LES-based evaluation of a microjet noise reduction concept in static and flight conditions

The Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) numerical system established since 2002 for jet-noise computation is first evaluated in terms of recent gains in accuracy with increased computer resources, and is then used to explore the relatively new “microjet” noise-reduction concept (injection of high-pressure microjets in the vicinity of the main jet nozzle exit), which currently attracts attention in the aeroacoustic community. The simulations, which are carried out with an emulation of the microjets by specially designed distributed sources of mass, momentum, and energy in the governing equations, are found to capture the essential features of the flow/turbulence and the far-field noise alteration by the microjets observed in experiments, and to reveal the subtle flow features responsible for the effect of injection on noise. They also confirm the experimental observation that in static conditions microjets provide a noise reduction comparable with that from chevrons in the low-frequency range, and probably have a less pronounced high-frequency penalty. This positive evaluation of the microjets concept is, however, mitigated by the far less favorable results of simulations in flight conditions, which were never studied experimentally. The latter results, which are awaiting an experimental verification, make a practical use of the concept in its current form rather unlikely.