Owl Wing Design With Serrated Edges Reduces Aircraft, Wind Turbine Noise Pollution

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The shape of owl wings, which assist the animals fly silently, can notify airfoil styles. Credit: Wang and Liu

Serrated edge of owl wings makes them quieter than other birds, can assist notify airfoil styles.

Trailing- edge sound is the dominant source of noise from aerial and turbine engines like those in aircrafts, drones, and wind turbines. Suppressing this sound pollution is a significant ecological objective for some metropolitan locations.

In Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, scientists from Xi’ an Jiaotong University utilized the qualities of owl wings to notify airfoil style and considerably minimize the trailing-edge sound.

“Nocturnal owls produce about 18 decibels less noise than other birds at similar flight speeds due to their unique wing configuration,” stated author XiaominLiu “Moreover, when the owl catches prey, the shape of the wings is also constantly changing, so the study of the wing edge configuration during owl flight is of great significance.”

Trailing- edge sound is produced when air flow passes along the back of an airfoil. The circulation forms a rough layer of air along the upper and lower surface areas of the airfoil, and when that layer of air recedes through the routing edge, it spreads and radiates sound.

Previous research studies checked out serrated routing edges, discovering that the serrations efficiently minimize the sound of turning equipment. However, the sound decrease was not universal, depending greatly on the last application.

“At present, the blade design of rotating turbomachinery has gradually matured, but the noise reduction technology is still at a bottleneck,” statedLiu “The noise reduction capabilities of conventional sawtooth structures are limited, and some new nonsmooth trailing-edge structures need to be proposed and developed to further tap the potential of bionic noise reduction.”

The group utilized sound estimation and analysis software application to perform a series of comprehensive theoretical research studies of streamlined airfoils with qualities similar to owl wings. They used their findings to reduce the sound of turning equipment.

Improving the circulation conditions around the routing edge and enhancing the shape of the edge reduced the sound. Interestingly, uneven serrations lowered the sound more than their symmetric equivalents.

Noise decrease differed with various operating conditions, so the researchers stressed that the airfoil styles need to be additional assessed based upon the particular application.

For example, wind turbines have intricate inbound circulation environments, which need a more basic sound decrease innovation. Examining sound decrease methods under the impact of various inbound circulations would make their conclusions more universal.

The scientists think their work will function as an essential guide for airfoil style and sound control.

Reference: “Aeroacoustic investigation of asymmetric oblique trailing-edge serrations enlighted by owl wings” by Lei Wang and Xiaomin Liu, 18 January 2022, Physics of Fluids
DOI: 10.1063/ 5.0076272