On sound transmission into a thin cylindrical shell under “flight conditions”

Abstract In the context of the transmission of airborne noise into an aircraft fuselage, a mathematical model for sound transmission into a thin cylindrical shell is used to study sound transmission under “flight conditions”: i.e., under conditions of external air flow past a pressurized cylinder at flight altitude. Numerical results for different incidence angles are presented for a typical narrow-bodied jet in cruising flight at 10 660 m (35 000 ft) with interior pressure at 2440 m (8000 ft). A comparison is made between no-flow sound transmission at standard conditions on the ground to sound transmission under flight conditions. It is shown that at M = 0, the cylinder transmission loss has dips at fR (cylinder ring frequency) and fc (critical frequency for a flat panel of same material and thickness as shell). Below fR cylinder resonances affect TL. Between fR and fc, cylinder TL follows a masslaw behavior. Flow provides a modest increase in TL in the mass-law region, and strongly interacts with the cylinder resonances below fR. For normally-incident waves, TL is unaffected by flow.