Influence of airfoil thickness on convected gust interaction noise

The case of a symmetric airfoil at zero angle of attack is considered in order to determine the influence of airfoil thickness on sound generated by interaction with convected gusts. The analysis is based on a linearization of the Euler equations about the subsonic mean flow past the airfoil. Primary sound generation is found to occur in a local region surrounding the leading edge, with the size of the local region scaling on the gust wavelength. For a parabolic leading edge, moderate leading edge thickness is shown to decrease the noise level in the low Mach number limit.