Engineering news
Researchers at Imperial College have taken a step forward in real-time visualisation software for air turbulence, which could be used to reduce aircraft noise pollution.
Lead researcher Dr Peter Vincent from Imperial’s Department of Aeronautics, said: “We're interested in simulating fundamentally unsteady flow phenomena, which means flow phenomena that varies in time, such as acoustics and noise generation. However, current methods are not really fit for purpose”
Existing computational simulations generate huge amounts of data as you run tests, explained Vincent. Current methods means researchers must write all that data onto a hard disk, then copy all that data over a network to a local system onto another hard disk, load it onto the memory and then visualise the data. “It just puts a massive bottleneck in the work flow,” Vincent said.
To overcome this issue, the Department of Aeronautics team, along with industry partners NVIDIA, a computing visualisation firm, and technology company Kitware, utilised open source computational fluid dynamics software (CFD) to add “in-situ” visualisation capability to their software called Paraview.
Vincent said: “This means that when the code is running and producing data in the memory of the graphics card on which it runs it can in real-time render that data up into images and allows you to interact with the data. It dramatically increases the speed and analysis and visualisation pipeline, and ultimately, the whole process of interacting with the data you produce.”
Image generated using Imperial's software: the serrated nozzle can be seen to cut up the airflow
To test the visualisation software the research team ran a case study of a serrated nozzle that is designed to lessen the noise impact of aircraft and is used on models such as Boeing's 787 Dreamliner. The engine’s serrated edges create small, unsteady pockets of air called vortical structures, which break up the larger air parcels being forced out of the jet engine. This process disrupts the engine noise, making the planes quieter.
The computer models developed enabled the team to visualise the vortical structures created by the serrated jet nozzles in “unprecedented detail”. The hope is that this work will have the potential to accelerate new discoveries in the field, ultimately leading to the next generation of even quieter aircraft engines.
The Imperial team will continue to work with its industry partners NVIDIA, Kitware, Zenotech, a Bristol-based CFD company, and the Centre for Modelling and Simulation (CFMS), to refine the technology and use it on real case studies.
Imperial will also utilise these advancements in its collaboritve project Hyperflux, funded by InnovateUK and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. Its industry partner Zenotech and CFMS are currently developing a proprietary, commercial variant of the technology within PyFR. Vincent said: “We want to get this technology in-situ and use it on real-life test cases for aerospace, automotive, Formula1 and wind turbine design.”