Measurement 43 (2010) 283293

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Measurement
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/measurement

Acoustical signature analysis of a helicopter cabin in steady-state

and run up operational conditions
Emiliano Mucchi a,*, Antonio Vecchio b
a
b

Department of Engineering, University of Ferrara, Via Saragat 1, 44100 Ferrara, Italy

LMS International, Interleuvenlaan 68, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 26 January 2009
Received in revised form 27 September 2009
Accepted 18 October 2009
Available online 23 October 2009
Keywords:
Vibro-acoustics
Source localization
Helicopter
PU probes

a b s t r a c t
The noise situation inside modern helicopter cabins is still unsatisfying in comparison to
modern jet. The requirement of a quieter helicopter needs a systematic study of its Noise
Vibration and Harshness (NVH) behaviour. In this context, the authors have performed a
wide experimental vibro-acoustic campaign in a helicopter cabin, which aims at evaluating
the importance of the noise contribution produced by the jet engines with respect to the
gearbox as well as nding possible noise sources and leakage points on the cabin surface.
The results show that the main noise and vibration sources are the jet engines and the
gearbox. Furthermore, the contribution of the jet engines is dominant with respect to
the contribution of the gearbox, in terms of sound quality parameters. Finally, the paper
suggests a fast and efcient experimental tool for leakage point detection and relative
quantication on the cabin, very useful for noise control and quality check.
2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Nowadays, helicopters play a pivotal role in a wide variety of activities from important military missions to emergency medical transport, indeed it is a common experience
that a helicopter may often be seen overhead. Originally,
aircraft noise was not much of an issue because of the
overarching requirement of improving vehicle performance in critical operational conditions. By the 1960s,
the noise of helicopters had started to become an important issue and the next level technical challenge was to include new design parameters such as vibro-acoustic
comfort and environmental impact in the design process
of a modern rotorcraft.
Since the main vibration excitations on the helicopter
units are mechanical and aerodynamical [1], the generated
noise in operational conditions can be distinguished in
aerodynamic-borne and mechanic-borne noise (Fig. 1).
Concerning the aerodynamical noise, it contributes to both
discrete frequency and broadband aerodynamic noise gen* Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 0532 974913; fax: +39 0532 974870.
E-mail address: emiliano.mucchi@unife.it (E. Mucchi).
0263-2241/$ - see front matter 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.measurement.2009.10.007

eration through several distinct noise mechanisms: discrete frequency noise is usually divided into the
deterministic components of thickness and loading noise,
bladevortex interaction noise and high-speed impulsive
noise; similarly, broadband noise consists of the non-deterministic loading noise sources classied as turbulence
ingestion noise, bladewake interaction noise and blade
self-noise; aerodynamical noise is not considered here,
but an exhaustive analysis can be found in [25] both from
an experimental as well as a numerical viewpoint. On the
other hand, mechanical noise is due to the contribution of
the gearbox and to the contribution of the jet engines. In
the case of helicopter gearboxes, there is a very wide range
of shaft frequencies, and the associated meshing frequencies and bearing frequencies cover the lowmedium audio
frequency range (till about 8 kHz). This is because the rotational frequency of the input shaft coming into the gearbox
from the gas turbine is typically between 300 and 500 Hz,
and the rotational frequency of the output shaft coming
out of the gearbox and towards the main rotor blade is
about 56 Hz, with many gear mesh stages in between. Furthermore, jet engines produce narrowband noise correlated
to the rotational speed of the propeller itself with very

284

E. Mucchi, A. Vecchio / Measurement 43 (2010) 283293

Helicopter
noise universe

Aerodynamical noise
Tonal components

thickness
and
loading
noise

blade
vortex
interaction

high-speed
impulsive
noise

Mechanical noise
Broadband noise

Turbulence
ingestion
noise

Blade
self
noise

Blade-wake
interaction
noise

Gearbox noise

Jet engine noise

(low-medium audio
freq. range)

(medium-high audio
freq. range)

Tonal component
due to shaft
rotation, gear
meshing, bearings

Tonal component and

broadband noise due to
turbine and compressor
shaft, blade and vane pass
frequencies (BPF,VPF)

Fig. 1. Noise classication in helicopters.

