Prediction of Noise Radiation from Basic Configurations

of Landing Gears by Means of Computational

Aeroacoustics
Peter Drage
MAGNA STEYR Fahrzeugtechnik AG & Co KG
Liebenauer Hauptstraße 317, 8041 Graz, Austria
Tel.: +43/316/404-7255
Fax: +43/316/404-6133
E-Mail: peter.drage@magnasteyr.com

Bruno Wiesler
FH JOANNEUM GmbH, Degree Programme Luftfahrt/Aviation, Alte Poststr. 149,
A-8010 Graz, Austria

Pieter van Beek, Leonard van Lier, Rene Parchen

TNO Science & Industry, Stieltjesweg 1, 2600 AD Delft, The Netherlands

Peter Tibaut
AVL List GmbH, Hans List Platz 1, A-8010 Graz, Austria

1. ABSTRACT the noise levels in the far field upon integrating

Noise radiation from aircraft during the landing
and starting phase has become a major issue for
inhabitants living in the vicinity of airports and thus
for regulation authorities and aircraft developers.
However the numerical simulation of aero
acoustic noise, especially for complex geometries
like a landing gear, remains one of the most
difficult challenges in aero acoustics.
The present study, aiming at predicting noise
radiation from basic geometries as well as the
noise radiation of a simplified landing gear,
employs a hybrid approach that combines a CFD
simulation with the decoupled Computational Aero
Acoustics (CAA) simulation. Flow-induced noise is
assumed to originate from turbulence. Reynolds-
averaged Navier Stokes equations with different
closure approaches can be employed to gain the
required turbulent quantities.
Subsequently, quantities as the mean flow
velocities, pressure, density, turbulent kinetic
energy and dissipation rate of the CFD simulation
are the starting point for the generation of the
transient acoustic sources by the Stochastic
Noise Generation and Radiation (SNGR) method.
It is assumed that the acoustic phenomena do not
provide feedback to the mean flow field and
turbulence and thus a recalculation of the flow
field is not required. Since the propagation of
sound is insignificantly influenced by turbulent and
viscous effects, it can be described by Euler
equations in the near field.
The CAA simulation is extended with a Ffowcs
Williams Hawkings (FWH) module that calculates
the surface source terms on a porous FWH
surface within the CAA domain. The results of the
simulations are compared with experimental data,
obtained by measurements in an acoustic wind
tunnel.
2. Zusammenfassung
Durch startende und landende Flugzeuge
verursachter Lärm wird in der Nähe von
Flughäfen immer mehr zum Problem und ist
deshalb ein wichtiges Thema sowohl für
Behörden als auch für Herstellerfirmen. Die
numerische Simulation von aeroakustischem
Lärm, speziell jener der durch sehr komplexe
Geometrien wie ein Flugzeug-Fahrwerk erzeugt
wird, stellt jedoch eine herausfordernde Aufgabe
für die Wissenschaft dar.
Die hier präsentierte Studie zeigt, wie mittels
eines hybriden Ansatzes, der eine Computational
Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Simulation mit einer
Computational Aeroacoustics (CAA) Simulation
koppelt, die Schallerzeugung und
Schallausbreitung eines Fahrwerkes simuliert
werden kann. Als Ursache für dieses
Strömungsrauschen werden turbulente
Luftbewegungen angesehen. Die turbulenten
Kenngrößen können mit den Reynolds-Averaged
Navier Stokes (RANS) Gleichungen mit
verschiedenen Ansätzen zur Schließung des
Gleichungssystems (=Turbulenzmodellierung)
berechnet werden.
Ausgehend von den mittels CFD berechneten
Größen mittlere Geschwindigkeit, Druck, Dichte,
turbulente kinetische Energie und Dissipationsrate
können mittels der Stochastic Noise Generation
and Radiation (SNGR) Methode Schallquellen
errechnet werden. Unter der Annahme, dass die
akustischen Phänomene keinen Einfluss auf das
Strömungsfeld und die Turbulenz haben, ist eine
neuerliche Berechung der Strömung nicht nötig.
Da die Ausbreitung des Schalls von turbulenten
und viskosen Effekten kaum beeinflusst wird,
können für deren Berechung die Euler
Gleichungen herangezogen werden.
Um die Ausbreitung des Schalls auch außerhalb
des CFD-CAA Netzes berechnen zu können,
werden die instationären Druckfluktuationen auf
einer durchlässigen Oberfläche innerhalb des
CAA Bereichs verwendet. Mittels des Ffowcs
Williams Hawkings (FWH) Moduls kann nun die
Ausbreitung des Schalls ins Fernfeld ermittelt
werden.
Um diese Methode zu validieren werden die
Simulationsergebnisse mit Messungen, welche in
einem akustischen Windkanal durchgeführt
wurden, verglichen.
3. INTRODUCTION
The past years are characterized by a significant
