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Aerodynamic noise numerical simulation and noise reduction study on automobile alternator

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Abstract

Aerodynamic noise is the predominant component of automobile alternator noise at high speed, which directly affects the noise characteristic and noise control of alternator. Based on Lighthill acoustic theory, the aerodynamic noise of an automobile alternator was simulated with three-dimensional, Large eddy simulation (LES) and Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings (FW-H) acoustic model, and the aerodynamic noise reduction research was conducted through optimizing the front fan blade spacing angle of alternator with vector composition method while considering high fan flow and optimal noise frequency components for reduced harmonic rotating noise of alternator. The results show that the sound pressure amplitude of the primary aerodynamic noise components simulated with LES are in good agreement with experimental ones, and the dominant harmonic frequency components of aerodynamic noise are in the 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 12th and 18th orders and the A-weighted sound pressure level of one-third octave mainly concentrates in 1120-7000 Hz. The average total noise level of alternator noise is decreased by 2.58 dB, and the mass flow of monitoring surface of fan blade is increased by 1.36 g/s with 5.80 dB decrease in the sound level of the 12th and 18th harmonic orders on average with optimized front fan blade spacing angles, which verifies the effectiveness of the noise reduction method proposed in this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031, China

    Chunrong Hua & Bin Yan

  2. State Key Laboratory of Traction Power, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031, China

    Yadong Zhang & Dawei Dong

  3. School of Engineering, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 3GH, UK

    Huajiang Ouyang

  4. The State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116023, China

    Huajiang Ouyang

Authors
  1. Chunrong Hua
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  2. Yadong Zhang
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  3. Dawei Dong
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  4. Bin Yan
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  5. Huajiang Ouyang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chunrong Hua.

Additional information

Recommended by Associate Editor Cheolung Cheong

Chunrong Hua received Ph.D. degree from Southwest Jiaotong University (SWJTU), China in 2011, and is currently an Associate Professor at School of Mechanical Engineering in SWJTU. Dr. Hua’s research interests are vibration and noise control of mechanical equipments, fault diagnosis of ICE (Internal combustion engine) and signal processing.

Yadong Zhang is currently a doctoral student at the School of State Key Laboratory of Traction Power of Southwest Jiaotong University in China. His research interests include train aerodynamics and aeroacoustic behaviors.

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Hua, C., Zhang, Y., Dong, D. et al. Aerodynamic noise numerical simulation and noise reduction study on automobile alternator. J Mech Sci Technol 31, 2047–2055 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-017-0402-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-017-0402-z

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