The Council of European Aerospace Societies (CEAS) Aeroacoustics Specialists Committee (ASC) supports and promotes the interests of the scientific and industrial aeroacoustics community on a European scale and European aeronautics activities internationally. In this context, “aeroacoustics” encompasses all aerospace acoustics and related areas. Each year the committee highlights some of the research and development projects in Europe. This paper is a report on highlights of aeroacoustics research in Europe in 2023, compiled from information provided to the ASC of the CEAS. In addition, during 2023, a number of research programmes involving aeroacoustics were funded by the European Commission. Some of the highlights from these programmes are also summarized in this article, as well as highlights from other projects funded by national governments and industry. Contributions are gathered in sections by topic, and a section covering relevant European scientific events in 2023 is also included. Enquiries concerning all contributions should be addressed to the authors who are given at the end of each subsection.

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This paper elucidates the link between the near-wake development of a circular cylinder coated with a porous material in a low Mach-number flow and the related aerodynamic sound attenuation. It accomplishes this by formulating the cylinder flow-induced noise as a diffraction problem. The necessity for such an approach is driven by experimental evidence obtained through acoustic beamforming and particle-image-velocimetry measurements, which reveal that the dominant noise sources for a coated cylinder are not localised on the body surface but rather in the wake, specifically at the outbreak position of the shedding instability. The acoustic field at the vortex-shedding frequency can be hence modelled by considering a compact lateral quadrupole at this location and employing an exact Green's function tailored to a cylindrical geometry. Because of the diffraction of the sound waves radiated by the quadrupolar source on the cylinder surface, the resulting far-field directivity pattern resembles that of a dipole. The study demonstrates that the porous coating has the two-fold effect of decreasing the strength of the point quadrupole in the wake and moving its origin further downstream, reducing, in turn, the efficiency of the sound scattering. Consequently, the diffracted part of the acoustic field, which dominates the far-field noise for a bare cylinder in accordance with classical theory, provides a contribution that is comparable to the direct part. The results eventually indicate that quadrupolar sources must be considered to accurately predict the noise radiated from a porous-coated cylinder, even at low Mach numbers.

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The empirical calibration of remote microphone probes (RMP), used to acquire wall-pressure fluctuations, can introduce spurious resonance into the sensor transfer function due to the difference in the pressure field inside the calibrator geometry over multiple calibration steps. Such spurious resonance subsequently propagates into the unsteady-pressure data at which the calibration is applied, hindering the accuracy of the measurements. Current post-processing methods for tackling these issues are often manual and strongly dependent on the operator's expertise. In this study, we propose an original semi-empirical calibration method to remove spurious resonance in a less operator-reliant manner. The approach is based on fitting an existing analytical fluid-dynamical model for the propagation of pressure waves in the probe to the empirical calibration data using Bayesian inference. The proposed method is successfully applied to three datasets, from a simple probe recessed behind a pinhole to a more complex branching RMP. For all the configurations, spurious resonance is eliminated from the transfer function with a strongly reduced impact of the operator intervention while retaining the resonant features that are characteristic of the RMP. The affected frequency bands are then replaced using the underlying physical model. In this way, the detrimental impact of spurious resonance is removed from the measured wall-pressure spectra. Furthermore, the RMP parameters retrieved by the fit can also be used as inputs to corrective models, specifically to account for averaging effects due to the probe sensing area or for the impact of grazing flow or temperature variations on the transfer function.

