Journal of Thermal Science Vol.17, No.

2 (2008) 163169

DOI: 10.1007/s11630-008-0163-1

Article ID: 1003-2169(2008)02-0163-07

Active Control of Fan Noise

Nobuhiko YAMASAKI and Hirotoshi TAJIMA
Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Kyushu University. 744 Motooka, Nishi-ku Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan

In the wake-rotor interaction fan noise, a number of the interacting modes at the blade passing frequency (BPF) and its harmonics are generated which are prescribed by the number of stator and rotor blades etc. In the present study, the dominant mode is tried to be suppressed by the secondary sound from the loudspeaker actuators. One of the novel features of the present system is the adoption of the control board with the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) hardware and the LabVIEW software to synchronize the circumferentially installed loudspeaker actuators with the relative location of rotational blades under arbitrary fan rotational speeds. The experiments were conducted under the conditions of three rotational speeds of 2004, 3150, and 4002 [rpm]. The reduction in the sound pressure level (SPL) was observed for all three rotational speeds. The sound pressure level at the BPF was reduced approximately 13 [dB] for 2004 [rpm] case, but not so large reduction was attained for other cases probably due to the inefficiency of the loudspeaker actuators at high frequencies

Keywords: Stator-Rotor Interaction, Anti Noise Control (ANC), Cut-on Control

Introduction
Noise during take-off and approach flights is and will be crucial in designing and operating large turbofan engines. Therefore, engine manufacturers now face the increasing demands to reduce the noise well under the level stipulated by the regulations, which become very restrictive recently. The discrete-frequency noise, i.e., tone, generated by unsteady blade row interactions between rotor and stator blades is of particular concern in the design of the advanced turbofan engines, since the jet noise is reduced considerably by the introduction of the hi-flow-rate bypass flows. For the current subsonic turbofan engines, the tones are usually 1015 [dB] higher in sound pressure level (SPL) above the broadband level. The main mechanisms of the rotor-stator interactions are wake-rotor and

potential interactions. Since the velocity defect in the wakes from the upstream blade rows is hard to attenuate in a short distance, the former becomes dominant as the distance between the rotor and stator rows becomes larger. In order to bring the engine noise down, there are passive and active controls. As far as the passive noise control is concerned, selecting rotor and stator blade number combinations to ensure that the interaction modes at the blade passing frequency are cut-off at the design point is one candidate. The use of the acoustic liners is now prevalent. Recently the usage of a wake generator with adjustable rods length2) is under study. The passive noise control, however, has its own limit. In recent years, therefore, the active noise control (ANC) of fan noise has been studied extensively, either analytically or experimentally mainly in laboratory set-

Received: October 2007 Nobuhiko YAMASAKI: Professor

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tings. Applying the well-known anti-noise concept to fan noise reduction consists of trying to cancel out the target modes by generating the identical out-of phase spinning modes using the secondary sources (loudspeaker actuators in this study) installed on the duct wall3). An alternative ANC for fan noise is the usage of an airfoil equipped with actuators4)-6). Unfortunately, application of the ANC to airplane engines is not easy at the moment because of weight and aerodynamic penalties, and complexity of such devices. In the present paper, the ANC of the wake-rotor interaction fan noise is to be studied. Wakes are generated by the wake generator, which is solely designed to generate the velocity defect, instead of the stator which also gives rise to the lift. As the first part in this paper, the spatial acoustic structure of the acoustic field in the duct is modelled using the infinite-length annular duct model1). Then the feasibility of the ANC by a finite number of the active control actuators (loudspeakers) is discussed. The cut-on modes in the fan duct are stipulated by the number of rotor blades, the number of rods of wake generator, and the fan rotational speed. Controllable parameters are the gain, initial phase difference and phase difference between loudspeaker actuators. The feed-back or feed-forward is not to be used and no error microphone is needed. One of the novel features of the present systems is the adoption of the control board with the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) hardware and the LabVIEW software to synchronize the circumferentially installed loudspeaker actuators with the relative location of rotational blades under arbitrary fan rotational speeds

Note that
= t , = r , = z r z

[ ( r , , z ) is the space fixed coordinate ]. In an infinite-length annular duct model, the acoustic field is decomposed into modes described by Bessel functions1.

