New method for jet noise reduction in turbofan engines

A new method for reducing large-scale mixing noise from dual-stream jets is presented. The principle is reduction of the convective Mach number of turbulent eddies that produce intense downward sound radiation. In a jet representing the coaxial exhaust of a turbofan engine, this is achieved by tilting downward, by a few degrees, the bypass (secondary) plume relative to the core (primary) plume. The misalignment of the two flows creates a thick low-speed secondary core on the underside of the high-speed primary flow. The secondary core reduces the convective Mach number of primary eddies, thus hindering their ability to generate sound that travels to the downward acoustic far field. Tilting of the bypass stream is possible by means of fixed or variable vanes installed near the exit of the bypass duct. Subscale aeroacoustic experiments simulated the exhaust flow of a turbofan engine with bypass ratio 6.0. Deflection of the bypass stream resulted in suppression of the peak overall sound pressure level by 4.5 dB and the effective perceived noise level by 2.8 dB. For the nozzle configuration used, the thrust loss is estimated at around 0.5% with the vanes activated and 0.15% with the vanes deactivated.