Propeller noise

My PhD thesis was on the prediction of noise generated by propellers and this is an area in which I still work. For my graduate research I wrote a prediction code called SCRUMPI which is available to interested parties.

My present research is in the visualization of the whole acoustic field of a propeller, investigating how a propeller noise field changes with the flow (aircraft) velocity and blade tip Mach number. Some of the results are here.

I recently took third place in a popular science writing competition organized by the Times Higher Education Supplement and Oxford University Press with a piece about propeller noise involving Doctor Strangelove, Marxist analysis and roundabouts.

A Fleet Air Arm Corsair III in 1944 with some beautiful, if unintended, visualization of the propeller wake. (The photo is in Abrams, Richard, F4U Corsair at war and comes from the US National Archives. As far as I know that makes it public domain; if you know differently feel free to tell me.)

Last modified: Fri Aug 18 12:06:51 BST 2000