Interaction between Wake and Rotor N B ( = 1, 2, 3,...) : Angular velocity m = N B + NG ( = 1, 2,3,...) : Circumferential wave number
l (= 1, 2,3,...) : Radial mode order (Corrsponding to node number)

Note that > 0 and < 0 acoustic modes have the same frequency | | N B , but with the different circumferential wave number N B + N G and different rotational phase velocity N B /( N B + N G ) . When the relative velocity near the tip of rotor blades is subsonic, the cut-on modes satisfying Eq. (1) are limited to a finite number and the possible control target . 1 (kl ( m) )2 ( N B)2 < 0 : Cuton Condition (1) 1 M a 2 Sound Waves from the Loudspeakers * N B : Angular velocity of loudspeakers mS = S N S + S ( S = 0, 1, 2, )
: Circumferential wave number l (= 1, 2,3,...) : Radial m ode order (Corrsponding to node number)

Theory
Notations The following symbols are used in the present paper.
NG : Circumferential wave number of gust

(kl ( mS ) )2 ( * N B)2

1 1 M a 2

< 0 : Cuton Condition (2)

NG ( = 1, 2,3,...) : Circumferential wave number of the

Fourier components of wake disturbances N B : Number of blades (r , , z ) : Coordinate system fixed to the rotor (r , , z ) : Coordinate system fixed to the duct N S : Number of loudspeakers 2 S / N S : Phase difference between loudspeakers rT * : Rotor Tip Radius Wa* : Mean Axial Flow Velocity * : Rotating Speed of the Rotor : = * rT * / Wa*

Acoustic Conditions Sound waves from the loudspeaker actuators have to be satisfied with Eq. (3) and (4) to have the same frequency and circumferential wave number. * N B = N B (3)
mS = S N S + S = m

(4)

Experimental fan set-up

Experimental-rig Figures 1 and 2 show the experimental fan rig used for the ANC at Propulsion Systems Laboratory, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Kyushu University (total pressure rise: 1275 [Pa], Air flow rate:200 [m3/min], and rotational speed: 5006000 [rpm]). The single stage axial fan is driven by the electric motor (output: 7.5 [kW]). The inner radius of the casing is 200 [mm], and

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the hub/casing ratio is 0.5. The sound pressure distribution is measured by the microphone mounted on the boom which is rotated circumferentially around the rotational axis at 150 [mm] radial locations. As Figure 3 shows, twelve (12) loudspeaker actuators are mounted to generate the controlling sound (secondary source). The signal from the optical sensor which senses the passing of blade at the stipulated circumferential location is fed to the control board, which outputs 12 phase-different signals to drive the loudspeaker actuators via 12 channel amplifier, with specified phase difference relative to the optical sensor. This control board uses the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) hardware consisting of many LSI switches which can be programmed by the LabVIEW software of National Instruments. In addition to the phase difference with the optical sensor, the gain and phase difference between loudspeaker actuators can be changed arbitrarily by using the knob component on the front panel programmed by LabVIEW. Sound waves from loudspeakers, therefore, are programmed to have an arbitrary wave number circumferentially to control the wake-rotor interaction fan noise.

Fig. 3

Loudspeaker actuators

In the present experiments, the wake generator with 19 rods, instead of stator vane, is used. The distance between rotor and wake generator is 73.5 [mm]. In the present study, three fan rotational speeds of 2004, 3150, and 4002 [rpm] are tested. 2004 and 4002 [rpm] are adopted because of the difficulty in setting the rotational speed of the motor controlled by the inverter to the round numbers, and 3150 [rpm] is adopted because the unknown mechanical minor instability at 3000 [rpm].

Hardware and software for generating spinning modes

Summary of the control The objective of designing the hardware and software is to generate the spinning modes on 12 speakers mounted on the wall of the fan duct synchronized with the rotation of the fan with a stipulated phase difference between the blade azimuth position in two adjacent blades and the controlling spinning sound on 12 speakers. Sensors Photo diode sensor mounted on the stationary part senses the painted and marked region of the moving parts and sends the information to be used as the speed synchronization and phase control. FPGA As the Analog-Digital (A/D) and/or Digital-Analog (D/A) conversion for signal processing, the conventional A/D and/or D/A conversion board cannot be used, since the blocked date transfer of the conventional board is impossible to be reset for updating the rotational speed. So the FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) boards are used instead. The FPGA consists of a large number of programmable switches. By using the FPGA, the rota-

Fig. 1

Experimental rig setup

Fig. 2

Experimental rig setup (viewed from upstream).

