Research aims for quieter jet engines

Camcon Technology has received a GBP 75,000 research grant from the UK Department of Trade and Industry to undertake a 12-month study aimed at reducing jet aircraft exhaust noise.

Camcon Technology has received a GBP 75,000 research grant from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to undertake a 12-month study aimed at reducing jet aircraft exhaust noise.

Camcon's DTI funded project will explore the manipulation of jet engine exhaust noise and seek practical solutions to achieve major reductions in noise emissions.

The majority of aircraft jet noise results from the speed of the engine exhaust gas speed being much greater than the speed of the aircraft through the air.

The exhaust jet penetrates the surrounding air without mixing with the local atmosphere, creating vortices behind the engine, which materialises as a thunderous roar.

Camcon binary actuation offers the potential to reduce the exhaust component of jet noise by actively modulating exhaust gases and combining them with the air, to reduce the vortices immediately behind the engine.

Camcon binary actuation has already been successfully used to reduce the front-end high-pitched noise emitted by jet engine blades in experiments conducted with the Berlin Technical University.

The European Union has set out targets for member states to reduce aircraft noise at airports throughout the European Union.

By 2007, the EU Environmental Noise Directives requires of all member states to produce noise maps and noise policies for major civil airports.

"The DTI research grant will help us accelerate research on the application of the Camcon binary actuator in the jet noise reduction".

"The reduction of the jet aircraft noise is a serious technical challenge, but if we succeed, it will change the face of aviation industry forever", said Ian Anderson, COO, Camcon Technology.

Camcon's research will be funded partially from its own resources, supported by the DTI funding.

The work will be mainly carried out at company's facility in Harston near Cambridge.

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