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Learning objectives

1. Knowledge of the basic aeroacoustics terminology

2. What is sound? What is a sound source?
3. How do we measure noise?
4. How does a flow generate noise?
5. Engineering capability to identify real life noise sources
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Introduction to aeroacoustics
What is sound?

Oxford Living Dictionary:

“ Vibrations that travel through the air or another

medium and that can be heard ”

Sound is a small fluctuation in the medium

properties
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Introduction to aeroacoustics
Sound in gas or liquids consists of compression (longitudinal) waves.
The speed of sound is given by the Newton-Laplace equation, which in gas-form reads:

c = speed of sound (“celeritas”)

𝐾𝐾 gas law 𝜕𝜕𝜕𝜕 K = isentropic bulk modulus or stiffness
c= =
⏞ � coefficient
𝜌𝜌 𝜕𝜕𝜕𝜕 𝑠𝑠
p = pressure
p = density
|s= derived under isentropic conditions
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Introduction to aeroacoustics

General characteristics of sound

Audible sound range (human):
~20 Hz to ~20 kHz

Acoustic pressure fluctuations

Threshold of hearing: ~0.00002 Pa = 20µPa
Threshold of pain: ~200 Pa

Factor of 10 million difference!

Sound levels → log-scale
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Sound Pressure Level

The Sound Pressure Level is defined in a logarithmic decibel scale:

2
𝑝𝑝𝑝𝜎𝜎 𝑝𝑝𝑝𝜎𝜎
SPL dB = 10 log10 2 = 20 log10
𝑝𝑝𝑝0 𝑝𝑝𝑝0
𝑁𝑁
1 𝑇𝑇 1
𝑝𝑝𝑝𝜎𝜎 = RMS(𝑝𝑝𝑝)= � 𝑝𝑝𝑝(𝑡𝑡)2 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 ≅ � 𝑝𝑝𝑝(𝑖𝑖)2
𝑇𝑇 0 𝑁𝑁
𝑖𝑖=1

Only fluctuations of pressure are relevant

p(t) = p∞ + p’(t)
p0 = 20 µPa (air),
2 µPa (water)
(hearing threshold at 1 kHz)
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Sound pressure level

The logarithmic scale allows us to cover a wide range of
applications

Threshold of pain: 140 dB

Jet engine @100 m: 120 dB
Inside noisy factory: 90 dB
Vacuum cleaner @3 m: 70 dB
Wind turbine @150 m: 55 dB
Inside average office: 50 dB
Soft whisper: 30 dB
Sound studio: 20 dB
Threshold of hearing: 0 dB

SPL depends on the distance!!!

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Sound power level

The Sound Power Level PWL defines the total amount of sound power (in Watt) that is produced.

We define the sound power P [W] as:

2
𝑝𝑝𝑝𝜎𝜎 𝑃𝑃
P = � 𝐼𝐼𝐼𝐼𝐼𝐼 = � 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 → PWL dB = 10 log10
𝜌𝜌0 𝑐𝑐0 𝑃𝑃𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟

With Pref = 10-12 W Sound carries little power!!

PWL SPL
• IS a property of the sound source • IS NOT a property of the sound source
• IT DOESN’T depend on the distance • IT DOES depend on the distance
• Doubling the distance → no difference • Doubling the distance → - 6 dB

Spherical source in air:

SPL = PWL-11 dB – 20∙log(r)
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Example 1
Let’s consider the noise of a Jet Fighter. How many shouting people can reproduce the same level
of the noise of a jet fighter?

Jet fighter level: ~160 dB

Human shout: ~80 dB

Calculation:
2 2
𝑝𝑝𝑝𝜎𝜎𝜎𝜎𝜎𝜎𝜎𝜎 𝑁𝑁 � 𝑝𝑝𝑝𝜎𝜎𝜎𝜎𝜎𝜎𝜎𝜎
2 = 2
𝑝𝑝𝑝0 𝑝𝑝𝑝0
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Example 2
Two sound sources:
Each produce a SPL of 90 dB at a certain location d

What is the total SPL?