deterministic tones corresponding to the blade-passage

frequency (BPF), the vane-passage frequency (VPF) or the
frequency related to two consecutive overlaps of rotor
and stator blades and their higher harmonics. Since the
power engine of a helicopter is characterized by high rotational speed (about 30,000 rpm) the generated noise due to
the turbine and compressor blades mainly lies in the high
frequency range (1020 kHz), but the harmonics of the turbine and compressor shaft still remain in the lowmedium
frequency range where the human ear is strongly sensitive.
Several researchers focused their attention on helicopter
gearbox noise and vibration behaviour [5], in particular in
[6] advanced signal processing techniques have been developed to separate the gear signals from the bearing signals,
based on their different statistical properties and on evaluating the contribution of gears and bearings to the overall
gearbox noise while in [710] passive and active noise
and/or vibration control (ANC, AVC) have been applied to
the gearbox and main transmission in order to reduce the
emitted vibration and radiated noise.
The requirement of a quieter helicopter rst of all requires a systematic study of its Noise Vibration and Harshness (NVH) behaviour, with special attention to helicopter
operational conditions. A large part of noise and sound design lies in the interaction between the noise and its
sources. Furthermore, sound quality is of great importance
in achieving sound which is agreeable to the human ear, in
fact noise annoyance not only depends on sound exposure
levels. There are also many other acoustic and psychoacoustic factors that play an important role. In this context,
an experimental vibro-acoustic analysis of the helicopter
can help to identify relevant noise and vibration sources.
For these reasons the authors have performed a wide
experimental vibro-acoustic campaign in a helicopter interior cabin. Substantially, the study has two main goals: the
rst goal is to give a systematic methodology for dening
the NVH behaviour of an helicopter in steady-state and
run up operational conditions by using efcient and fast
experimental techniques; the second goal is to evaluate

the importance of the noise contribution produced by the

jet engines with respect to the gearbox as well as to localize possible noise sources and leakage points on the cabin
surface. The leakage points are actually possible noise
sources or locations through which noise can propagate,
they are due to non-homogeneity, fractures or cavities in
the material, defects during assembly (e.g. improper alignment of the seals along the cabin doors or incorrect coupling between cabin surfaces due to split rivets), etc. The
detection of leakage points on the cabin surface is of high
interest for NVH designers and can be a useful tool for
quality control. In fact, such points can cause high noise
levels in the cabin since they can excite the acoustical resonances of the enclosure and determine human discomfort
during ight. Commonly, leakage point detection is performed by using an ultrasonic transmitter/receiver [11],
however it will be shown later on in the paper that the
intensity analysis carried out in this work can be a useful
and precise tool for their localization and quantication.
This research is carried out in the framework of the project FRIENDCOPTER which aims at developing innovative
technologies and tools to support the vibro-acoustic design
of modern helicopters. Due to condentiality reasons, the
mechanical system (gearbox and jet engines) are not described in details, furthermore the vibro-acoustical quantities depicted in the paper are presented without numerical
values. As far as these authors are aware, in the literature, a
quantitative study (in terms of sound quality parameters)
of the relative contribution of the noise emitted by the
jet engines with respect to the gearbox has not yet been
presented for helicopters. Furthermore, an efcient and
fast methodology for analyzing the NVH behaviour of helicopter in steady-state and run up operational conditions
cannot be found. This fact motivated this work.
The measurements have been carried out on the internal
surface of the EC135 helicopter cabin by using an array composed of 16 Microown sensors [12,13]; this array of sound
probes combines both a particle velocity sensor as well as a
miniaturized pressure transducer (PU probes). The data

E. Mucchi, A. Vecchio / Measurement 43 (2010) 283293

have been acquired in operational conditions in which the

helicopter was clamped on the ground while the engines
were limited to 60% of the maximum power and the two rotors giving power to the main blades and to the tail blades
were activated. This operational condition can be considered representative of a possible helicopter operational condition since we are interested in the mechanic-borne noise
only and not in the aerodynamical noise. Such tests were
performed in steady-state operational conditions (constant
main blade speed) and for a run up. Signature and order
tracking analysis was performed using the steady-state
operational data as well as the run up data and the contribution of the gearbox and of the jet engines on the global noise
was evaluated in terms of several sound metrics parameters
[14] (Roughness, Loudness, Sharpness). Concerning the run
up test, a tacho pulse signal is a crucial source of information
as it allows the round per minute (rpm) evolution to be extracted over time and it also serves as a phase reference.
Unfortunately, a reliable tacho trace was not available in
such tests; therefore, a tacholess rpm extraction method
was applied [15] which enables an order tracking analysis
to be performed.
After a brief description of the case study and the experimental setup (Section 2), giving some information about
the jet engines and about the location and type of transducers used, attention is focused on the signature analysis. In
particular, Section 3 addresses the analysis in steady-state
operational conditions (constant rotational speed of the
main blades) showing the results of the vibro-acoustic analysis in terms of power spectral density, operational deection shapes of the helicopter cabin and sound quality
parameters. Section 3 also presents the leakage point detection analysis. Thereafter, in Section 4 the order tracking analysis is discussed and the contribution of the gearbox noise
and the jet engine noise is established in terms of sound
quality parameters. The paper is concluded in Section 5.
2. Case history and experimental setup
The signature analyses presented in this paper have
been performed employing the data acquired from experimental tests conducted on the helicopter EUROCOPTER

