This dissertation presents measurements of the far-field noise associated with the interaction of grid-generated turbulence with a series of airfoils of various chord lengths, thicknesses, and camber. The radiated noise was measured for a number of angles of attack for each airfoil to determine the effects of angle of attack on the leading edge noise. Measurements are compared with numerous theories to determine the mechanism driving the production of leading edge noise. Calculations were also made using a boundary element method to determine the effects of airfoil shape on the unsteady loading spectrum on the different airfoils to attempt to explain the far-field noise. Measurements of the unsteady surface pressure on a single airfoil were made for a number of angles of attack to determine the effects of wind tunnel interference corrections on the unsteady surface pressure. These measurements were compared with those of Mish (2003) to determine the effects of the interference correction. An attempt was also made to correlate the unsteady loading on the airfoil with the far-field noise.

The airfoils studied were a 0.203-m chord NACA 0012, a 0.61-m chord NACA 0015, a 0.914-m chord NACA 0012, a 0.914-m chord DU96, and a 0.914-m chord S831. All airfoils spanned the entire 1.83-m height of the test section. Measurements were made using the Virginia Tech Stability Wind Tunnel in its acoustic configuration with an anechoic test section with side walls made of stretched Kevlar fabric to reduce aerodynamic interference. Measurements were made in grid-generated turbulence with an integral length scale of 8.2-cm and a turbulence intensity of 3.9%. Far-field noise measurements were made at Mach numbers of 0.087 and 0.117 with various configurations of up to 4 Bruel and Kjaer microphones mounted at an observer angle of 90° measured from the wind tunnel axis.

Unsteady surface pressure measurements were made on the NACA 0015 airfoil immersed in the same grid generated turbulence used in the far-field noise study. An array of microphones mounted subsurface along the airfoil chord and a spanwise row was used to measure the unsteady surface pressure. These measurements were made at angles of attack from 0 through 16° in 2° increments.

Far-field noise measurements of the leading edge noise show a consistent angle of attack effect. The radiated noise increases as the angle of attack is increased over the frequency range. These effects are small for large integral scale to airfoil chord ratios. The larger airfoils have been shown to generate significantly less leading edge noise at high frequencies, but this effect does not appear to be solely dependent upon the leading edge radius. The leading edge noise can be predicted with accuracy using the method of Glegg et al. (2008).

Unsteady surface pressure measurements have been shown to be largely independent of the wind tunnel interference correction as shown by comparison with Mish (2008). The same low frequency reduction described by Mish was seen for an interference correction that was nearly 30% larger. The unsteady sectional lift spectra have been shown to be related to the far-field noise spectra by a factor close to the dipole efficiency factor; however, no correlation could be found between the instantaneous unsteady surface pressure and the radiated noise. The spanwise averaged unsteady pressure difference spectra have been shown to be related to the far-field noise spectra by the dipole efficiency factor.