Aeroacoustic simulation delivers breakthroughs in aircraft noise reduction

Aircraft manufacturers face increasingly stringent standards for reducing community noise. Conventional aircraft development methods based on engineering experience, past designs and flight testing will not suffice to meet future noise reduction targets. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software based on so-called Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) methods has revolutionized aerodynamics engineering, but is insufficient for high-fidelity aeroacoustic simulation. However, the Lattice-Boltzmann-based technology of Exa Corp.'s PowerFLOW software provides aeroacoustic simulation accuracy comparable to wind tunnels and flight testing.