reduction of jet noise owing to the adoption of
high-bypass-ratio turbofan engines on civil
aviation aircraft. However, the aerodynamic noise,
which is most important during aircraft landing
when the engines are operating at reduced thrust
with the high-lift devices and landing gear
deployed, is an important scientific issue.
The prediction of airframe noise of landing gears
is difficult, mainly because of the complexity of the
geometry and the surrounding sound field.
Despite the remarkable progress that has been
made in numerical simulation technologies in
recent years, solving the flow and predicting the
noise field generated around a detailed landing
gear assembly is still a challenging task.
When the aero acoustic simulations were started
a careful assessment of available approaches
was performed. The decision was made for a
hybrid method, where the flow and acoustic
simulations are performed sequentially. The mean
flow quantities are obtained on the basis of
Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) flow
simulations. The acoustic quantities are
calculated by a tree-fold approach: (1) with the
stochastic noise generation and radiation
approach (SNGR) [8] for acoustic source
generation, (2) with a set of linearized Euler
equations (LEE) for the noise propagation in the
near field and (3) with a Ffowcs William Hawkins
(FWH) approach for the noise propagation to the
far field. This method was rated to be the best
choice in respect to the actual common practice of
CFD simulations in industry and in respect to
accuracy and project turnaround times. In contrast
to semi-analytical approaches, the handling of
geometries of any complexity is naturally
incorporated in the hybrid CFD-CAA approach [4].
Regarding highly sophisticated CFD methods, the
coupling of aero acoustic simulations with large
eddy and direct numerical simulations methods
awaits the widespread establishment of these
methods for pure flow simulations in industry.
In the work presented here, simulations to predict
noise radiation of basic geometries respectively
the noise radiation of a simplified Boeing 747
nose landing gear are performed. The basic
geometry is a simple half cylinder between two
plates. The applied hybrid approach leads to an
increase in feasibility and flexibility and enables
the user to limit the CAA simulation to the
acoustic interesting regions.
4. DESCRIPTION OF THE METHOD
The SWIFT CAA simulations are based on a
decoupled hybrid approach. The acoustic (CAA)
calculations are separated from the flow (CFD)
calculations; thereby assuming the turbulence to
be autonomous sources of sound, only fed by the
mean flow, see Snellen et al. [8]. Several steps
can be discerned within the calculation, see
Figure 1.
Step 1: CFD simulation
with RANS solver
Step 2:Source Generation
Step 3: Acoustics loads-radiated noise
with Unstructured LEE Solver coupled
with FWH module
Figure 1: Hybrid Approach
The steady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes
(RANS) calculation provides the input for the time
accurate CAA simulation. The mean flow
quantities density ρ, velocity u, v, w and the static
pressure p, as well as the Turbulent Kinetic
Energy (TKE) k and the Turbulent Dissipation
Rate (TDR) ε are used.
In the second step the noise sources S1 to S5 are
calculated by means of the SNGR method [8].
The source term S1 is due to the linearization of
the mass equation, the source terms S2, S3 and
S4 result from the linearization of the momentum
equations and the source term S5 is caused by
the linearization of the energy equation. All source
terms are a function of the turbulent velocity ut.
The following section describes the second step
in the hybrid approach, i.e. the acoustic source
generation in detail: The source terms are
computed employing a reconstruction of the time-
dependent turbulent flow [7]. This reconstruction
is achieved by regarding the turbulence as a
pseudo-stochastic phenomenon with many
different length scales and time scales. Snellen
argues that for locally homogeneous turbulence
the turbulent velocity distribution can be
synthesized, by assuming that the turbulent
velocity distribution can be expressed as a Fourier
integral:
r r r r r r r r
ut ( x ) = ò éëu% (k ) eiy (k )s (k ) ùûei (k × x ) d k ,
r double counting. There is of course an 'indirect'
with k denoting the wave-vector, ψ a random
r
phase, and s the direction of the turbulent
velocity vector. The turbulent velocity distribution
can be regarded to be locally homogeneous; this
means that the variation of the TKE k and of the
