Experimental Research on Noise Reduction for Continuous Transonic Wind Tunnel Loop

Abstract

The noise level of wind tunnel test section is respected as one of the most important performance specifications to represent the flow field quality, especially for large scale wind tunnel. According to the acoustic experimental research conducted in the 0.6 m continuous transonic wind tunnel of CARDC, main noise sources in the tunnel loop included the compressor, the high-speed diffuser and the test section. To reduce the noise in the test section, it is necessary to prevent the test section from the compressor noise propagated both forward and backward. In 0.6 m wind tunnel loop, acoustic treatments were installed on both the compressor rear cone and the fourth corner to prevent the noise emitted from the compressor from propagating forward. The vanes in the forth corner were filled with glass fibers and covered with perforated panels. And the compressor rear cone was covered with three layers of micro-perforated panels. With acoustic treatment in the tunnel loop and the second throat throttling, the fluctuation pressure coefficient (ΔCp) is lower than 0.8%, which is close to the international advanced level.

Keywords

• continuous wind tunnel
• transonic wind tunnel
• noise reduction
• experiment
• acoustic treatment