Numerical investigation of a rectangular jet exhausting over a flat plate with periodic surface deformations at the trailing edge

Multiple competing factors are forcing aircraft designers to reconsider the underwing engine pod configuration typically seen on most modern commercial aircraft. One notable concern is increasing environmental regulations on noise emitted by aircraft. In an attempt to satisfy these constraints while maintaining or improving vehicle performance, engineers have been experimenting with some innovative aircraft designs which place the engines above the wings or embedded in the fuselage. In one configuration, a blended wing concept vehicle utilizes rectangular jet exhaust ports exiting from above the wing ahead of the trailing edge. While intuitively one would think that this design would reduce the noise levels transmitted to the ground due to the shielding provided by the wing, experimental studies have shown that this design can actually increase noise levels due to interactions of the jet exhaust with the aft wing surface and flat trailing edge. In this work, we take another look at this rectangular exhaust port configuration with some notional modifications to the geometry of the trailing edge to determine if the emitted noise levels due to jet interactions can be reduced with respect to a baseline configuration. We consider various horizontal and vertical offsets of the jet exit with respect to a flat plate standing in for the aft wing surface. We then introduce a series of sinusoidal deformations to the trailing edge of the plate of varying amplitude and wave number. Our results show that the emitted sound levels due to the jet–surface interactions can be significantly altered by the proposed geometry modifications. While sound levels remained fairly consistent over many configurations, there were some that showed both increased and decreased sound levels in specific directions. We present results here for the simulated configurations which showed the greatest decrease in overall sound levels with respect to the baseline. These results provide strong indications that such geometry modifications can potentially be tailored to optimize for further reductions in sound levels.