Turbulent Length Scale (TLS) Λ is small across
distances of the order of Λ. In this manner, the
above equation can be rewritten as
r r
{ r r
}
ut ( x ) = ò éëu% (k ) s (k ) ùû ×
{ ë
r r
r
r r r r
û }r
écos (k × x + y (k ) ) + i sin (k × x +y (k ) ) ù d k
and since u should be a real number
r r
{ r r r r r r
ut ( x ) = ò éëu% (k ) s (k ) ùû cos (k × x + y (k ) ) d k .
Following Snellen et al. [7], the integral is then
replaced by a finite sum of modes, each with its
own wave vector and its own velocity amplitude
and direction, respectively. Employing N Fourier
modes for discretizing the above integral and
considering only a half-sphere, the following
expression for the turbulent velocity is obtained
N
r r r r
ut ( x ) = 2å u%n cos (k n × x + y n ) s n ,
n =1
where ψn is selected randomly in the range [0 2p],
but is independent of the position. The wave
vector κn is selected randomly as well, but the
absolute values of the N wave numbers should be
such that they sufficiently cover the appropriate
wavenumber domain.
To determine the mode amplitudes, a definition of
the distribution of the energy over the
wavenumber is required. To obtain this
distribution, the Von Karman spectrum can be
employed, which has a physical and not an
empirical basis. The parameters that determine
the spectrum shape are position dependent via
the local frequency and length scale extracted
from the CFD input. There is one "spectrum
shape" per location, as the turbulent flow
properties differ from point to point. Denoting the
distribution by E(κ), the expression for the mode
u% = E (k ) dk .
amplitudes is n n
The noise sources due to the presence of the
solid boundaries are included via the solid
boundary conditions in the LEE solver. This
accounts for effects like reflection and diffraction.
There is no 'direct' interaction between the solid
boundary and the volume source terms: the
source terms are computed from local quantities,
e.g. local turbulence velocities, mean flow
r
velocities and their gradients. There is thus no
interaction between the boundary and the volume
source terms, via the CFD-input: close to a wall,
large gradients in flow velocities, TKE and
dissipation levels may occur, which leads
generally to high volume source terms.
According to Blom [1], the propagation of sound
can be described by the Linearized Euler
Equations (LEE) under the assumption that there
is no significant feedback (or back-reaction) of the
sound to the mean flow. In the linearization
process the possibility of representing feedback is
lost. The Linearized Euler Equations are
considered as
r r ¶ r ¶ r r r
( )
L U = U+
¶t ¶x j
Fj U = S , ( )
} r
describing the perturbation
r
U = ( r , u , v, w, p )
with regard to the mean flow and the source terms
r
S.
As a third step the LEE are solved with a
Discontinuous Galerkin Solver (DIGS). The
numerical method for solving the equations is
based on a quadrature-free implementation of the
Discontinuous Galerkin finite-element method [8]. plates in order to avoid interaction of the wind
Further details on the DIGS can be found in [1]. tunnel’s shear layer and the cylinder tips.
To predict the pressure signal outside of the CAA
domain, DIGS is coupled with the FWH module.
The simple integration of the surface source terms
on a porous FWH surface does account for the
quadrupole sources enclosing within the surface
[9]. Thus only surface integrals are needed for the
calculation of the far field sound, instead of the
volume integrals required by the traditional
acoustic analogy method. Figure 2: The original model of the half cylinder in
The generalized conservation equations (mass, the wind tunnel, the CAD model for the CFD
momentum, energy) can be manipulated into the simulation.
form of an inhomogeneous wave equation. The The experiments and the CFD simulations are
solution to the FWH equation is given in an performed with four different inlet velocities, 26.4,
integral representation: 31.6, 36.8 and 41.8 m/s. The correlating Reynolds
r é Q& + L& / c ù numbers based on the diameter of the half
4p p ' ( x, t ) = ò ê ú dS + cylinder are 5.33E+04, 6.38E+04, 7.43E+04 and
êë r (1- Mr ) úûret
f =0 2
8.44E+04 respectively.
Four Microphones, flush mounted in the plates,
é L -L ù
are placed in the near field and six microphones
ò f =0
ê 2 r M 2 ú dS +
êë r (1- Mr ) úûret in a distance of one meter from the half cylinder’s
centerline capture the noise in the far field.
( (
é ( Q + L / c) rM& + c M - M 2 ) ) ùú
òf =0 êê
r r r
dS,
r (1- Mr ) ú
2 3

