SBIR-STTR Award

A major component of airframe noise for commercial transport aircraft is the deployed landing gear. The noise from the gear originates due to complex, unsteady bluff body flow separation from gear components and the subsequent multiple interactions of unsteady wakes with downstream undercarriage elements. The object of this SBIR effort is to develop and advance a novel 'plasma fairing' technology for quieting landing gear noise. The concept deals with the use of single dielectric barrier discharge (SDBD) plasma actuators to reduce noise associated with bluff body separation around the gear. SDBD plasma actuators will be employed either in the form of spanwise-orientated actuators or plasma streamwise vortex generators (PSVGs) to suppress surface pressure fluctuations, and consequently flow-induced noise, on a representative landing gear model. Our Phase I effort will involve a combination of numerical and experimental studies to be conducted at Innovative Technology Applications Company, LLC and the University of Notre Dame, respectively, in order to advance the design and optimization of 'plasma fairings' from a simple geometry (tandem circular cylinder) to a more complex/realistic landing gear geometry (e.g., the Gulfstream G550 nose gear). A combination of DES numerical simulations and wind tunnel experiments is expected to provide a clear demonstration of the plasma fairing performance for noise reduction, while providing a clear path forward for Phase II.

This Phase II SBIR project deals with the design, development, and testing of a "Plasma Fairing" to reduce noise on the Gulfstream G550 landing gear. The plasma fairing will use single dielectric barrier discharge (SDBD) plasma actuators to reduce flow- separations and impingement around the landing gear, which are the dominant sources of landing gear noise. The Phase I project successfully demonstrated the feasibility of the plasma fairing concept on a generalized tandem cylinder configuration that shared important features of key sections of the G550 landing gear, specifically the relationship between the strut and the torque arm. The Phase II extends the concept to a more complex geometry: G550 landing gear. We will develop aeroacoustic simulations using University of Notre Dame's state-of-the-art plasma actuator model and Exa Corporation's flow solver PowerFLOW, coupled with experiments in an anechoic wind tunnel with both aerodynamic and acoustic measurements on a scaled G550 nose gear model to design and optimize a Plasma Fairing configuration that provides significant noise reduction on the G550 landing gear. We anticipate a technology readiness level (TRL) of 5 at the end of the Phase II project.