285

EC-135 (Fig. 2a). The EC-135 is a light twin-engine, multi-purpose helicopter with up to eight seats for pilot/s
and passengers. The acoustical experimental tests concern
measurements in the internal surface of the helicopter cabin by using a 4  4 Microown sensor array (Fig. 2b),
with a 10 cm spacing between the sensors both horizontally and vertically. The measurements were taken in
the operational condition in which the helicopter was
blocked on the ground with the rotor rotating with the
blades parallel to the ground, so without generating any
lift while the two engines were limited to 60% of the
maximum power. The Microown array was positioned
close to the internal walls so the very near eld assumption is veried [16] and therefore the particle velocities
simply represent the velocities of the cabin internal surface. Therefore, such measurements allow the calculation
of the acoustic intensity [17] on the internal cabin surface
as pressure and particle velocity are acquired simultaneously. Fig. 3a shows all the grid points measured during
the test. The pressure and velocity measurements are acquired in the time domain measuring for 18 s at the sampling frequency of 51,200 Hz using LMS hardware and
software instrumentation. The active acoustic intensity
is then evaluated as the real part of the crosspower between pressure and particle velocity, where the crosspower Spv is dened as [17]:

Spv Sp  Sv

Sp and Sv are the spectrum of the pressure and velocity signals, respectively and  stands for complex conjugate. A
Hanning window has been used to reduce leakage during
measurements and in order to increase the signal to noise
ratio 50 averages have been performed over the 18 s of
available raw data yielding smooth crosspowers. The
crosspowers so calculated must be calibrated, i.e. each
crosspower must be divided by the frequency-dependent
calibration curve peculiar to each Microown sensor. Both
pressure and velocity probes have a correspondent calibration curve, namely Cp and Cv, to be opportunely applied to
the data [18]. Such calibration curves take an imaginary
part and a real one into account. Since the calibration procedure is time consuming one has to divide each ac-

Fig. 2. (a) Helicopter EUROCOPTER EC-135 and (b) 4  4 Microown array.

286

E. Mucchi, A. Vecchio / Measurement 43 (2010) 283293

Fig. 3. (a) Measurement grid points: right back window panel and right door, left back window panel and cabin roof and (b) vibration measurement points:
roof, right door and left door.

quired signal for the correct calibration curve an application in Windows Automation fully-integrated in LMS Test.Lab has been developed. Through such an application, it
is possible to automatically calibrate the crosspowers;
the formula used is the following:

SCpv K

Sp v
C p  C v

where the superscript C stands for calibrated. The constant

multiplication coefcient K is a post-processing sensitivity
value that can be applied to the data: it is useful to take into
account and modify the sensitivity values used during the
acquisitions (e.g. in case of data amplication) and it can
be directly inserted in the dialog box of the developed application. The information containing the location of the measured points (Fig. 3a) and the active acoustic intensity data
calculated by the developed application were exported from
LMS Test.Lab as a universal le and then imported into LMS
Virtual.Lab environment allowing a 3D representation of the
intensity map as shown in the next section.
Simultaneously with the signals coming from the
Microown probes, a horizontal bar holding eight condenser microphones (1/2 in. prepolarized) spaced at
30 cm was used to acquire the noise in proximity of the
right and left side of the helicopter internal cabin with a
sampling frequency of 51,200 Hz. Some acceleration measurements were taken too (Fig. 3b), in order to obtain the
operational deection shapes (ODS) of some panels of the
cabin; in particular, forty PCB piezoelectric accelerometers
(frequency range 110,000 Hz) were positioned inside the
cabin on the roof (30 accelerometers) and on the door panels (5 accelerometers each side), measuring only along the
perpendicular direction of the panels. The ODS analysis has
been performed in order to assess the results obtained by
the PU probes.
3. Signature analysis in steady-state operational
conditions
In the steady-state operational condition, the test is carried out acquiring the signals from Microown probes on