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Integrating a porous material into the structure of an aerofoil constitutes a promising passive strategy for mitigating the noise from turbulence–body interactions that has been extensively explored in the past few decades. When a compact permeable body is considered in the aeroacoustic analogy derived by Curle to predict this noise source, a dipole associated with the non-zero unsteady Reynolds stresses appears on the surface in addition to the dipole linked to the pressure fluctuations. Nevertheless, the relative contribution of this source to the far-field noise radiated by a porous wing profile has not been clarified yet. The purpose of the current research work is twofold. On the one hand, it investigates the impact of porosity on the surface-pressure fluctuations of a thick aerofoil immersed in the wake of an upstream circular rod at a Mach number of 0.09. On the other hand, it quantifies the relevance of the Reynolds-stresses term on the surface as a sound-generation mechanism. The results from large-eddy simulations show that the porous treatment of the wing profile yields an attenuation of the unsteady-pressure peak, which is localised in the low-frequency range of the spectrum and is induced by the milder distortion of the incoming vortices. However, porosity is ineffective in breaking the spanwise coherence or in-phase behaviour of the surface-pressure fluctuations at the vortex-shedding frequency. The Reynolds-stresses term is found to be considerable in the stagnation region of the aerofoil, where the transpiration velocity is larger, and partly correlated with the unsteady surface pressure, suggesting constructive interference between the two terms. This results in a non-negligible contribution of this term to the far-field acoustic pressure emitted by the porous wing profile for observation angles near the stagnation streamline. The conclusions drawn in the present study eventually provide valuable insight into the design of innovative and efficient passive strategies to mitigate surface–turbulence interaction noise in industrial applications.

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A small didactic wind tunnel demonstrator has been designed and manufactured at the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics to illustrate the physical principles at stake in flow-induced noise generation, offer an audible perception of the effectiveness of noise-mitigation strategies, and serve as a practical test bench for aeroacoustic education and research. Seven mitigation technologies are embedded in a single facility, which addresses the noise generation by an airfoil, noise propagation in a duct, and noise transmission through a flexible panel. A challenging objective of this facility was to offer a perceptible impression of various aeroacoustic noise mechanisms at low flow speeds and a live assessment of the effectiveness of noise-reduction technologies. Different approaches combining multiple microphones, advanced signal-processing techniques, and real-time audio feedback have been implemented to this end. A digital twin has been developed to assist the design of the facility and test the concepts implemented in it. The results establish that the demonstrator enables a clear perception of the effectiveness of the noise-mitigation technologies. The facility is also suitable for fast and inexpensive preliminary investigations of future noise-reduction concepts, taking advantage of rapid prototyping techniques.

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Integrating porous materials into the structure of an airfoil constitutes a promising passive strategy for mitigating the noise from turbulence-body interactions that has been extensively explored in the past few decades. When a compact permeable body is considered in the aeroacoustic analogy derived by Curle to predict this noise source, a dipole associated with the nonzero unsteady Reynolds stresses appears on the surface in addition to the dipole linked to the pressure fluctuations. Nevertheless, the relative contribution of this source on the far-field noise radiated by a porous wing profile has not been clarified yet. The purpose of the current research work is twofold. On the one hand, it investigates the impact of porosity on the surface-pressure fluctuations of a thick airfoil immersed in the wake of an upstream circular rod at a Mach number of 0.09. On the other hand, it quantifies the relevance of the Reynolds-stresses term on the surface as a sound-generation mechanism. Results from large-eddy simulations show that the porous treatment of the wing profile yields an attenuation of the unsteady-pressure peak, which is localized in the low-frequency range of the spectrum and is induced by the milder distortion of the incoming vortices. However, porosity is ineffective in breaking the spanwise coherence or in-phase behavior of the surface-pressure fluctuations at the vortex-shedding frequency. The Reynolds-stresses term is found to be considerable in the stagnation region of the airfoil, where the transpiration velocity is larger, and partly correlated with the unsteady surface pressure. This results in a nonnegligible contribution of this term to the far-field acoustic pressure emitted by the porous wing profile for observation angles near the stagnation streamline. The conclusions drawn in the present study eventually provide valuable insight into the design of innovative and efficient passive strategies to mitigate surface-turbulence interaction noise in industrial applications.@en

Sound emissions of an automotive engine cooling system are studied using both single-microphone directivity measurements and a rotating beamforming technique. These measurements provide reference acoustic data on such a system and some new understanding of the effect that the radiator induces on the distribution of sound sources. Indeed, the beamforming results indicate that, above the frequency limit allowed by the Rayleigh criterion, it is possible to localize and quantify the noise sources even through the heat-exchanger core. Moreover, for the investigated operating points along the fan performance curve, the sources are always distributed at the tip of the blades and, in particular, at the leading edge. The present evidence, confirmed by the similar trends of the frequency spectra with and without the heat exchanger, leads to the conclusion that the dominant sound mechanism is the turbulence-interaction noise. Nevertheless, this turbulence is produced within the gap between the fan ring and its casing rather than generated by the radiator core. The latter appears to induce negligible acoustic transmission losses but, more significantly, is found to have a minimal influence on the aerodynamic modification of sound sources for all the analyzed operating conditions.

