Abstract
Drone propeller noise under static and steady inflow conditions has been studied. A numerical model that couples a blade element momentum theory model with a frequency-domain acoustic model is presented. Experimental acoustic data for a 12-inch drone propeller under static and steady inflow are compared with the model. The model compares well against the experimental data for the fundamental tone and first 2–3 harmonics under steady inflow. Discrepancies at the higher harmonics are likely due to the point-loading assumption used to apply the aerodynamic loads in the acoustic model. Comparisons under static conditions are poor and this is thought to be caused by the limited nature of the aerodynamic model used. The results suggest that an accurate and versatile aerodynamics model is most important for accurate prediction of drone propeller noise over a wide range of operating conditions.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
ABC News, Whining drones bringing burritos and coffee are bitterly dividing Canberra residents (2019), https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-09/noise-from-drone-delivery-service-divides-canberra-residents/10484044. Accessed 11 Mar 2019
BBC News, Why your pizza may never be delivered by drone (2019), https://www.bbc.com/news/business-46483178. Accessed 11 Mar 2019
N. Kloet, S. Watkins, R. Clothier, Acoustic signature measurement of small multi-rotor unmanned aircraft systems. Int. J. Micro Air Veh. 9(1), 3–14 (2017). February
S.E. Wright, The acoustic spectrum of axial flow machines. J. Sound Vib. 45(2), 165–223 (1976)
J.E. Ffowcs Williams, D.L. Hawkings, Sound generation by turbulence and surfaces in arbitrary motion. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. Ser. A Math. Phys. Sci. 264(1151), 321–342 (1969)
M.J. Lighthill, On sound generated aerodynamically I. General theory. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. Ser. A. Math. Phys. Sci. 211(1107), 564–587 (1952)
N. Curle, The influence of solid boundaries upon aerodynamic sound. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. Ser. A. Math. Phys. Sci. 231(1187), 505–514 (1955)
D. Hanson, Helicoidal surface theory for harmonic noise of propellers in the far field. AIAA J. 18(10), 1213–1220 (1980)
S. Glegg, W. Devenport, Aeroacoustics of Low Mach Number Flows (2017)
M.T. Kotwicz Herniczek, D. Feszty, S. Meslioui, J. Park, F. Nitzsche, Evaluation of acoustic frequency methods for the prediction of propeller noise. AIAA J. 57(6), 2465–2478 (2019)
D. Hanson, Influence of propeller design parameters on far-field harmonic noise in forward flight. AIAA J. 18(11), 1313–1319 (1980)
A. Leslie, K.C. Wong, D. Auld, Broadband noise reduction on a mini-UAV propeller. In 14th AIAA/CEAS Aeroacoustics Conference (29th AIAA Aeroacoustics Conference), p. 3069 (2008)
A. Leslie, K.C. Wong, D. Auld, Experimental analysis of the radiated noise from a small propeller. In Proceedings of 20th International Congress on Acoustics, ICA (2010)
O. Gur, A. Rosen, Design of quiet propeller for an electric mini unmanned air vehicle. J. Propuls. Power 25(3), 717–728 (2009)
G. Sinibaldi, L. Marino, Experimental analysis on the noise of propellers for small UAV. Appl. Acoust. 74(1), 79–88 (2013)
N. Intaratep, W.N. Alexander, W.J. Devenport, S.M. Grace, A. Dropkin. Experimental study of quadcopter acoustics and performance at static thrust conditions. In 22nd AIAA/CEAS Aeroacoustics Conference, June 2016 (2016)
C.E. Tinney, J. Sirohi, Multirotor drone noise at static thrust. AIAA J. 56(7), 2816–2826 (2018). July
N.S. Zawodny, D. Douglas Boyd Jr., C.L. Burley, Acoustic characterization and prediction of representative, small-scale rotary-wing unmanned aircraft system components (2016)
R. McKay, M.J. Kingan, Multirotor unmanned aerial system propeller noise caused by unsteady blade motion. In 25th AIAA/CEAS Aeroacoustics Conference (2019), p. 2499
W.N. Alexander, J. Whelchel, N. Intaratep, A. Trani, Predicting community noise of sUAS. In 25th AIAA/CEAS Aeroacoustics Conference (2019), p. 2686
W.N. Alexander, J. Whelchel, Flyover noise of multi-rotor sUAS. In 2INTER-NOISE 2019 (2019)
T. Zhou, H. Jiang, Y. Sun, R.J. Fattah, X. Zhang, B. Huang, L. Cheng, Acoustic characteristics of a quad-copter under realistic flight conditions. In 25th AIAA/CEAS Aeroacoustics Conference (2019), p. 2587
V. Bulusu, V. Polishchuk, L. Sedov, Noise estimation for future large-scale small UAS operations. In INTER-NOISE and NOISE-CON Congress and Conference Proceedings, vol. 254. Institute of Noise Control Engineering (2017), pp. 864–871
R.W. Paterson, R.K. Amiet, Noise of a model helicopter rotor due to ingestion of isotropic turbulence. J. Sound Vib. 85(4), 551–577 (1982)
Y. Yauwenas, J.R. Fischer, D. Moreau, C.J. Doolan, The effect of inflow disturbance on drone propeller noise. In 25th AIAA/CEAS Aeroacoustics Conference (2019), p. 2663
O. Gur, A. Rosen, Comparison between blade-element models of propellers. Aeronaut. J. 112(1138), 689–704 (2008)
C. Ostowari, D. Naik, Post-stall wind tunnel data for NACA 44XX series airfoil sections. Technical report, Texas A and M University, College Station (USA). Department of Aerospace Engineering (1985)
M. McCrink, J.W. Gregory, Blade element momentum modeling of low-re small UAS electric propulsion systems. In 33rd AIAA Applied Aerodynamics Conference (2015), p. 3296
C.J. Doolan, D. Moreau, M. Awasthi, C. Jiang, The UNSW anechoic wind tunnel. In Proceedings of WESPAC 2018, New Delhi, India (2018)
J.B. Brandt, R.W. Deters, G.K. Ananda, M.S. Selig, UIUC propeller database, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2019), http://m-selig.ae.illinois.edu/props/propDB.html Accessed 24 Oct 2019
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Doolan, C., Yauwenas, Y., Moreau, D. (2021). Drone Propeller Noise Under Static and Steady Inflow Conditions. In: Ciappi, E., et al. Flinovia—Flow Induced Noise and Vibration Issues and Aspects-III. FLINOVIA 2019. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64807-7_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64807-7_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-64806-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-64807-7
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)