The Department of Mechanical, Materials, and Aerospace Engineering presents the MMAE 593 Seminar Series featuring guest speaker Sheryl Grace, Head of the Unsteady Fluid Mechanics and Acoustics Lab at Boston University. Professor Grace will present “Modeling of Multirotor Vehicle Performance and Noise.” This event is open to the public and will take place on Thursday, November 20, from 12:45–1:45 p.m. in room 108 of Perlstein Hall

Abstract

Emerging multirotor vehicles for package delivery and urban air transportation present new challenges for modeling of performance and noise. The propellers operate at lower Reynolds number than traditional rotorcraft and interactions between the propeller flows exist. While vehicle performance is always of interest, noise significantly influences community acceptance and is harder to model accurately. The established two-step process for acoustic prediction has been adopted. The noise sources are simulated first and then the Ffowcs Williams and Hawkings (FWH) acoustic propagator for the noise prediction is applied. The outcomes from utilizing mid- and high-fidelity computational methods to capture noise sources, combined with both impermeable and permeable FWH surfaces for acoustic calculations will be presented. Comparison to new experimental data shows differing agreement depending on the computational methods selected. Results utilizing urban flow simulation outcomes for the propeller inflow conditions highlight expected acoustic variations in realistic urban environments, underscoring the need for continued research in this area.

Biography

Professor Grace earned her undergrad from University of Akron in Ohio, MS from Oklahoma State University, PhD from Notre Dame and has been at Boston University heading the Unsteady Fluid Mechanics and Acoustics Lab for 30 years. Professor Grace’s primary research interests lie in the fields of unsteady aero/hydrodynamics and aero/hydro-acoustics. She is expert in the prediction of broadband noise for rotating machinery and has been funded by both the Aeraocoustics Research Consortium and the FAA on this topic. She is also actively working on the performance of and noise from multirotor vehicles and was recently awarded a NASA ULI to improve understanding of multirotor vehicle operation in an urban canopy. Finally, she is working on an AFOSR project to determine the fundamental mechanism of raindrop breakup upon interaction with the shock preceding a hypersonic vehicle.

Professor Grace has been awarded teaching and service awards at BU and the National AIAA faculty advisor award and the New England AIAA service award. She’s an associate fellow of the AIAA, her research has been repeatedly highlighted in Aerospace America, and she is a member of the AIAA associate fellow review committee. She was the founder of the women in science engineering organization at BU and has been awarded the INSIGHT Into Diversity Inspiring Women in STEM Award. Recently, she oversaw the implementation of a NASA Downlink which engaged 400 targeted middle and high school students in aerospace related activities and introduced them to the BU alum on board the International Space Station.