Subharmonic tonal noise from backflow vortices radiated by a low-speed ring fan in uniform inlet flow

In order to highlight the mechanisms responsible for subharmonic tonal noise, a complete aeroacoustic study of a ring fan in presence of a uniform inlet flow is conducted. Unsteady RANS simulations with a compressible flow solver are used to compute the flow field and identify the acoustic sources on the rotor. The tip clearance recirculation shows upstream vortices that impinge the rotor blades and create the main source of unsteadiness on the fan. Since these vortices rotate at a lower speed than the rotor, the frequency of the impact is lower than the blade passing frequency. The acoustic signature is computed by propagating the noise sources located on the rotor surfaces using two methods: A Ffowcs-Williams and Hawkings analogy in the time-domain and an analytical model in the frequency-domain based on the compact rotating dipole formulation. A comparison with experimental results confirms that the aeroacoustic phenomena responsible for the subharmonic tonal noise are well captured and properly propagated by the acoustic codes.