High-Fidelity Simulations of Vertiport Gust Effects on eVTOL Rotor Noise

This study addresses the impact of gusts on the performance and noise generation of an Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) rotor. Periodic gusts and turbulence modes derived from building flow wall-modeled LES simulations are applied to a scaled version of the propeller in edgewise flight, influencing performance and noise generation at the propeller. The OpenFOAM solver is utilized to conduct a Delayed Detached-Eddy Simulations (DDES), with the gust generated using a previously developed synthetic-disturbance method. The far-field noise is further calculated using PSU-WOPWOP. The simulations reveal that gust disturbances moderately affect rotor performance, while also altering the spectral characteristics of the radiated noise. In particular, gusts contribute to localized amplification of acoustic sources, which results in an increased overall noise level.