Computational analysis of the indirect combustion noise generation mechanism in a nozzle guided vane in transonic operating conditions

The combustion noise in modern engines is mainly originating from two types of mechanisms. First, chemical reactions in the combustion chamber leads to an unsteady heat release which is responsible of the direct combustion noise. Second, hot and cold blobs of air coming from the combustion chamber are advected and accelerated through turbine stages, giving rise to entropy noise (or indirect combustion noise). In the present work, numerical characterization of indirect combustion noise of a Nozzle Guide Vane passage was assessed using three-dimensional Large Eddy Simulations. The present work offers an overview to the analytical, computational and experimental studies of the topic. Numerical simulations are conducted to reproduce the effects of incoming planar entropy waves from the combustion chamber and to characterize the generated acoustic power. The dynamic features of the flow are addressed by the means of frequency domain and modal analyses techniques such as Fourier Decomposition and Proper Orthogonal Decomposition. Finally, the predicted entropy noise from numerical calculations is compared with the analytical results of an actuator disk model for a stator stage. The present paper proves that the generated indirect combustion noise can be significant for transonic operating conditions. The blade acoustic response is characterized by the excitation of a latent dynamics at the forcing frequency of the planar entropy waves, and it increases as the amplitude of the incoming disturbances increases.