Development of Next-Generation Acoustic Liners for Aircraft Engine Noise Reduction

Development of Next-Generation Acoustic Liners for Aircraft Engine Noise Reduction NASA Directorate: ARMD PI: Leonard Miller Science-I: Bhisham Sharma Aircraft noise is a significant constraint to increasing U.S. aviation capacity, efficiency, and flexibility. It causes passenger and community annoyance, disrupts sleep, adversely affects the academic performance of children, and increases the risk of cardiovascular disease in people living near airports. Repeated exposure can cause serious psychological and hearing issues in flight crews. Further, strict Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) noise regulations aimed at reducing the general population’s exposure to aircraft noise levels directly influence the location of new airports and expansion of current runways at existing airports. The current push towards the development of air taxis and supersonic aircrafts is bound to further exacerbate noise issues. Thus, reducing the noise emitted by modern aircrafts is a critical societal need. In this project, our central objective is to develop next-generation acoustic liners to help quieten aircraft engines. To this end, we will develop lightweight, minimal thickness liners using advanced cellular porous materials engineered to provide high sound absorption over a wide frequency range and capable of withstanding extreme engine environments. Cellular materials offer a distinct advantage over traditional liner materials: their structural and functional properties are directly controlled by their local microstructural architecture. Thus, by engineering their microstructure, they can be tailored to provide significantly enhanced properties without parasitic mass addition. Here, our focus will be on three cellular material systems: (a) open-celled metal foams; (b) 3D printed polymeric bulk absorbers; and (c) aerogel-based structures. The key research objectives are: (1) design, fabricate, and test open-celled foam-metal liners with variable through-thickness properties; (2) leverage 3D printing techniques to design new bulk absorbers with novel local topological surfaces; and (3) design and fabricate ultra-lightweight aerogel-based bulk absorbers for aircraft liner applications. These objectives will be achieved by combining experimental and quantitative techniques to understand the role played by the absorber’s cellular topology on its acoustic properties. The insights gained will be used to design minimal thickness acoustic liners with exceptional noise attenuation capabilities. The project goals will be achieved via close collaboration between three Kansas universities (Science-I Dr. Bhisham Sharma at Wichita State University, Co-I Dr. Zhongquan Charlie Zheng at University of Kansas, and Co-I Dr. Dong Lin at Kansas State University), two NASA Research Centers (Langley Research Center and Glenn Research Center), and three industry partners (ERG Materials and Aerospace Corporation, Honeywell Aerospace, and Spirit AeroSystems). The work proposed here is responsive to the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate’s 2018 Strategic Plan and is aligned with Strategic Goal 3: Address national challenges and catalyze economic growth; Objective 3.2: Transform aviation through revolutionary technology research, development, and transfer. Specifically, the proposed work supports the research objectives of NASA’s Advanced Air Transport Technology (AATT) Project whose central goal is to explore and develop novel acoustic liner configurations for use in commercial aircraft liners. The discovery and innovation stimulated through this collaborative project will help build the foundation in Kansas for sustained research and development growth in the areas of structural acoustics and advanced materials research. Results from this project will translate into new devices and methodologies relying on metal foams, 3D printed bulk absorbers, and aerogels – materials of high importance to meet future challenges in aviation and beyond.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

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