Noise Reduction in Wing Leading-Edge Slats and Nose Landing Gear

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Noise pollution is a negative by-product of aircraft. Its impact is not limited to short-term disturbance; prolonged exposure has been associated with adverse health effects on populations living near airports. Commercial aviation governing bodies around the globe have been acting on this issue by setting strict, and continually tightening, noise limits to phase out the noisy aircraft designs from commercial routes. These limits are also used by airports to impose landing fees on airlines based on their aircraft's noise emission. For these reasons, airlines are inclined towards purchasing quieter aircraft, and this creates a huge competition among aircraft manufacturers. With these economic as well as corporate social responsibility motivations, Bombardier Aerospace, Canada's largest aircraft manufacturer, is heavily searching for innovative concepts to decrease airframe noise. Partnering together in this project, the applicant's group and Bombardier will be searching for noise production mechanisms and revolutionary noise abatement strategies for two major airframe noise sources: nose landing gear and wing leading-edge slats. Both of these airframe components are designed with minimal consideration to their acoustic performance and there is, therefore, a lot of space for improvement. The collaboration will address this deficiency by undertaking a systematic experimental-computational approach. The experimental investigations will be executed by the applicant's team at the UTIAS anechoic wind and water tunnel facilities through acoustic, flow field and force measurements, while complementary research through computational simulations will be conducted by Bombardier at their computing facilities. The new knowledge and noise mitigation concepts developed through this research will assist Bombardier to continue its lead in the development of quiet aircraft technology. This will further strengthen their competitiveness in the market, bringing associated benefits to the Canadian economy. This outcome will also improve the health and wellbeing of populations living near airports. A further benefit of this collaboration is the creation of immense opportunities for the training of highly qualified researchers and engineers.