the entire internal surface, moving the sensor array manually and capturing the pressure and particle velocity in all
the measurement points represented in Fig. 3a. Moreover,
in the same operational condition the vibration measurements concerning the 40 above described accelerometers
and the noise measurements regarding the eight microphones were carried out.
Fig. 4 shows a typical example of the autopower of
the pressure probe of a Microown on the roof; two different zones can be easily distinguished: the low frequency range (0 till about 8 kHz) is dominated by the
rotational frequencies, meshing frequencies and relative
harmonics concerning the gearbox (main transmission)
whilst in the high frequency range (825 kHz) the pivotal role is played by the jet engines, and the compressor
in particular (due to condentiality reasons, the curve
amplitude is represented without numerical values). In
fact, the power transmission of a helicopter is divided
into two main parts: one concerning gearing (gearbox)
and one concerning the jet engines (composed of compressors, combustion chambers and turbines). Due to
the different rotational speed of the turbines and compressor with respect to the shafts in the gearbox, the relative harmonics lie in different frequency ranges. In fact,
usually the turbines and compressor rotate at about
30,000 rpm while the shaft of the main blades rotates
100 times slower (at about 350 rpm), In particular, for
the gearbox, the meshing frequencies related to the input
gear, the bevel/spur gears in some intermediate shafts,
the collector gear in the pinion shaft and the spur/bevel
gear in the hydraulic pump shaft lie in the low frequency
range (till 3000 Hz) and their main harmonics excite the
medium frequency range (till about 8 kHz). On the other
hand, the harmonics of the blade pass frequencies and
vane pass frequencies of the compressor and turbine lie
in the high frequency range (1020 kHz) due to the high
rotational speed of the shafts and the high number of
blades. Figs. 5 and 6 show a zoom of Fig. 4 in the low
frequency range, in particular as an example Fig. 5 shows
three harmonics of a meshing frequency related to the
gearbox. In addition to the gear meshing harmonics,

287

Magnitude of Autopower (dB)

E. Mucchi, A. Vecchio / Measurement 43 (2010) 283293

10dB

0.00 2000

4000

6000

8000

10000 12000 14000 16000 18000 20000 22000

26000.00

Frequency [Hz]
Fig. 4. Autopower of the acoustical pressure measured by the pressure probe of a Microown in the internal surface of the helicopter cabin (roof) in the
steady-state operational condition.

determine a decrease in the right sideband amplitude

with respect to the left sidebands [21], as can be seen
in Fig. 6 for the sideband spaced at 56 Hz. Similar characteristics exhibit the harmonics related to the blade
pass tones of the compressor stages; in particular
Fig. 7, representing a zoom of Fig. 4 around 12 kHz,
shows the peak related to the rst stage of the compressor: it is very common in helicopter jet engines for the
rst stage of the compressor to have the BPF component
of high amplitude. Furthermore, usually it is also higher
than the amplitude of the harmonics related to the turbine BPF, as conrmed in [1]. Several sidebands appear

Magnitude of Autopower (dB)

there are some low-order (i.e. rst and second order)

modulation sidebands accompanying them. These modulation effects are generated by transmission errors that
are related to geometric and assembly errors in the gear
pair, such as pitch errors, eccentricity and shaft misalignment [19]. In particular, in Fig. 6 three sideband families
spaced at a frequency corresponding to the rotational
speed of the three shafts involved in such a meshing appear around each meshing frequency. Furthermore, the
study of the sideband amplitude could give information
about the degree of wear of the gearbox, in fact increased clearances between meshing teeth generally

Pha

10dB

180.00

500

8000

Frequency [Hz]
Fig. 5. Autopower of acoustical pressure. Zoom of Fig. 4 from 500 to 8000 Hz. Meshing frequency in the gearbox and its harmonics in the lowmedium
frequency range. The arrows indicate one of the meshing frequencies and its harmonics.

288

E. Mucchi, A. Vecchio / Measurement 43 (2010) 283293

Magnitude of Autopower (dB)

Meshing
frequency
Sidebands 1X26Hz

Sidebands 2X56Hz

10dB

Sidebands 1X56Hz
1800 1850

1900

1950

2000

2050

2100

Sidebands 1X98Hz
2150

2200

2250

2300

2350

2400

Frequency [Hz]
Fig. 6. Autopower of acoustical pressure. Zoom of Fig. 4 around a meshing frequency (from 1800 to 2400 Hz). Meshing frequency and relative sidebands
spaced at 26 Hz, 56 Hz, and 98 Hz.

