Numerical study of self-noise produced by an airfoil with trailing-edge serrations

The main objective of the present work is to investigate the mechanism of trailing-edge airfoil noise. The vorticity associated with the unsteady turbulent structures is scattered by the trailing edge and acoustic waves are generated. It has been recognized that trailing-edge noise can be reduced by introducing sharp sawtooth serrations at the trailing-edge. The flow past a serrated airfoil, with free-stream Reynolds number 6.0 × 105 and Mach number M = 0.17, is studied. A compressible Large Eddy Simulation is used for computing the near field, and the far-field acoustic propagation is obtained applying the integral formulation of Ffowcs Williams and Hawkings. The results of the serrated configurations, and its baseline geometry, are compared with the experimental data obtained by ISVR in the frame of the European Project FLOCON. It is shown that the structure of the flow field near the trailing edge is strongly affected by the presence of the serrations. The integral scale lengths of the flow structures in the wake near the trailing edge, are much smaller than in the baseline case. The OASPL directivities of the acoustic far-field are in good agreement with the experimental data, and the serrated airfoil presents a reduction of acoustic PSD in the low and mid frequency ranges, with a reduction ranging from 10 dB at low frequencies, to 5 dB in the mid range. For higher frequencies, the PSD levels of the serrated airfoil become comparable (f = 4000 Hz) and then are higher with respect to the baseline spectrum.