Design of an Acoustic Shielding Flap Concept with Prediction and Validation

As part of a NATO task group, NASA has designed a noise reduction technology called a Shielding Flap for application to a hybrid wing body aircraft concept. The design drivers and objectives for this technology are outlined in this paper. Design parameters are defined, and recently-developed NASA software for prediction of acoustic scattering is used to investigate the expected performance of the technology for a range of parameter values. Detailed scattering computational results are presented for several simulated noise sources and for many variations of the shielding flap concept. A selection of computational results is compared with experimental data collected in the NASA Langley Quiet Flow Facility. Overall, the results indicate that the Shielding Flap has strong potential to reduce aft-radiated noise, which was a primary design objective, by shielding sound from the simulated sources while also shielding sound that is scattered from the main airframe.