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A small didactic wind tunnel demonstrator has been designed and manufactured at the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics to illustrate the physical principles at stake in flow-induced noise generation, offer an audible perception of the effectiveness of noise-mitigation strategies, and serve as a practical test bench for aeroacoustic education and research. Seven mitigation technologies are embedded in a single facility, which addresses the noise generation by an airfoil, noise propagation in a duct, and noise transmission through a flexible panel. A challenging objective of this facility was to offer a perceptible impression of various aeroacoustic noise mechanisms at low flow speeds and a live assessment of the effectiveness of the noise-reduction technologies. Different approaches combining multiple microphones, advanced signal-processing techniques, and real-time audio feedback have been implemented to this end. The results establish that the demonstrator enables a clear perception of the effectiveness of the noise-mitigation technologies. The facility is also suitable for fast and inexpensive preliminary investigations of future noise-reduction concepts, taking advantage of rapid prototyping techniques.

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The distortion of homogeneous isotropic turbulence interacting with a porous cylinder is calculated by means of the Rapid Distortion Theory (RDT). The porous treatment, characterised by a constant static permeability, is modelled as an impedance boundary condition accounting for the Darcy’s flow within the body. The RDT algorithm is first validated through comparisons with published velocity measurements in the stagnation region of an impermeable cylinder placed downstream of a turbulence grid. Subsequently, the impact of porosity on the velocity field is investigated through the analysis of the one-dimensional spectra at different locations near the body and the velocity variance along the stagnation streamline. The porous surface affects the incoming turbulence distortion near the cylinder by reducing the blocking effect of the body and by altering the vorticity deformation caused by the mean flow. The former leads to an attenuation of the one-dimensional velocity spectrum in the low-frequency range, whereas the latter results in an amplification of the high-frequency components. This trend is found to be strongly dependent on the turbulence scale and influences the evolution of the velocity fluctuations in the stagnation region. The porous RDT is finally adapted to model the turbulence distortion in the vicinity of the leading edge of a NACA-0024 profile fitted with melamine foam. The good agreement between the calculations and the experimental results demonstrates that the present methodology can improve the understanding of the physical mechanisms involved in the aerofoil-turbulence interaction noise reduction through porosity and be instrumental in designing such passive noise-mitigation treatments.@en

View Video Presentation: https://doi-org.tudelft.idm.oclc.org/10.2514/6.2021-2289.vid

A possible strategy for the reduction of the aeroacoustic noise generated by turbulence interacting with a wing profile, also referred to as leading-edge noise, is represented by the implementation of a porous medium in the structure of the airfoil. However, the physical mechanisms involved in this noise mitigation technique remain unclear. The present work aims at elucidating these phenomena and particularly how the porosity affects the incoming turbulence characteristics in the immediate vicinity of the surface. A porous NACA-0024 profile integrated with melamine foam has been compared with a solid baseline, both airfoils being in turn subjected to the turbulence shed by an upstream cylindrical rod. The mean wall-pressure distribution along the airfoils shows that the implementation of the porous material mostly preserves the integrity of the NACA-0024 profile’s shape. Results of hot-wire anemometry indicate that the porous design proposed in this study allows for damping of the velocity fluctuations and has a limited influence on the upstream mean flow field. Specifically, the upwash component of the root-mean-square of the velocity fluctuations turns out to be significantly attenuated in the porous case in contrast to the solid one. Furthermore, the comparison between the power spectral densities of the incident turbulent velocities demonstrates that the porosity has an effect mainly on the low-frequency range of the turbulent velocity power spectrum. This evidence is in line with the results of the acoustic beamforming measurements, which exhibit a noise abatement in an analogous frequency range. On the basis of these observations, an interpretation of the phenomena occurring in the turbulence-interaction noise reduction due to a porous treatment of the airfoil is finally given with reference to the theoretical inputs of the rapid distortion theory.@en