Magnitude of Autopower (dB)

BPF COMPRESSOR
Sidebands 1X500Hz

10dB

Sidebands 2X500Hz
10000

10500

11000

11500

12000

Sideband 3X500Hz
12500

13000

13500

14000

Frequency [Hz]
Fig. 7. Autopower of acoustical pressure. Zoom of Fig. 4 around the Blade Passage Frequency of the rst stage of the compressor. BPF and relative sidebands
spaced of 500 Hz (corresponding to the frequency of rotation of the compressor shaft).

around the blade-passage frequency (BPF) as occurs

around the meshing frequencies; the sidebands around
a certain main frequency specify the rotational frequency
of the relative shaft and in this case such sidebands are
spaced at 500 Hz corresponding to the compressor shaft
rotational speed (30,000 rpm). The peak at about
25 kHz depicted in Fig. 4, represents the second harmonic of the BPF of the rst compressor stage.
By means of the PU probe measurements on the internal cabin in operational conditions, an intensity map representation can be easily obtained. As example of these
results, Fig. 8 shows the intensity map at the frequency
corresponding to the rst and second harmonic of the
BPF of the rst stage of the compressor (the dB values
are omitted for condential reasons). The amplitude is

clearly high in correspondence to the roof surface (red1 color) highlighting the high level of excitation coming from the
jet engine location. An example of operational deection
shape (ODS) analysis [20] performed in LMS Test.Lab environment by means of the accelerometer measurements on
the cabin roof and lateral doors is represented in Fig. 9; in
particular the gure highlights the same behaviour as the
intensity map at the frequency corresponding to the rst
and second harmonic of the BPF of the compressor. In fact
the ODSs show large deections in the roof panel at such frequencies. So, the intensity map and the ODS analysis can be

1
For interpretation of color in Figs. 8, 10, and 12, the reader is referred to
the web version of this article.

E. Mucchi, A. Vecchio / Measurement 43 (2010) 283293

289

Fig. 8. Active intensity maps on the cabin internal surface at the rst (a) and second (b) harmonic of BPF of the rst stage of the compressor in dB scale.

Fig. 9. Operational deection shapes at the rst (a) and second (b) harmonic of BPF of the rst stage of the compressor obtained by acceleration
measurements on the internal surface of the helicopter cabin.

considered very useful tools for source identication and

relative quantication.
Furthermore, as an example, Fig. 10 shows an intensity
map of the internal surface at the frequency corresponding
to the meshing frequency of the input gear in the gearbox.
The map is able to identify a few leakage points, depicted
with red hot spots on the map and identied with the char-

Fig. 10. Intensity map in dB of the cabin internal surface at the meshing
frequency of the input gear in the gearbox.

acters A, B, C, and G in Fig. 10. These points represent locations where the noise can propagate from the exterior to
the interior, in particular they are located on the boundary
of the doors where the seal between the door and the cabin
is not so efcient from an insulation viewpoint. The knowledge of the location of these defects is of primary importance for the designers who are looking for tools to give
them an insight into where the noise is coming from. This
means that such a test gives information about the locations from where the acoustic radiation can propagate
through the cabin impoverishing the acoustic comfort of
the passengers and pilots. Furthermore, in Ref. [22], ultrasound sensors as well as intensity measurements on the
cabin external surface have been applied to the same helicopter cabin obtaining the same leakage points as using
the intensity maps of the internal cabin surface. This comparison assesses the effectiveness of using such a technique for leakage point detection. Not only the location
of the leakage points but the energy ow dissipated by
these points as a function of frequency on the entire measured frequency range can be obtained by using intensity
measurements. The knowledge of the acoustic intensity
as a function of frequency on each point of the entire cabin
surface can help to identify structural resonances and antiresonances of the cabin, which enables the NVH designers
to make the peaks of the input force spectrum coincident
with the valleys of the structural frequency response functions (see also [23]).

E. Mucchi, A. Vecchio / Measurement 43 (2010) 283293

Loudness [sone]

Sharpness [acum]

290

0.1 [acum]
1 [sone]
2

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Time [s]

Original data
Band-stop BPF
Band-stop meshing freq.

(b)

0 1

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Time [s]

Roughness [asper]

0 1

(a)

0.1 [asper]

(c)

10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Time [s]

Fig. 11. (a) Loudness Stevens 6, (b) Sharpness, and (c) Roughness of the acoustic pressure in the interior of the helicopter cabin (roof) in linear scale: original
row data, data ltered with a band-stop lter around the BPF of the compressor of Fig. 7 and data ltered with a band-stop lter around the meshing
frequency of Fig. 6.

