Experimental and numerical investigation of noise produced by different scale landing gear wheels

Abstract

This thesis develops and validates new scaling laws for landing gear wheels, which are critical low-frequency noise sources on aircraft. This is achieved by combining experimental and computational methods. Wind tunnel tests were performed in the Southampton Anechoic Wind Tunnel (SotonAWT), which was extensively characterized to ensure precise aerodynamic and acoustic measurements. To complement the experimental investigation into the scaling laws, numerical simulations, employing Lattice Boltzmann approach and the Ffowcs Williams–Hawkings analogy, were used to capture unsteady flow phenomena around wheels at smaller and larger scales.

A key outcome of this research is a refined scaling strategy that goes beyond conventional area-ratio or high-aspect-ratio cylinder-based approaches. By incorporating a Reynolds number–dependent Strouhal adjustment, the proposed method better reconciles the tonal discrepancies between different wheel sizes, particularly when shedding and wake asymmetries dominate. The thesis contains a quantitative comparison of the effect of Reynolds number on a simplified landing gear wheel, which can be used as a guideline to the Reynolds numbers necessary to achieve representative loads and noise data corresponding to a high Reynolds number case.

These findings underscore the importance of thorough facility calibration and advanced data-correction techniques to obtain accurate acoustic measurements. They also highlight the potential for improved noise-prediction accuracy when scaling wheel configurations to higher Reynolds numbers, ultimately guiding the development of quieter, more efficient landing gear systems and informing broader aeroacoustic design practices.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Zoya Zlatanova Dimitrova: orcid.org/0009-0002-5681-4946

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