ë ûret
with
Q = r un - r vn ,
Li = Pij + r ui ( un - vn ) ,
and where LM denotes the inproduct of Li with Mi
[9]. The above equation can be solved Figure 3: Microphone positions for the
analytically, as a consequence the distance of the measurements in the near field.
observer location from the source does not
influence the simulation time.

5. RESULTS
The CAA approach as described in the previous
section is used for determining the flow-induced
noise for a number of practical applications. The
CFD software package SWIFT is used to solve
the three-dimensional RANS equations. In the first
part of this section, simulations to predict the
noise from a basic half cylinder placed between
two plates are described. The second part
describes the investigations performed on the
Figure 4: Microphone positions for the
landing gear.
measurements in the far field.
5.1 Aero acoustics of a basic geometry The simulations monitoring locations are in
The experiments are performed in the aero correspondence with the experimental
acoustic wind tunnel of TNO, equipped with microphone positions.
silencers in the ducting and an anechoic test The computational grids were built with care. For
chamber [3]. capturing the details of the turbulent flow motion a
The geometry used for the basic investigations suitable grid with about 2 Mio. mesh cells and with
can be seen in Figure 2. The half cylinder with a max. y+ values in the regions of interest of 100 is
diameter of 31 mm is mounted between two generated.
The turbulent flow features are accounted for by
the k-e turbulence model and the log-law is
applied at the solid walls.

The CFD simulations show high production

rates of turbulence at the sharp leading edge of
the geometry and the convection around the
geometry.

26.4 m/s 31.6 m/s

36.8 m/s 41.8 m/s

Figure 5: Distribution of Turbulent Kinetic
Energy for the different inlet velocities.
Results of the aero acoustic noise generation and
propagation, the pressure fluctuations in a cut-
plane respectively on the reflecting surface of the
object, are shown in Figure 6 The fluctuations
range between -20 and 20 Pa and are input for
the calculation of the Overall Sound Pressure
Level (OASPL). It can be seen how the pressure
waves radiate from the source. The OASPL for
the simulation with a free stream velocity of 41.8
m/s ranges between 110 and 130 dB.
Figure 6: Pressure fluctuations in a horizontal and
a vertical plane through the cylinder.
Figure 7 compares experimental data with results
obtained from the hybrid approach exemplarily. All
these microphone locations are in the acoustic
near field of the half cylinder.
Figure 7: Sound Pressure Levels at
different microphone locations in the near
field, the velocities range from 26.4 to 41.8
m/s. The microphones are placed flush
mounted in the end plates at distances of
0.08 m (mic. 27) and 0.1 m (mic. 29).
Generally, the increase of the sound pressure
level due the increase of the free stream velocity
is well captured by the simulations, although the
absolute levels are continuously underpredicted.
The CAA grids used for the far field simulations
contain an additional FWH surface, see Figure 8.
All information that passes this surface is
integrated over the surface and hence the
pressure fluctuations in the far field can be
calculated. The pressure signal is recorded with
virtual microphones at various locations. The
resulting SPL decays with the inverse of the
distance from the source region, as shown in
Figure 8.
 Also the results in the far field show good quality
regarding the velocity scaling and the prediction of
absolute values at mid frequencies (500 to
2000Hz). At frequencies below 500 Hz large
deviations occur. These deviations can be caused
by a number of aspects.
At low frequencies the noise production is
dominated by large structures. These large
structures are represented by the low wave
numbers in the turbulence energy spectrum.
While for large wave numbers the shape of the
energy spectrum is well established, at low wave
numbers, the shape turbulence energy spectrum
is still a matter of debate.
Furthermore, the assumption of isotropy used in
the source description is not valid for these wave
numbers.
Finally, owing to the large wave lengths
associated with the low frequencies of the
radiated noise, the porous FWH surface is located
in the acoustic near field of both the turbulent
sources as well as the non-reflecting boundaries
of the computational domain. This results in a
very strong sensitivity to small phase errors.
Figure 8: Porous Ffowcs Williams Hawkings
surface around the half cylinder. The FWH
surface captures the pressure fluctuations
and calculates the acoustic signal outside of
the surface. The resulting SPL decays with
the inverse of the distance.
The CAA simulations are compared with
experimental measurements in the far field.
Figure 9 shows the results for the comparison in
the far field exemplarily.