Finally, by using the acoustic pressure data coming from

the eight microphones, some metrics parameters (Loudness, Roughness and Sharpness) [14] are calculated. It is
well known that Loudness is a perceptual measure of the
effect of the energy content of a sound on the human ear,
Sharpness is a measure of the high frequency content of a
sound it allows classication of sounds as shrill/sharp
or dull while Roughness (or harshness) is a quantity associated with amplitude modulations of tones. The curves in
Fig. 11 show such metrics parameters regarding the row
data (solid line) and the band-stop ltered data (dotted
lines); in particular the ltered data are obtained neglecting the contribution of the rst harmonic of the BPF of
the compressor and the rst harmonic of a meshing frequency of the gearbox. The curves are obtained ltering
the data by a band-stop digital lter around the meshing
and blade pass frequency in Figs. 6 and 7, respectively.
Comparing the ltered data with respect to the row data
a notable difference occurs, in particular it can be seen that
the Loudness and the Sharpness of the signal without the
compressor harmonic is always the lowest, conrming that
jet engine noise plays an important role in global perceived
noise. The curves related to the Sharpness of the row data
and the band-stop ltered data around the meshing frequency are overlapped: this behaviour was expected since
such a meshing frequency lies in the low frequency range.
The Roughness is obviously the same in the three cases because the degree of modulation is the same: the band-stop
lter involves only the main frequency and not the sidebands (i.e. the modulation effect). In such a metric param-

eter comparison, the rst meshing harmonic of the input

gear in the gearbox and the BPF of the rst compressor
stage have been involved because they are representative
of important gearbox and jet engine noise phenomena.
4. Signature analysis during a run up
During the run up test only the eight microphones
spaced at 30 cm are used to acquire the noise in proximity
of the right and left side of the helicopter internal cabin.
The run up test was performed gradually increasing the
main blade speed, reaching 60% of the maximum power
after 20 s and then remaining at the reached main blade
speed for another 6 s, globally yielding a run up of approximately 26 s.
As an example of results, Fig. 12 shows a colormap
depicting the pressure spectrum as a function of frequency
(horizontal axis) and as a function of the run up time (vertical axis) concerning one of the eight microphones. The
plot clearly shows two families of harmonic orders, one related to the meshing frequencies of the gearbox (circled in
red in Fig. 12) and one related to the jet engines (circled in
yellow in Fig. 12). The two harmonic order families show
apparently strange and unexpected behaviour, in fact as
the gearbox-related orders always increase in frequency
during the run up test (circled in red in Fig. 12) and remain
constant at the end of the run up test (after 20 s), the jet
engine orders (circled in yellow in Fig. 12) decrease their
frequency at the end of the run up test leading the conclusion that a shaft of the jet engines decreases its rotational

291

E. Mucchi, A. Vecchio / Measurement 43 (2010) 283293

26
24

MAX
Magnitude of Autopower (dB)

22
20

Time [s]

18
16
14
12
10

10dB

8
6
4
2
0

MIN
800

2500

5000

7500

10000

12500

15000

17500

20000

2 2 5 0 0 24000

Frequency [Hz]
Fig. 12. Colormap of the acoustic pressure in terms of autopower in the interior of the helicopter cabin during the run up test (26 s) in dB scale; circled in
red the gearbox-based orders and in yellow the compressor-based orders.

input shaft and one tracking the signal with the rpm curve
of the compressor shaft. As said above, a tacho reference
was not available; for this reason, a tacholess rpm extraction method must be applied. A dominant order is rst
manually tracked, selecting multiple points in the time
frequency spectrogram. A linear curve is then made between the selected points, which serves as an initial estimate of the order-frequency prole. This frequency
prole is then updated by using a zoomed Discrete Fourier
Transform (DFT) peak detection algorithm [15] which
searches for the frequencies with the highest amplitude
values along the initial estimate. Knowing the order number, the obtained updated frequency prole is nally transformed into an rpm curve and a synthetic tacho pulse train.
Using such calculated rpm curves, the two above-mentioned order tracking analyses have been carried out ltering the order related to the meshing frequency of the input
gear and the order related to the BPF of the rst compressor stage (as in the steady-state condition). Then, a few
sound metrics parameters (Roughness and Sharpness) are
calculated from the ltered data and depicted in Fig. 13;

Sharpness [acum]

