While aircraft efficiency has improved over the years, noise continues to be a problem for existing aircraft and will likely be a concern for next-generation designs. During landing, when the engines are operating at reduced power, noise from the airframe, including landing gear, can be equal to or greater than the engine noise. This visualization, from a collaboration between NASA and Boeing about airframe noise prediction, shows the simulated air flow field around the nose landing gear of a Boeing 777, representing the complex unsteady flow generated by the gear components. The visualization is colored by speed, from slower green to faster red air velocities. A strong vortex appears coming off the edge of the landing gear doors. Simulations run on NASA supercomputers at Ames allow researchers to better understand the changes in flow behavior that contribute to airframe noise.
Related: NASA is showcasing 35 of the agency’s exciting computational achievements at SC17, the international supercomputing conference, Nov. 13-16, 2016, in Denver, Colorado. To view the featured demonstrations, visit: https://nas.nasa.gov/SC17.
Image credit: NASA’s Ames Research Center, Patrick Moran; NASA’s Langley Research Center, Mehdi Khorrami; Exa Corporation, Ehab Fares