Figure 9: SPL obtained with the FWH

module at different microphone locations in
the far field, the velocities range from 31.4
to 41.8 m/s. The microphone is placed at a
distance of 1 m from the cylinder; the angle
to the free stream velocity is 67.5 °.
5.2 CAA simulation of a simplified landing
gear
Numerical investigations on aircraft landing gear
noise are presented. The study consists of
systematic testing and data analysis, using the
full-scale Boeing 747 nose landing gear. Two
geometric configurations, differing by
mounted/dismounted lamp on the main strut, are
tested in order to assess the impact of geometric
changes on the radiated sound pressure levels.
The main difficulty in landing gear noise prediction
is the high number of (small, but important)
components on the gear. A precise understanding
of how each of these items produces noise,
respectively how the components interact, could
lead to a dramatic reduction in the perceived
noise levels. Hence with the tool of Computational
Aero Acoustics it should be possible to catalogue
the gear components into groups according to the
characteristics of their noise.
The following figures, which compare the original
geometry of the Boeing 747 nose landing gear
with the available CAD model, gives an
impression of the effort for detailed landing gear
noise prediction.
The following figures compare the different
amounts of TKE for the two configurations. The
free stream velocity for the CFD simulation is
76.4m/s. The Reynolds number based on the
diameter of the wheel (0.97m) is 4.83E+06; the
Reynolds number based on the main strut with a
a diameter of 0.18 m is 8.96E+05.
LDG lamp LDG clean
LDG lamp LDG clean
Figure 11: Turbulent Kinetic Energy in a
horizontal respectively a vertical cut plane
through the main strut of the landing gear.
The Turbulent Kinetic Energy is high in the region
around the lamp. In general all kind of edges,
nooks or sharp transitions cause turbulence, and
so does the lamp. Note the difference of kinetic
energy that impacts on the telescopic strut. Also
the levels in the wake of the telescopic strut are
higher, especially at the position where the lamp
is mounted. The sound generation and SPL in this
area are therefore expected to be noticeable
higher for the configuration with the lamp than for
that without the lamp.

Figure 10: Comparison of the original

Boeing 747- 400 nose landing gear and the
available CAD model. The flow around the
landing gear is depicted in the figure below.
The following figures show pressure fluctuations geometry, in the present case a lamp, leads to
around the telescopic strut. These fluctuations significant changes in the radiated sound.
range from -200 Pa to 200 Pa and are input for
the calculation of the OASPL for this case. The 7. COMMONLY USED NOTATION
SPL's are symmetric around the geometry; the c speed of sound
0
influence of the lamp on the radiated sound is
E energy
noticeable, see Figure 12.
H(f) Heaviside function
ì1 ® f > 0
H(f )=í
î0 ® f < 0
M Mach number
Mr Mach number in the radiation
direction, FHW module
p pressure
Pij = pd ij - t ij
u , v, w Cartesian velocity components of
the velocity
un fluid velocity, background flow,
FWH module
vn speed of the moving object, FWH
module
S1 Source term due to linearization
of the mass equation
S 2 , S3 , S 4 Source terms due to linearization
of the momentum equation
S5 Source term due to linearization
of the energy equation
Figure 12: Pressure fluctuations in a plane
k wave number
r density
around the telescopic strut of the landing y
gear and the resulting OASPL. The SPL for random phase (SNGR method)
r
the LDG lamp configuration are 10 to 15 dB s direction of the turbulent velocity
higher. vector

