Validating the Harmonic Balance Method for Turbomachinery Tonal Noise Predictions

Paper in proceeding, 2017

A computational method for predicting turbomachinery tonal noise is presented. It is based on the Harmonic Balance method, which solves for the dominant frequencies of the flow generated by bladerow interaction. Coupling between the resolved frequencies is furthermore enabled since the Harmonic Balance method is applicable to the nonlinear Euler or Navier-Stokes equations. The implementation is also validated against two cases from the Fourth Computational Aeroacoustics Workshop on Benchmark Problems hosted by NASA. The computational setup is explained in detail and specific challenges encountered in both benchmark problems are discussed. Results generally show very good agreement with data published by several other authors, giving confidence in the capability of the method. Some remaining challenges for the implemented method necessary to compute full scale turbomachinery noise are also identified and discussed.