Trailing edge noise of partially porous airfoils

The use of porous trailing edges is one possible approach to reduce airfoil trailing edge noise. Past experiments on fully porous airfoil models showed that a noticeable noise reduction can be achieved. However, this reduction is accompanied by a loss in aerodynamic performance. To combine the acoustic advantages of the porous trailing edge with the aerodynamic advantages of a non-porous airfoil, the generation of trailing edge noise of airfoil models that only have a porous trailing edge is investigated. To this end, initial experiments were performed on a set of airfoils with porous trailing edges of varying chordwise extent in an open jet wind tunnel, using microphone array measurement technique and a deconvolution beamforming algorithm. The lift forces and drag forces were measured simultaneously to the acoustic measurements. Additionally, hot-wire measurements were performed to allow conclusions on the underlying mechanisms that enable the noise reduction. It could be demonstrated that, depending on the porous material, airfoils that are non-porous except for their trailing edge can still lead to a noticeable trailing edge noise reduction, while providing a better aerodynamic performance.