Effects of real airfoil geometry on leading edge gust interaction noise

High-order computational aeroacoustic methods are applied to the modeling of noise due to interactions between gusts and the leading edge of real symmetric airfoils. The effects of airfoil thickness and leading edge radius on noise are investigated systematically and independently for the first time, at higher frequencies than previously used in computational methods. Single frequency harmonic gusts are interacted with airfoils of varying geometry at zero angle of attack. Increases in both leading edge radius and thickness are found to reduce the predicted noise. This noise reduction effect becomes greater with increasing frequency and Mach number. The dominant noise reduction mechanism for airfoils with real geometry is found to be related to the leading edge stagnation region. The assumption of uniform meanflow is shown to be invalid when modeling the leading edge noise of real airfoils. However, accurate results are still obtained when an inviscid meanflow is assumed. The accuracy of analytic flat plate solutions can be expected to decrease with increasing airfoil thickness, leading edge radius, gust frequency and Mach number