Research project: Aerodynamic and Aeroacoustic characterisation of tip leakage flows
Despite more than fifty years of research into fan noise, the mechanism and understanding of the noise generated at the blade tip is still poorly understood. This is mainly because there are likely to be a number of different source mechanisms and also because the unsteady flow, and hence the sources of noise, are confined to the very small regions around the blade tip. This project outlines an integrated, predominantly experimental work aimed at understanding, quantifying and characterising more fully the mechanisms of the noise generated at the tip of a ducted fan.