This paper investigates the application of flow-permeable materials as a solution for reducing jet-installation noise. Experiments are carried out with a flat plate placed in the near field of a single-stream subsonic jet. The flat plate is modular and the solid surface near the trailing edge can be replaced with different flow-permeable inserts, such as a metal foam and a perforated plate structure. The time-averaged jet flow field is characterized through planar PIV measurements at three different velocities (M_a=0.3, M_a=0.5 and M_a=0.8, where M_a is the acoustic Mach number), whereas the acoustic far-field is measured with a microphone arc-array. Acoustic measurements confirm that installation effects cause significant noise increase, up to 17 dB for the lowest jet velocity, particularly at low and mid frequencies (i.e. St<0.7, with the Strouhal number based on the jet diameter and velocity), and mostly in the upstream direction of the jet. By replacing the solid trailing edge with the metal foam, noise abatement of up to 9 dB is achieved at the spectral peak for M_a=0.3 and a polar angle θ=40^∘, with an overall reduction in the entire frequency range where jet-installation noise is dominant. The perforated plate provides lower noise reduction than the metal foam (7 dB at the spectral peak for M_a=0.3 and θ=40^∘), and it is less effective at low frequencies. This is related to the values of permeability and form coefficient of the materials, which are the major parameters controlling the pressure balance across the trailing edge and, consequently, the noise generated by the plate. However, despite having a high permeability, the plate with the metal-foam trailing edge still has a distinct noise production at mid frequencies (St≈0.43 for M_a=0.3). Based on the analyses of different treated surface lengths, it is conjectured that the solid-permeable junction in the plate acts as a new scattering region, and thus its position also affects the far-field noise, which is in line with analytical predictions in the literature. Nonetheless, both types of inserts provide significant noise reduction and are potential solutions for the problem of jet-installation noise.

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Aerodynamic noise emitted by low-speed axial fans has been receiving increasing attention in various sectors of high societal impact, such as automotive and HVAC systems. In this framework, turbulence interaction, flow non-uniformities, trailing-edge boundary layer fluctuations and blade-tip leakages are different mechanisms generating aeroacoustic sources on the rotating blades and contributing to the overall emitted sound. An accurate localization of the sound sources on the surface of the blade is instrumental in separating and isolating these contributions and, therefore, in designing novel sound mitigation concepts. The main objective of this paper is to present an inexpensive and efficient way to isolate and quantify the noise generating mechanisms on rotating blades by means of a irregularly shaped microphone array. The technique is based on ROtating Source Identifier (ROSI) and has been implemented and validated at the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics (VKI). Simulated benchmark datasets that refer to rotating point sources emitting white noise have been considered for the validation of the method. The accuracy in the source localization and in the source strength reconstruction has been evaluated for a fixed and a variable angular rate. Moreover, the algorithm implementation has been parallelized with the purpose of reducing its computational time, which represents the main drawback of ROSI. Finally, the developed technique has been applied to measure the noise sources generated by a forward-skewed subsonic axial fan operated at maximum efficiency. In this case, it has been possible to successfully localize and characterize the major noise sources on the blades. Although further investigation will be necessary to gain better insight into the topic, the present work constitutes an important step for a better understanding of the physical phenomena occurring in the noise generation of an axial fan.

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In this paper, the performance of four acoustic imaging methods: conventional frequency domain beamforming (CFDBF), functional beamforming (FUNBF), enhanced high resolution CLEAN–SC (EHR–CLEAN–SC) and generalized inverse beamforming (GIBF), is investigated in terms of accuracy and variability. Three experimental test cases are considered: 1) a single speaker emitting synthetic broadband noise, 2) two speakers emitting incoherent synthetic broadband noise, and 3) trailing–edge noise generated by a tripped NACA 0018 airfoil. All the measurements were performed in the anechoic wind tunnel of Delft University of Technology. Overall, GIBF and EHR–CLEAN–SC offer the most accurate results when point sources (speakers) are present. They even achieve super–resolution by separating sound sources beyond the Rayleigh resolution limit. Repeating the measurements indicates a standard deviation in the results of less than 1 dB. When analyzing distributed sound sources, such as trailing–edge noise, CFDBF and FUNBF provide the best performance. This indicates that the acoustic imaging method needs to be selected based on the expected sound source configuration.

