A Numerical Study of Aerodynamic Performance and Noise of a Bionic Airfoil Based on Owl Wing

Noise reduction and efficiency enhancement are the two important directions in the development of the multiblade centrifugal fan. In this study, we attempt to develop a bionic airfoil based on the owl wing and investigate its aerodynamic performance and noise-reduction mechanism at the relatively low Reynolds number. Firstly, according to the geometric characteristics of the owl wing, a bionic airfoil is constructed as the object of study at Reynolds number of 12,300. Secondly, the large eddy simulation (LES) with the Smagorinsky model is adopted to numerically simulate the unsteady flow fields around the bionic airfoil and the standard NACA0006 airfoil. And then, the acoustic sources are extracted from the unsteady flow field data, and the Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings (FW-H) equation based on Lighthill's acoustic theory is solved to predict the propagation of these acoustic sources. The numerical results show that the lift-to-drag ratio of bionic airfoil is higher than that of the traditional NACA 0006 airfoil because of its deeply concave lower surface geometry. Finally, the sound field of the bionic airfoil is analyzed in detail. The distribution of the A-weighted sound pressure levels, the scaled directivity of the sound, and the distribution of dP/dt on the airfoil surface are provided so that the characteristics of the acoustic sources could be revealed.