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Abstract

Fuel consumption and noise reduction trigger the evolution of aircraft engines towards Ultra High Bypass Ratio (UHBR) architectures. Their short air inlet design and the reduction of their interstage length lead to an increased circumferential inhomogeneity of the flow close to the fan. This inhomogeneity, called distortion, may have an impact on the tonal noise radiated from the fan module. Usually, such a noise source is supposed to be dominated by the interaction of fan-blade wakes with Outlet Guide Vanes (OGVs). At transonic tip speeds, the noise generated by the shocks and the steady loading on the blades also appears to be significant. The increased distortion may be responsible for new acoustic sources while interacting with the fan blades and the present work aims at evaluating their contribution. The effects of distortion on the other noise mechanisms are also investigated. The work is based on full-annulus simulations of the Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) equations. A whole fan module including the inlet duct, the fan and the Inlet and Outlet Guide Vanes (IGVs/OGVs) is studied. The OGV row is typical of current engine architecture with an integrated pylon and two different air inlet ducts are compared in order to isolate the effects of inlet distortion. The first one is axisymmetric and does not produce any distortion while the other one is asymmetric and produces a level of distortion typical of the ones expected in UHBR engines. A description and a quantification of the distortion that is caused by both the potential effect of the OGVs and the inlet asymmetry are proposed. The effects of the distortion on aerodynamics are highlighted with significant modifications of the fan-blade wakes, the shocks and the unsteady loading on the blades and on the vanes. Both direct and hybrid acoustic predictions are provided and highlight the contribution of the fan-blade sources to the upstream noise. The downstream noise is still dominated by the OGV sources but it is shown to be significantly impacted by the inlet distortion via the modification of the impinging wakes.

Keywords : Turbofan engine, Aeroacoustics, Fan tonal noise, Distortion

Jury

M. ROGER                   Professor, Ecole Centrale de Lyon,            Referee

S. GRACE                    Associate Professor, Boston University,     Referee

C. POLACSEK             Engineer, ONERA Châtillon,                       Member

S. PONCET                  Professor, Université de Sherbrooke          Member

J.F. BOUSSUGE           Project Leader, CERFACS                         Member

C. SENSIAU                 Engineer, Safran Aircraft Engines,             Invited member

N. GOURDAIN              Professor, ISAE,                                         Advisor

S. MOREAU                 Professor, Université de Sherbrooke,          co Advisor