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An automotive cooling module working at three different operating conditions is investigated using a microphone array method. Experiments on an open rotor and on a full module configurations were conducted in the ALCOVES anechoic chamber of the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Belgium. The acoustic data are post-processed using the ROtating Source Identifier algorithm. As first step, the method was applied for the fan-alone configuration at the nominal operating point. The sound maps of one-third octave band are discussed with respect to the minimum resolving frequency emerging by the Rayleigh criterion. Integrated spectra of the whole beamforming maps are used to validate the method whereas acoustic characteristics of the fan are identified by evaluating integrated spectra of each blade separately. Subsequently, the ROSI method was applied to both configurations, demonstrating the acoustic transparency of the automotive heat exchanger. Depending on the adjusted mass flow rate, sound sources are located on the leading or trailing edges of the fan blades. To complement the analysis, sound directivity measurements have been carried out in the anechoic wind tunnel at the University of Sherbrooke, Canada, on an another sample of the same engine cooling module.

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Inverse methods are gaining relevance in the aeroacoustic community for their capability to accurately localize and quantify noise sources. Indeed, since modern aircraft are more targeted to the reduction of fuel consumption, and very often some design choices, like Open Rotor (OR) propulsion systems, cause excessive acoustic emissions, accurate knowledge of noise source locations is of fundamental importance. This paper describes the use of an inverse method, namely Generalized Inverse Beamforming (GIBF), to characterize a Counter Rotating Open Rotor (CROR) installed on a 1/7th scale aircraft model. The model was tested in a large Low-Speed Wind Tunnel (WT) at The Pininfarina Aerodynamic and Aeroacoustic Research Center in Turin, Italy, within the framework of the FP7 EU Clean-Sky WENEMOR (Wind tunnel tests for the Evaluation of the installation effects of Noise EMissions of an Open Rotor advanced regional aircraft) project. With respect to previous works already published, the pros and cons of 3D GIBF formulation will be discussed on data collected from an industrial test case. A comparison of L² and L¹ norm formulations, as well as multiplicative approach and single array processing in 3D GIBF, will be performed, discussing their differences in terms of source localization accuracy. Since a quantitative analysis on real data cannot be provided because of confidentiality issues, the capability of the present approach to correctly quantify the source strength will be evaluated by considering a synthetic monopole source emitting white noise at different signal-to-noise-ratios (SNRs). Finally, it will be shown that 3D GIBF can provide engineers with more reliable data regarding the acoustic behavior of CROR-based aircrafts, this proving the advantages in exploiting this inverse method in WT aeroacoustic applications.

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A possible strategy for the reduction of the aeroacoustic noise generated by turbulence interacting with a wing profile, also referred to as leading-edge noise, is represented by the implementation of a porous medium in the structure of the airfoil. However, the physical mechanisms involved in this noise mitigation technique remain unclear. The present work aims at elucidating these phenomena and particularly how the porosity affects the incoming turbulence characteristics in the immediate vicinity of the surface. A porous NACA-0024 profile equipped with melamine foam has been compared with a solid baseline, both airfoils being in turn subjected to the turbulence shed by an upstream circular rod. The mean wall-pressure distribution along the airfoils shows that the implementation of the porous material mostly preserves the integrity of the NACA-0024 profile's shape. Results of hot-wire anemometry and large-eddy simulations indicate that the porous design proposed in this study allows for a damping of the velocity fluctuations and it has a limited influence on the upstream mean flow field. Specifically, the upwash component of the root-mean-square of the velocity fluctuations turns out to be significantly attenuated in the porous case in contrast to the solid one, leading to a strong decrease of the turbulent kinetic energy in the stagnation region. Furthermore, the comparison between the power spectral densities of the incident turbulent velocities demonstrates that the porosity has an effect mainly on the low-frequency range of the turbulent velocity power spectrum. This evidence is in line with the results of the acoustic beamforming measurements, which exhibit a noise abatement in an analogous frequency range. On the basis of these observations, an interpretation of the phenomena occurring in the turbulence-interaction noise reduction due to a porous treatment of the airfoil is finally given with reference to the theoretical inputs of the Rapid Distortion Theory.

