Aircraft Noise: The major sources, modelling capabilities, and reduction possibilities

Abstract

In October 2014, the first ”Joint DLR & TU Delft Aviation Noise Workshop” was organized. This publication is the executive summary of this event. Overall, 38 invited participants from industry, academia, and research institutions have discussed the specific topic of this first 3 day workshop, i.e ”Aircraft Noise Reduction at the Source”. Four specific tasks were formulated in order to address the problem, i.e. (1) identification of main aircraft noise sources on-board of a given reference vehicle, (2) assessment of simulation capabilities for noise prediction, (3) identification and assessment of promising noise reduction concepts for the reference vehicle, and (4) integration of these measures on-board of the reference vehicle. The major noise sources on-board of the reference vehicle as identified by the participants could have been reduced significantly if selected measures are installed on-board. These proposed measures promise to reduce the system noise by 8 dB along a take-off and by 10 dB along an approach flight. Yet, the almost 65% reduction in perceived noise as specified by ACARE’s Flight Path 2050 could not be achieved. The most effective measure has been identified as structural shielding of engine noise emission.