We are looking for the solution of 90 dB + 90 dB

𝑝𝑝1 = 𝐴𝐴1 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝜔𝜔1 𝑡𝑡 + 𝜑𝜑1

� 𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅 𝑝𝑝1 + 𝑝𝑝2 = 𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅 𝐴𝐴1 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝜔𝜔1 𝑡𝑡 + 𝜑𝜑1 + 𝐴𝐴2 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝜔𝜔2 𝑡𝑡 + 𝜑𝜑2
𝑝𝑝2 = 𝐴𝐴2 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝜔𝜔2 𝑡𝑡 + 𝜑𝜑2
𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅 𝐴𝐴1 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝜔𝜔1 𝑡𝑡 + 𝜑𝜑1 + 𝐴𝐴2 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝜔𝜔2 𝑡𝑡 + 𝜑𝜑2 =
1 𝑇𝑇 2
� 𝐴𝐴1 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 2 𝜔𝜔1 𝑡𝑡 + 𝜑𝜑1 + 𝐴𝐴2 2 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 2 𝜔𝜔2 𝑡𝑡 + 𝜑𝜑2 + 2𝐴𝐴1 𝐴𝐴2 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝜔𝜔1 𝑡𝑡 + 𝜑𝜑1 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝜔𝜔2 𝑡𝑡 + 𝜑𝜑2 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑
𝑇𝑇 0
Any value below 96 dB is correct:
• Summing two equal incoherent sources: SPL+3 dB (10 log2)
• Summing two equal in-phase sources: SPL+6 dB (10 log4)
• Sources at different frequencies are always incoherent!
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Exercise
Subtracting sound levels: important for background noise correction and multiple noise sources.
For incoherent sources:
𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆1 𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆2
𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆1 − 𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆2 = 10𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙 10 10 − 10 10

Example
90 dB + 90 dB = 93 dB

93 dB + 90 dB = 90 dB

Example: background noise correction

• Turbine noise measurement shows SPL of 55 dB

• Measurement with stopped turbine shows 48 dB
What is the real turbine noise level?

55 dB – 48 dB = 54 dB
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Wave equation
The behavior of propagating sound waves is described by wave equations. In order to derive the
wave equation we start from conservation of mass and momentum.

Hp: viscous forces small perturbations

external forces isentropic flow
Step 1: Conservation of mass and momentum
𝜕𝜕𝜕𝜕
+ 𝛻𝛻 � 𝜌𝜌𝑢𝑢 = 0
𝜕𝜕𝑡𝑡
𝜕𝜕𝑢𝑢
𝜌𝜌 + 𝑢𝑢 � 𝛻𝛻𝑢𝑢 + 𝛻𝛻 � (𝑝𝑝𝑰𝑰 − 𝝉𝝉) = 𝑓𝑓⃗
𝜕𝜕𝑡𝑡

Step 2: Neglect viscosity and external forces and small perturbation

𝜕𝜕𝜕𝜕 𝜕𝜕𝜕𝜕 We drop the
+ 𝛻𝛻 � 𝜌𝜌𝑢𝑢 = 0 𝑝𝑝 = 𝑝𝑝̂ + 𝑝𝑝′ + 𝜌𝜌∞ 𝛻𝛻 � 𝑢𝑢′ = 0
𝜕𝜕𝑡𝑡 ′ 𝜕𝜕𝑡𝑡 primes for
𝜕𝜕𝑢𝑢 𝜌𝜌 = 𝜌𝜌
� + 𝜌𝜌
𝜕𝜕𝑢𝑢′
𝜌𝜌 + 𝑢𝑢 � 𝛻𝛻𝑢𝑢 + 𝛻𝛻𝛻𝛻 = 0 𝑢𝑢 = 𝑢𝑢� + 𝑢𝑢′ 𝜌𝜌∞ + 𝑢𝑢′ � 𝛻𝛻𝑢𝑢′ + 𝛻𝛻𝛻𝛻 = 0 simplicity
𝜕𝜕𝑡𝑡 𝜕𝜕𝑡𝑡
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Wave equation
Step 3: We add an additional equations from the constitutive equations: gas law

𝜕𝜕𝑝𝑝 Using the stiffness definition The approximation

𝑐𝑐 2 = � 𝑝𝑝 = 𝜌𝜌𝑐𝑐 2 /𝛾𝛾 holds:
𝜕𝜕𝜕𝜕 𝑠𝑠 and an isentropic gas:

This allow us to compute the 𝑝𝑝 Compression and

𝑐𝑐 = 𝛾𝛾 expansions in sound
speed of propagation for ideal 𝜌𝜌
gases (speed of sound) are generally too fast
Dry air: Ra = 287.14 kJ/kgK for heat conduction
Example → ideal gas: 𝑝𝑝
= 𝑅𝑅𝑎𝑎 𝑇𝑇 T = 20 °C = 293 K
𝜌𝜌
c = 340 m/s
We combine previous equations:
1 𝜕𝜕 2 𝑝𝑝
2 2
− 𝛻𝛻 2 𝑝𝑝 = 0 Homogeneous wave
𝑐𝑐 𝜕𝜕𝑡𝑡
equation
It describes waves travelling at c through a medium.