Roughness [asper]

speed. The reason that justies this behaviour is that the

gearbox and the jet engines are coupled by means of joints
with variable transmission ratios (freewheels and/or centrifugal gearings) in order to avoid impulse effects and
vibrations as well as for safety reasons.
So, with the aim at performing a sound metric comparison as performed in the steady-state condition by ltering
the contribution of the compressor BPF and the contribution of the meshing frequency of the input shaft in the
gearbox, an accurate order tracking technique is hereto
essential. The idea is to apply an order lter to the run
up spectrum for deleting the contribution of the meshing
frequency of the input shaft and the contribution of the
BPF of the compressor as done in the steady-state condition. However, the order lter can only be applied if the
rotational speed is known, moreover the rotational speed
of the input gear in the gearbox and the rotational speed
of the compressor are different and not proportional, due
to the variable transmission ratio in between. Therefore,
two different order tracking analyses have to be performed, one tracking the signal with the rpm curve of the

0.1 [acum]
0.1[asper]
0

(a)

Time [s]

10

11

12

13 14

(b)

10

11

12

13 14

Time [s]

Band-stop BPF
Band-stop meshing freq.
Fig. 13. Sharpness (a) and Roughness (b) of the acoustic pressure in the interior of the helicopter cabin (roof) during the run up (linear scale): data ltered
with an order-stop lter around the BPF of the compressor of Fig. 7 and data ltered with an order-stop lter around the meshing frequency of Fig. 6.

292

E. Mucchi, A. Vecchio / Measurement 43 (2010) 283293

the Sharpness without the contribution of the compressor

order shows lower values with respect to the curve without the contribution of the gear meshing, meaning that
the compressor is responsible for the shrill sound produced
by the helicopter (see Fig. 13a). Concerning the Roughness
comparison, it can be noted that, as in the steady-state
condition, the values are similar (Fig. 13b) because the order lter used does not reduce modulation effects in the
signal.

5. Concluding remarks
An experimental vibro-acoustic characterization of a
EC135 helicopter cabin has been carried out. The work contributes to dene a systematic experimental procedure
aimed at quantifying the relative importance of the noise
produced by the jet engines with respect to the gearbox
in terms of sound quality parameters and dening a fast
and efcient tool for localizing noise and vibration sources
and leakage points in the helicopter cabin. This work was
carried out in the frame of the European project FRIENDCOPTER which aims at developing innovative technologies and tools to support the vibro-acoustic design of
modern helicopters. This activity has led a number of conclusions concerning the effectiveness of the experimental
analysis techniques on the one hand, and the NVH behaviour of a helicopter cabin for design improvement on the
other hand:
 Operational deection shape (ODS) analysis and intensity technique are efcient and fast tools for noise and
vibration source localization and relative quantication;
furthermore, it has been shown in the paper that intensity analysis enables the identication of leakage points
and their characterization in the frequency domain.
 The intensity analysis performed by means of PU
probes yields a notable reduction of measurement time
with respect to the use of classic PP (acoustical pressureacoustical pressure) probes. Moreover, the calibration procedure has been quickened by an automatic
post-processing procedure developed in Windows
Automation.
 The ODS and intensity analyses show that the main noise
and vibration sources are on the roof of the cabin internal
surface and excite the acoustical cabin cavity; it is conrmed that they are due to gearbox and jet engines.
 The contribution of the jet engines is dominant with
respect to the noise produced by the gearbox in terms
of sound quality parameters. In particular, the Loudness
and Sharpness of the jet engines is always higher with
respect to the contribution of the gearbox both in the
steady-state and run up operational conditions. Of pivotal importance for human comfort in the cabin is the
high shrill noise (Sharpness) produced by the jet
engines. On the other hand, the jet engines as well as
the gearbox yield no contribution in terms of Roughness
with respect to the global noise.
 The leakage points in the helicopter cabin are mainly
located in correspondence to the boundary of the doors
where the seal between the door and the cabin is not so

efcient from an insulation viewpoint. Their determination is crucial for NVH design and for quality control in
order to avoid acoustical resonances on the cabin
enclosure.

