Noise Shielding Models for the Conceptual Design of Unconventional Aircraft

Air traffic growth and the expansion of urban areas around airports make the aviation community noise a key aspect of aircraft design. The analysis of innovative configurations is becoming activity of primary interest within the scientific community. The current effort to attain the strict noise abatement targets imposed by the authorities risks to be profitless without a significant technological breakthrough. A promising innovative configuration in terms of noise reduction is the Blended Wing Body aircraft. Indeed, the installation of the propulsion system above the centre body surface ensures a significant masking effect of the engine noise components. The lack of experimental data needed to validate the advantages introduced by these technologies, and therefore carry out parametric analysis, can only be overcome by formulating reliable and cost effective models to predict the noise shielding induced by engines installation on unconventional geometries. The present work introduces the development of tailored models for the correction of the existing semi-empirical prediction techniques. Such models are embedded within the modules of the existing conceptual design framework FRIDA. Without excluding other disciplines, the introduction of a noise prediction tool allows to cast a wide net in the research of optimal configuration in the future aviation context.