The effect of front-to-rear propeller spacing on the interaction noise of a model counterrotation propeller at cruise conditions

The effect of front-to-rear propeller spacing on the interaction noise of a counterrotation propeller model was measured at cruise conditions. The data taken at an axial Mach number of 0.80 behaved as expected: interaction noise was reduced with increased spacing. The data taken at M=0.76 and M=0.72 did not behave as expected. At some of the test conditions the noise was unchanged; others even showed noise increases with increased spacing. A possible explanation, involving the amount of downstream blade area impacted by the tip vortex, is presented.