp sawtooth serrations is around 5-10 dB for a wide frequency range. This result better agrees with experiments, in which the average sound reduction is reported to be 5-7 dB. The results obtained using the new analytical model also agree well with FEM computations, suggesting that the model developed in this paper can capture the essential physics and give correct predictions for the sound generated by serrated trailingedges. In the end, the physical mechanism of noise reduction is found to be the destructive interference effect of the scattered pressure field.