Research on the rotor/stator interaction noise through vane unsteady pressure test based on polyvinylidene fluoride sensor array

Abstract

The rotor/stator interaction noise is the primary noise source of modern turbofan engines. Vane unsteady pressure test is essential to understand the generation mechanism and propagation characteristics of the noise, as well as examine the passive/active noise control technologies. However, limited by the Vane’s thickness as well as the requirement for high spatial and temporal resolutions of the sensor, traditional transducers still have considerable limitations and difficulties carrying out the measurement. In this paper, a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) piezoelectric-film sensor array was developed for the vane unsteady pressure test. The dynamic characteristics of the sensor were obtained by the shock tube test. The calibration results further confirm the effectiveness of the self-developed PVDF sensor and also show the advantage in frequency response over traditional pressure transducer. Time histories of the vane fluctuating pressures were obtained by the PVDF sensor. The blade passing frequency (BPF) harmonic component and the broadband component of the unsteady pressure were analyzed individually by time-domain averaging and spectral analysis. The distributions of BPF content and broadband content on both sides of the vane at different fan tip speeds and operating conditions were investigated in detail. The results indicate that the operating conditions have little effect on both of them. The broadband component yielded by the rotor-wake turbulence seems to be quasi-isotropic. The average broadband level increases linearly with the fan tip speed. The developed PVDF sensor shows potential in noise evaluation and noise source diagnosis, which can properly guide further noise reduction technology development.