6. CONCLUSIONS
A hybrid CFD-CAA method is employed for the
assessment of actual prospects in noise
predictions for landing gears within industrial time
and resource constrains. Two cases are carried
out, the first one aiming to predict the noise
radiation from a basic geometry i.e. a half
cylinder, placed in a low turbulent flow, the
second one aiming to perform an aero acoustic
simulation on a real scale (simplified) landing
gear.
The results of the simulations are compared with
experimental data for the half cylinder case. The
simulation results show satisfying agreement with
experimental data for both, the predictions in the
near and the far field, in view of trend analyses.
The simulations with the simplified Boeing 747
nose landing gear show that the used method is
capable of handling complex, full scale
geometries. The impact on the characteristic
noise field, when changes in the geometry are
made, is shown. Removing a small part of the
8. REFERENCES
[1] Blom, C. P. A., Verhaar, B.T., van der
Heijden, J.C., Soemarwoto, B.I., “A
Linearized Euler Method Based Prediction
of Turbulence Induced Noise using Time-
averaged Flow Properties”, AIAA paper
2001–1100
[2] Drage P., Wiesler B. van Beek P., van Lier
L., Parchen R., Tibaut P., “Application of
the SNGR Method to Predict Noise
Radiation from Basic Configurations of
Landing Gears”, Int. User Meeting, AVL,
Graz, Austria,2005,
[3] Golliard, J. Noise of Helmhotz-resonator
like cacities excted by a low Mach-number
turbulent flow, PhD thesis, École
Supérieure d’Ingénieurs de Poitiers, 2002
[9] Souliez, F.J., Long, L.N., Morris, P.J.,
Sharma A., “Landing gear aerodynamic
noise prediction using unstructured grids”,
International Journal of aeroacoustics,
volume 2, 2002, pp. 115-135
[10] Védy E., L. Van Lier, R.R. Parchen, J.
Golliard, P.J.G. van Beek, P. Tibaut, W.
Baier, Application of Statistical Noise
Generation and Radiation for aeroacoustic
predictions in the automotive industry,
2005 SAE NVH Congress, Traverse City
MI, paper no. 2005-01-2494
[11] Wiesler B., Tibaut P., van Lier L., Goilliard
J., Vedy E., “Prediction of Turbulence
Induced Noise within Product
Development Processes“, Proceedings,
Noise-Con 2004, Baltimore, MD, 2004

[4] Longatte E., Lafon P., Candel S.,

“Computation of Noise Generation by
Turbulence in Internal Flows”, AIAA 98-
2332, 4th AIAA/CEAS Aeroacoustics
Conference, Toulouse, France, June 2-
4, 1998

[5] Michalowski S., van Beek P., “Noise

Prediction in the Vehicle Interior with an
Integrated CFD-CAA-SEA Approach,
Proceedings, AVL International User
Meeting 2005, AVL, Graz, Austria, 2005

[6] Michalowski S., P. Kalinke, P. Borne, D.

Elseberg, P.J.G. van Beek,
Aeroakustikentwicklung von Cabriolets
unter Einsatz von Strömungssimulation, 6.
Int. Stuttgarter Symposium Kraftfahrwesen
und Verbrennungsmotoren, February
2005

[7] Snellen, M., van Lier, L., Golliard, J.,

Védy, E., “Prediction of the Flow-Induced
Noise for practical Applications using the
SNGR Method”, paper presented at the
“Tenth International Congress of Sound
and Vibration,” © 2003

[8] Snellen, M., van Lier, M., Rops, C.

Janssens, M.H.A., van Heck, J.,
Strumolo,G.S., “Flow-Induced Noise
around the A-Pillar of an Idealized Car
Greenhouse”, AIAA paper 2002-2548
Keywords:

Computational Fluid Dynamics, Aeroacoustics,

Hybrid Approach, Landing gear,