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tional speed of the fan is measured in a unit of the base clock in the FPGA, and can be updated inside the FPGA board. Also the FPGA can handle the operation for several thread in parallel, which is very useful in the present system in handling a number of speakers. The FPGA can be reset any time so that the rotational speed is faster or slower the scheduled speed as is the transient conditions, and, as far as the rotational speed is updated frequently, the wave form is adjusted to the rotational speed and if there is shortage or remaining wave form, the wave form is conformed to the rotational speed in the next rotation.
Hardware setup The main computer with two FPGA boards and LabView software is provided for the experiment. The FPGA compile-function modules and function library add-on are also implemented. The FPGA board has 8ch Analog Input (AI), 8ch Analog Output (AO), and 96ch Digital Inputs/Outputs (DIO). Since the 12 actuator speakers are used, two FPGA boards are used, one is used as the master and another as the slave (just for outputting remaining 4 speakers not controllable by the master board). Two FPGA boards can connected by separate cable, but in the present setup the trigger output at the master used is used for the master and slave boards. LabView As the software to program on the FPGA, LabView and their extensions from National Instruments are used. Programming is coded on LabView, and the program is converted to standard language HDL for LabView, and again converted to the machine language. At last these programs coded in machine language are downloaded to the FPGA board. The required tools in the process after the conversion to the machine languages are provided by the Xilinx, the manufacturer of the FPGA. One of the strong point in using the LabView + FPGA configuration is that, LabView adopted NI-VISA (Virtual Instruments Software Architecture) and the target of LabView can be changed from Windows computer itself, the emulation (running the FPGA code on the computer) and FPGA device (running the FPGA code on the device). Outline of the Program The base clock of the FPGA is 40Hz (25ns). At 3,000 rpm (50 rev./s), for example, the blade passing frequency is 20 (number of blades) x 50 = 1,000 Hz. Then in order to make up the sinusoidal wave by 100 slices, the 100 (number of slices) x 1 kHz (blade passing frequency) = 0.1 MHz sampling is required. In that case after counting 40MHz (base clock) / 0.1 MHz (sampling rate), the output is updated. As one thread in the FPGA, the fan rotational speed is measured by the photo diode in terms of the base clock pulse count the FPGA. At every rotational

speed, the update timing of output the slice of the sinusoidal wave is changed according to the rotational speed information, and also output the trigger to the digital out ports for the master and slave board. In another 12 (corresponding to the number of speakers) thread, 8 on the master board and 4 in the slave board, using this digital out as the trigger input, the analog output is updated. Note that the trigger is reset at the middle time between the triggers. Thus the variable sampling capability is achieved. The analog output of FPGA is 16 bits and 10V, and the output information for the 12 speakers and 100 slices are tabulated and looked up in the calculation. Of course, the 12 speakers has the phase difference of 360/12 = 30 . Note that the counter is 32 bits, so measuring too long time is impossible since the counter is reset after 32 bit exhaustion. Also note that the signal of the photo diode is long enough to be sensed by the FPGA sampling.

Feasibility of Controls
Experimental Conditions At this point, the feasibility of the active control by a finite number of loudspeaker actuators is to be discussed. From the theory, the phase difference of the loudspeaker actuators should be determined to generate the actuating cut-on modes, which are the same with the target cut-on modes by the wake-rotor interaction. Under three rotational speeds, the experimental parameters are as follows: NG = 19
N B = 20 N S = 12 h = 0.5 rT * = 200 [mm] c = 340 [m / s ] : = *rT * / Wa* = 2 rT * / 60c = 0.123 (* = 2004 [rpm]) = 0.194 (* = 3150 [rpm]) = 0.247 (* = 4002 [rpm])

A) Cut-on modes (m, l) at BPF N B 2.47 (0, 0) (1, 0) (2, 0) for 2004 [rpm] Cut on mode (m, l) at BPF N B 3.88 (0, 0) (1, 0) (2, 0) for 3150 [rpm] Cut on mode (m, l) at BPF N B 4.93 (0, 0) (1, 0) (2, 0) (3, 0) for 4002 [rpm] B) Cut-on modes (m, l) at 2xBPF N B 4.94 (0, 0) (1, 0) (2, 0) (3, 0) for 2004 [rpm] Cut on mode (m, l) at 2xBPF N B 7.76 (0, 0) (1, 0) (2, 0) (3, 0) (4, 0) (5, 0) (6, 0)

