Auralization of novel aircraft configurations

Abstract

A joint initiative of NLR, DLR, and TU Delft has been initiated to streamline the process of generating audible impressions of novel aircraft configurations. The integrated approach adds to the value of the individual tools and allows predicting the sound of future aircraft before they actually fly. Hence, an existing process for the aircraft design and system noise prediction at DLR has been upgraded to generate the required input data for an aircraft auralization framework developed by NLR and TU Delft. This paper presents the new process and an initial application towards the fully automated auralization of novel aircraft configurations within the conceptual aircraft design phase. Such an early auralization of the new designs enables the aircraft designer to assess the success of selected low-noise measures in an intuitive way in addition to the conventional measures, e.g. noise isocontour areas. The auralization result is able to capture all the predicted noise shielding measures used in the current application and indicates that, for an approach condition, drastically reduced ground noise exposure can be achieved.