OME Professor Awarded $500,000 to Study Aeroacoustics

Stewart Glegg, Ph.D., professor at the FAU College of Engineering and Computer Science, Department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering, received two grants from the Office of Naval Research (ONR), each for $244,000, to study aeroacoustics. Both studies are being conducted over the course of four years in collaboration with an experimental program at Virginia Tech and a numerical study at the University of Notre Dame. The program at FAU will support the development of analytical models for unsteady turbulent boundary layers and transient flows.

One project, titled “Inhomogeneous Turbulent Boundary Layers: Modeling Surface Pressure Wavenumber Spectra,” will focus on improving the modeling capabilities for structures affected by inhomogeneous turbulent shear flows. 

“Fluid structure interactions in an unsteady turbulent boundary layer are significant in many practical situations, for example the effect of hurricane force wind gusts on physical structures, buildings and vegetation,” said Dr. Glegg. “This project will enhance our capability to model those types of flow.”

The second project, titled “The Time Varying Aeroacoustic Response of Rotors Subjected to Transient Inflows: Analytical Study” will analyze and enhance the modeling capabilities for predicting rotor noise when the rotor inflow includes a transient turbulent inflow. The research from this project is significant because it plans to provide valuable modeling capabilities for new technologies that operate in time varying fluid flows. An example application is to Personal Air Vehicles that are designed to operate in urban environments without a pilot.

“The operation of these vehicles is expected to be limited by community noise restrictions, and this project will identify ways to help reduce their noise during takeoff and landing,” Dr. Glegg explained.

Dr. Glegg is the director of FAU’s Center for Acoustics and Vibrations, which specializes in Underwater Acoustics, Sonar Technology, Structural Acoustics and Vibration, and Aeroacoustics and Hydroacoustics. Research projects include the design of aircraft engines for reduced noise and fundamental studies on sound generation by flow.