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Completed TRL 2 (started at 2, targeting 4)
This project develops an approach for predicting the noise and performance of multirotor concepts operating in realistic airflows in urban environments. Fundamental knowledge gaps related to multirotor performance and noise that are critical to future Urban Air Mobility (UAM) operation will be addressed, including the effect of airflows in urban environments on UAM vehicle performance and noise; the effect of UAM vehicle trim state on performance and noise; and the impact of noise as a metric in path planning in UAM environments.
The project utilizes complementary experimental and computational endeavors. Simulations of airflows in urban environments will elucidate the relevant disturbance environment and provide the basis for canonical disturbance models. Acoustic wind tunnel experiments will provide the performance and acoustic response of trimmed multirotor configurations to measured flow disturbances. High-, mid-, and low-fidelity computational methods for including disturbances based on the airflows in urban environment simulations and the experimental measurements upstream of a multirotor system will be developed. Methods to computationally predict allowable trim states and noise, both broadband and tonal, will emerge from this research.
The research findings will be disseminated through conference presentations and journal publications. Parallel to the technical research, educational activities and programs will be developed for undergraduate and graduate students in efforts to enhance workforce development in this emerging field of UAM.
Through the merging of distinct research areas, a greater knowledge of how UAM vehicles will perform and sound in a realistic urban setting will emerge. The ability to characterize an urban flow, especially its unsteadiness, and use this information in a multirotor simulation that can include the disturbances along with trim and assess performance and noise will open flight corridors for UAM vehicles that would otherwise be off limits due to noise constraints. The developed methods will be useful for analyzing potential vertiport locations and flight paths in urban environments.
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