Acknowledgements
This research was performed in the framework of the
6th European Commission Frame Work Program Integrated Project FRIENDCOPTER Integration of Technologies in Support of a Passenger and Environmentally
Friendly Helicopter. The support of the European Commission is gratefully acknowledged. In addition, Eurocopter is
acknowledged for the available data.
References
[1] L.M. Gelman, D.A. Kripak, V.V. Fedorov, L.N. Udovenko, Condition
monitoring diagnosis methods of helicopter units, Mechanical
System and Signal Processing 14 (4) (2000) 613624.
[2] K. Brentner, F. Farassat, Modeling aerodynamically generated sound
of helicopter rotors, Progress in Aerospace Sciences 39 (2003) 83
120.
[3] A.T. Conlisk, Modern helicopter aerodynamics, Progress in Aerospace
Sciences 37 (2001) 419476.
[4] Manuel Kessler, Siegfried Wagner, Sourcetime dominant
aeroacoustics, Computers and Fluids 33 (56) (2004) 791800.
[5] L. Soon-Seng, Sherman J. Peter, The inuence of period variation on
timefrequency analysis of the Westland helicopter data,
Mechanical System and Signal Processing 14 (4) (2000) 571577.
[6] R.B. Randall, Detection and diagnosis of incipient bearing failure in
helicopter gearboxes, Engineering Failure Analysis II (2004) 177
190.
[7] F. Hoffmann, R. Maier, P. Janker, F. Hermle, A. Berthe, Helicopter
interior noise reduction by using active gearbox structs, in:
Proceedings of the 12th AIAA/CEAS Aerospace Conference,
Massachusetts, Cambridge, 2006 May 810.
[8] L. Dozio, W. Corbetta, E. Vigono, A. Forghieri, G.L. Ghiringhelli,
F. Cenedese, Active solutions for the reduction of the
transmission of structure-borne noise to the cabin structure on a
a109 mockup, in: Proceedings of ISMA2006, Leuven, Belgium, 2006
September 1820.
[9] S.Ramanarayanan Viswamurthy, Ranjan Ganguli, An optimization
approach to vibration reduction in helicopter rotors with multiple
active trailing edge aps, Aerospace Science and Technology 8 (3)
(2004) 185194.
[10] S.M. Hirsch, V. Jayachandran, J. Q Sun, Structural-acoustic control for
quieter aircraft interior-Smart Trim Technology, Composite
Structures 42 (2) (1998) 189202.
[11] P. Hauptmann, R. Lucklum, A. Puttmer, B. Henning, Ultrasonic
sensors for process monitoring and chemical analysis: state of the
art and trends, Sensors and Actuators A67 (1998) 3248.
[12] F. Jacobsen, H.E. De Bree, A comparison of two different sound
intensity measurement principles, Journal of Acoustic Society of
America 118 (3) (2005) 15101517.
[13] H.E. De Bree, P. Leussink, T. Korthorst, H. Jansen, T. Lammerink, M.
Elwenspoek, The microown: a novel device measuring acoustical
ows, Sensors and Actuators SNA054 (13) (1996) 552557.
[14] E. Zwicker, H. Fastl, Psycho-Acoustics Facts and Models, Springer,
1999.
[15] K. Janssens, J. Fromell, A. Vecchio, T. Olbrechts, H. Van del Auweraer,
Synthesis of helicopter interior noise for sound quality analysis, in:
Proceedings of Inter Noise, Istanbul, Turkey, 2007 August 2831.
[16] H.E. De Bree, V.B. Svetovoy, R. Raangs, R. Visser, The very near eld
theory, simulations and measurements, in: Proceedings of the
ICSV11, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2004 July 59.
[17] F. Fahy, Sound Intensity, Taylor & Francis, 1995.
[18] F. Jacobsen, V. Jaud, A note on the calibration of pressurevelocity
sound intensity probes, Journal of Acoustic Society of America 120
(2) (2006) 830837.
[19] R.B. Randall, A new method of modeling gear faults, Journal of
Mechanical Design 104 (1982) 259267.

E. Mucchi, A. Vecchio / Measurement 43 (2010) 283293

[20] L. Hermans, H. Van der Auweraer, Modal testing and analysis
of
structures
under
operational
conditions:
industrial
applications, Mechanical Systems and Signal processing 13 (2)
(1999) 193216.
[21] V. Wowk, Machinery Vibration: Measurement and Analysis,
McGraw-Hill, 1991. ISBN 0070719365.

293

[22] E. Mucchi, E. Pierro, A. Vecchio, Experimental guidelines for NVH

improvements in helicopter vibro-acoustic comfort, in: ASME
Conference, IDETC09, Orlando, August 30September 2, 2009.
[23] E. Pierro, E. Mucchi, L. Soria, A. Vecchio, On the vibro-acoustic
operational modal analysis of a helicopter cabin, Mechanical
Systems and Signal Processing 23 (4) (2009) 12051217.