It is well established that long-term exposure to aircraft and wind turbine noise is responsible for many physiological and psychological effects. The World Health Organization estimated in 2011 that up to 1.6 million healthy life years are lost annually in the western European countries because of exposure to high levels of noise. This is in direct conflict with the further increase in the number of flights in the EU and US and development and further expansion of on-shore wind farms. Therefore, it is critical to better understand the noise generation mechanism from different aero-components and develop tailored noise reduction methods in order to reduce the noise at source. Amongst all components, understanding of noise generation from aerofoils is of great importance, due to its contribution to the overall noise of aircraft or wind turbine. To a great extent, our current knowledge of aerofoil noise generation is limited to aerofoils at low angles of attack. However, most aerofoils are operated at higher angles of attack to maximise aerodynamic performance where they are prone to separation and stall, especially when they are operating under varied conditions. In these situations, the noise generation as well as the flow mechanisms are substantially different compared to lower angles of attack. Our knowledge and understanding of the mechanisms as well as our ability to predict these noise sources is limited. This collaborative project, which includes contributions from industrial partners, aims to develop new understanding of noise generation mechanisms in the presence of separation and stall. The goal is to perform experiments and numerical simulations in order to establish a high-fidelity database of flow and noise for over a wide range of operating conditions. The data will then be used to identify flow mechanisms that contribute to the different aerofoil noise sources at high angles of attack. The experimental and numerical data will also be utilised to develop new fully-validated models for noise prediction, which can then be used by our industrial partners (GE-Dowty and Embraer) to improve the design of next generation of lifting surfaces across different applications. Overall, this project will bring about a step change in our understanding of noise generation mechanisms across the entire regime and pave the way to more accurate noise predictions and development of potential noise mitigation strategies.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

Composites are now widely used in a wide range of applications. In the wind turbine and aerospace sectors recent innovations, including larger and more sophisticated structures, have driven the need for better understanding of failure of composite structures. Use of lower-cost process routes requires a need for better understanding of the inevitable defects in such composite structures. Failure of well-controlled flat composite panels is now generally well understood. However real manufactured components contain a range of stress concentrators, some associated with relatively controlled features such as joints, ply drops, sandwich panel closures and holes, some more uncertain associated with defects including fibre waviness, resin-rich areas and gaps at sandwich core breaks. The aim of the project is to understand and model how such defects affect the strength of the structure.The project has three main strands: (i) characterising realistic defects in industrial components and in controlled laboratory specimens, (ii) identifying mechanisms of compressive failure under fatigue loading and developing predictive models for failure at waviness defects, validated with experiments, (iii) modelling of defect formation during processing. Case studies suggested by industrial partners Dowty and Vestas of a propeller and a wind turbine blade will be used. The models will be incorporated into software tools, in collaboration with Simulayt Ltd, for use in design.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.