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(0, 1) (1, 1) (2, 1) for 3150 [rpm] Cut on mode (m, l) at 2BPF N B 9.86 (0, 0) (1, 0) (2, 0) (3, 0) (4, 0) (5, 0) (6, 0) (7, 0) (0, 1) (1, 1) (2, 1) for 4002 [rpm] In all rotational speeds, the cut-on condition Eq. (1) is satisfied only by the following values. = 1 = 1 m = N B + NG = 1 Therefore, at the BPF, N B 2.47 and the cut-on mode of (m, l) type generated is (1, 0) The sound waves from loudspeakers have to satisfy the conditions of the same frequency and circumferential wave number with the wake-rotor cut-on modes, i.e., Eqs. (3) and (4), then the following parameters are obtained * N B = N B = N B
* = 1 mS = S N S + S = m = S 12 + S = 1 S = 1 S = 0 Only this pair of parameters can satisfy the cut on > 0 and < 0 | | N B N B + NG N B /( N B

Results and discussion

At first, in order to check the presence of the wake region downstream of the wake generator, the velocity distribution is measured and it is confirmed that the sufficient velocity defect regions are present for the experimental setup. After setting up the active control system, by changing the phase difference between the speaker output and the reference optical sensor output, the optimum phase difference is sought. Then the gain of the loudspeakers is changed so that the maximum control effect is to be obtained. Thus the optimum-controlled condition is obtained. Note that the phase difference between loudspeakers is fixed since it is determined by the target cut-on modes. Figure 4 shows the sound pressure spectra at 2004 [rpm] under the uncontrolled and optimum-controlled conditions. The level at the BPF is reduced by about 13 [dB]. In addition, the spill-over phenomenon, the detrimental effects at the uncontrolled frequencies and sometimes observed under the ANC, is not observed at all.
.

+ NG )
(k l
( m) 2

) (N B) 2

1 < 0 : Cut on Condition 2 1 Ma

* N B : Angular velocity of loudspeakers mS = S N S + S ( S = 0, 1, 2,...)

: Circumferential wave number l (= 1, 2,3,...) : Radial m ode order (Corrsponding to node number)
Fig. 4 Sound power spectra under uncontrolled and controlled conditions (2004 [rpm])

(kl ( mS ) )2 ( * N B)2
*

1 1 M a 2

< 0 : Cut on Condition

N B = N B mS = S N S + S = m
* N B = N B = N B * = 1 mS = S N S + S = m = S 12 + S = 1 S = 0 S = 1

The modal SPL at the BPF under the uncontrolled and optimum-controlled conditions are shown in Figs. 5 and 6, respectively. For the uncontrolled conditions, the

Only this pair of parameters can satisfy the cut on condition Eq. (2). The phase difference between loudspeakers is consequently,
2 S 1 = 6 NS

Fig. 5

Modal SPL at BPF under uncontrolled conditions (2004 [rpm])

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Fig. 6

Modal SPL at BPF under controlled conditions (2004 [rpm])

Fig. 8

Modal SPL at BPF under uncontrolled conditions (3150 [rpm])

dominant mode (1, 0) as high as about 70 [dB] appears as the basic theory1) implies. Under the optimum-controlled condition, the SPL of this (1, 0) mode is reduced drastically, but the SPL of the accompanying (1, 0) mode, which spins in the opposite direction with the (1, 0) mode, is increased slightly. The sum of SPL of these (1, 0) and (1,0) modes is largely reduced. As the SPL for other modes does not noticeably change, it is found that the present ANC system successfully reduces fan noise at the rotational speed of 2004 [rpm]. Figure 7 shows the sound pressure spectra at 3150 [rpm] under the uncontrolled and optimum-controlled conditions. The SPL at the BPF is reduced only by about 1dB. This reduction is the smallest among the control conditions at three rotational speeds. The modal SPL at the BPF under the uncontrolled and optimum-controlled conditions are shown in Figs. 8 and 9, respectively. The SPL of the (1, 0) mode is reduced under the optimum-controlled condition, but this reduction is less than the reduction at 2004 [rpm]. For the rotational speed of 4002 [rpm], the sound pressure spectra under the uncontrolled and optimum-controlled conditions are showed in Fig. 10. The SPL at the BPF is reduced by about 4 [dB]. The modal SPL at the BPF under the uncontrolled and optimum-controlled conditions are shown in Figs. 11 and 12, respectively. The dominant (1, 0) mode is reduced by

