Research Interests: Turbulence Ingestion Noise in Marine Turbomachinery

Marine vehicles rely extensively upon turbomachinery for their power, auxiliary services and propulsion. Applications include pumps, compressors and turbines as well as fans and propellers. It is well known that these devices produce a broadband spectrum of vibration and sound associated with inflow turbulence. Classic work has been performed in this field and is well documented in the literature.

Analyses to date have attempted to predict the spectrum of forces and sound. Reasonable success has been achieved in terms of the continuous broadband part of the spectrum. However, the predicted amplitude of the "humps" associated with blade-to-blade correlations are still in error. To date the work by Jiang et. al. provides the most complete analysis. In their work the amplitudes are underpredicted by 12 dB or more.

Several explanations exist, but the leading deficiency is thought to be an adequate model of the wavevector-frequency spectrum for the inflow turbulence. Jiang et. al concluded that the spectrum was unknown and made necessary simplifying assumptions. These had the consequence of modeling only the convective wavenumber of the streamwise distortions. The two remaining orthogonal components of the turbulence were assumed to be functions of the wavenumber and a single integral length scale.

A more complete treatment may be possible if more is known about distribution of turbulent energy versus length scales for a wall bounded flow. Data from Klebanoff provides an excellent starting point. We intend to extend his work measuring the space-time correlations between two independent hot-wire anemometers. By Fourier transformations we can recover the wavenumber frequency spectrum. This work will be accomplished at Reynolds numbers two times higher than Klebanoff's work, and will also address the effects of adverse pressure gradients on the turbulence statistics. Data analysis will allow further assessments including the degree to which a separable model can be used to represent the spatial variations of the turbulence statistics.

This work is sponsored by a research contract with Electric Boat Corporation.  Gary Cooper and Dr. Martin Manley are technical monitors. At Penn State this work is directed by Dr. Gerald Lauchle - Professor of Acoustics. Here is a copy of my schedule.

Academics: The Graduate Program in Acoustics is a great home base, and the College of Engineering offers many additional inter-disciplinary opportunities. Courses which have "mastered me" so far include the following. The links will show you some of the work and a path to my professors (that is ... if I ever add the links!).

Some Useful (but professional) Sites:

Dissertation Express
NASA Technical Report Server
Acoustical Society of America


On a lighter note (.... These are the things I miss most!):


Living in and around Mystic was AWESOME, and I cannot wait to get back. Sandra and I frequently visited Boston and NYC, and did anything we could think of outdoors. Some of our favorites (still) are camping in Acadia Maine (Thats Sandra and my dog Kelsey on the left). The right is a pic from my bike ride to Florida. (Can't wait to try that again!).


NEWS FLASH: On July 3 Sandra and I got engaged (I think I almost gave her a heart attack!) No plans yet for the big day, but I am sure the "boss" will have it all figured out soon.   But as if there were not already enough pressure .. she now wants a schedule for my research to know if I am goofing off. Thats my girl!!!!

Thanks for visiting!



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