Aerodynamic and acoustic analysis of an optimized low Reynolds number rotor

International audienceThe demand in Micro-Air Vehicles (MAV) is increasing as well as their potential missions. Either for discretion in military operations or noise pollution in civilian use, noise reduction of MAV is a goal to achieve. Aeroacoustic research has long been focusing on full scale rotorcrafts. At MAV scales however, the hierarchization of the numerous sources of noise is not straightforward, as a consequence of the relatively low Reynolds number that ranges typically from 5,000 to 100,000. is knowledge however, is crucial for aeroacoustic optimization. is contribution briefly describes a low-cost, numerical methodology to achieve noise reduction by optimization of MAV rotor blade geometry. That methodology is applied to reduce noise from a MAV developped at ISAE-Supaero and a 8 dB(A) reduction on the acoustic power is found experimentally. The innovative rotor blade geometry allowing this noise reduction is then analyzed in detail using high-fidelity numerical approaches such as Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) simulation and Very Large Eddy Simulation using La ice Boltzmann Method (VLES-LBM). at strategy gives insight into the flow features around the optimized rotor and guidelines for the acoustic models used in a low-cost numerical optimization loop