Fig. 9

Modal SPL at BPF under controlled conditions (3150 [rpm])

Fig. 10

Sound power spectra under uncontrolled and controlled conditions (4002[rpm])

Fig. 7

Sound power spectra under uncontrolled and controlled conditions (3150 [rpm])

Fig. 11

Modal SPL at BPF under uncontrolled conditions (4002 [rpm])

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Fig. 12

Modal SPL at BPF under controlled conditions (4002 [rpm])

nearly 20 [dB]. By the way, (3, 0) mode appears as high as near 30dB under the uncontrolled and optimum-controlled conditions. Theoretically, this mode is cut-off at this low rotational speed but appears due to the difference between the experimental setup and the assumptions in the theories. This mode becomes cut-on at high fan rotational speeds. As was described the results at the rotational speeds other than 2004 [rpm] were discouraging. Figure 13 shows the overall SPL at the BPF under the uncontrolled and optimum-controlled conditions for three fan rotational speeds of 2004, 3150, and 4002 [rpm]. Although there is a little difference in quantity, the noise reduction is achieved for all rotational speeds. The inefficiency at high rotational speed is probably due to the low efficiency of the loudspeaker actuators at high frequencies, since the output of the speakers are saturated more conspicuously at high frequencies. The results also indicate that the efficacy of the present setup of the control systems consisting of the control board with the FPGA and LabVIEW which can synchronize the arbitrary rotational speed of the fan and the control system using the cut-on anti-sound modes is proved to be effective.

has been studied experimentally. One of the novel features of the present control systems is the adoption of the control board with the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) hardware and the LabVIEW software to synchronize the circumferentially installed loudspeaker actuators with the relative location of rotational blades under arbitrary fan rotational speeds. FPGA was successfully programmed to control the multiple loudspeaker actuators synchronized with the variable rotational speed The experiments were conducted under the conditions of three fan rotational speeds of 2004, 3150, and 4002 [rpm]. Although there was a little difference in quantity in the wake-rotor fan noise reduction among the rotational speed of the fan, the noise reduction was achieved for all rotational speeds. Especially as much as the reduction of 13 [dB] in SPL was attained for 2004 [rpm] case, but not so much reduction were attained for other cases probably due to the inefficiency of the loudspeaker actuators and higher SPL at high frequencies. In addition, the spill-over phenomenon, which is sometimes observed under the ANC, was not observed at all. The present control system successfully reduced fan noise and the efficacy of the present systems has been shown. The systems may be extended to the indirect aero acoustic control using the cut-on rotor-actuator interacting modes generated by the cut-off actuator modes.

Acknowledgement
This investigation was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research through grant number 16360422 from Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science.

References
[1] Namba, M., Yamasaki, N. and Murahashi, A: Acoustic Control of Tone Noise due to Gust-Rotor Interaction, AIAA Paper 19991810 (1999). [2] Polacsek, C. and Desbois-Lavergne, F: Fan Interaction Noise Reduction Using a Wake Generator; Experiments and Computational Aero-acoustics, Journal of Sound and Vibration, Vol. 265, pp.725743 (2003). [3] Ishii,T. and Kobayashi, H.: Experiment to Reduce Spinning Tone Noise Issued from a Ducted Fan Using Secondary Sound Source, Journal of the Gas Turbine Society of Japan, Vol. 24 (1997) (in Japanese). [4] Remington, P., Sutliff, D. and Sommerfeldt, S.: Active Control of Low-Speed Fan Tonal Noise Using Actuators Mounted on Stator Vanes: Part 1 Control System Design and Implementation, AIAA Paper 20033190 (2003). [5] Walker, B.E., Hersh, A.S. and Celano, J.W.: Active Control of Low-Speed Fan Tonal Noise Using Actuators Mounted in Stator Vanes: Part 2 Novel Error Sensing Concepts, AIAA Paper 20033191 (2003). [6] Sutliff, D., Remington, P. and Sommerfeldt, S.: Active Control of Low-Speed Fan Tonal Noise Using Actuators Mounted in Stator Vanes: Part 3 Results, AIAA Paper 20033193 (2003).

Fig.13

Overall SPL at BPF under uncontrolled and controlled conditions

Conclusions
In the present study, the active control to reduce wake-rotor interaction noise from the axial fan engines