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The fulfilment of the ACARE 2050 objectives in terms of an improved mobility while protecting the environment will not be achieved without the introduction of radically new ideas. The electrification of aircraft propulsion systems is one of such disruptive concepts that is gradually enabled by recent technological progress in power electronics for the storage, transmission and recuperation of electric power. Besides, it opens interesting perspectives for the integration of distributed propulsion systems around the airframe, seen as a promising avenue to increase the effective by-pass ratio and reduce fuel consumption. But a tighter integration of the propulsion system within the airframe introduces also novel issues in terms of propulsive efficiency and noise emissions, that must be accounted for in a holistic design process. In parallel with the ever-increasing growth of civil air transport, the world has seen an unexpectedly fast development of a new paradigm: Urban Air Mobility and Personal Air Vehicles. In good part based on the successful deployment of drones for defence and professional applications, a number of companies are exploring very disruptive flying concepts. Considering the diversity of architectures (multi-copter, fixed wing, thrust vectoring, tilt rotors, single vs. tandem rotors, etc.), involving complex and largely unexplored aerodynamic and aeroacoustic installation effects, new design rules and methods are needed and have started being developed in the recent years. The objective of the course is to address from a multi-disciplinary perspective the various attributes that are affected by the hybrid or full electrification of small and large aircraft: architectural and aerodynamic design, propulsion systems, operational costs and safety, noise generation and power systems. Some of the socio-economical aspects associated with the advent of novel mobility paradigms are considered as well, together with the regulatory and certification issues that are accompanying those changes.@en

The analysis of porous materials for aeroacoustic noise mitigation requires high-fidelity numerical tools to simulate the sound propagation and interaction in porous media. The manuscript presents the calibration and validation of a direct-hybrid LES/CAA method used to model the aerodynamically generated sound. The porous micro-structures are modeled with a volume-averaging approach. Additional terms, emerging in the governing equations, owing to the force exerted by the porous matrix on the fluid, are closed by means of Darcy's law and the quadratic Forchheimer term. The sound generation and propagation is predicted by a solution of the acoustic perturbation equations via a discontinuous Galerkin method. The model for the porous material is separately calibrated for the CFD and CAA with the parameters retrieved by the characterization of a melamine foam in experimental tests. The sound predicted by an absorbing layer of the material is compared with measurements performed in an impedance tube. Secondly, the transmission coefficient of the melamine foam placed in an acoustic liner configuration inside a duct is studied numerically. The results are then compared with experiments conducted in absence of a flow and also with a flow velocity of 30 m/s in order to assess the accuracy of the model calibration.

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The present work aims at evaluating the effectiveness of the use of porous materials for reducing airfoil turbulence-impingement noise. To pursue this objective, a porous NACA-0024 profile filled with melamine foam has been designed for comparison with a solid model. The porous media constituting the airfoil has been fully characterized in order to determine the parameters that describe the material. The two profiles have been tested in a rod airfoil configuration in the anechoic chamber of von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics. A free-stream velocity of 30 m/s (corresponding to a chord-based Reynolds number of 3.2·10⁵) and an angle of attack of 0^◦ have been considered for the tests. Hot-wire anemometry measurements have been performed with the aim of characterizing the boundary layers around the two airfoils and investigating the eventual nose mitigation mechanisms that occur due to the porous treatment. Moreover, the static pressure distributions along the two surfaces have been studied to find correlations with the velocity profiles. The results show that the use of a porous treatment leads to a decrease of turbulence-impingement noise in the low-frequency range and to an increase in the high-frequency one, mostly due to surface roughness noise. The application of an inverse beamforming technique has lead to a qualitative comparison of noise distribution maps at different one-third octave band frequencies for the two cases. Furthermore, the pressure values of each map point within a rectangular region surrounding the leading edge have been summed in order to retrieve the integrated one-third octave band spectra.

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