STO-Activities: (no title)
Activity title:
Acoustic Mission Planning and Environmental Impact Analysis for UAS and UCA (<5000kg)
Activity Reference:
AVT-414
Panel:
AVT
Security Classification:
NATO UNCLASSIFIED
Status:
Planning
Activity type:
RTG
Start date:
2025-01-01T00:00:00Z
Actual End date:
2027-12-31T00:00:00Z
Keywords:
effectiveness of UAS operations, Environmental Impact, Maneuvers, Meteo, Noise generation, Noise modeling
Background:
There is an increase in the applications of Unmanned Air Systems (UAS) and other Unconventional Aircraft (UCA), such as Urban Air Mobility (UAM) aircraft, operating in both military and civil environments. Due to the development of new vertical lift aircraft configurations, an increasing number of these operations are expected to occur in and around urban areas for both military and civil applications. These operations are likely to occur at relatively low altitudes and in close proximity to manmade structures and terrain. As a consequence, the noticeability of these vehicles is likely to be determined by their acoustic emissions. This has the potential to significantly affect the survivability, community acceptance and environmental impact of operations of these aircraft.
A prior activity by STO, AVT-314 RTG, studied the state-of-the-art in the scientific understanding of UAS noise and its impacts, and developed a set of recommendations for future research. One major conclusion was that no suitable tools existed for predicting the acoustic impacts of UAS operations. In particular, existing aircraft noise modeling tools did not capture the effects of propagation in urban environments, the effect of maneuvers or gusts on UAS noise generation, or suitable models describing how the human perception of UAS noise can be masked by background noise. Moreover, data are lacking from which to build source noise models for UAS, as well as for the validation of tools suitable for modeling the acoustic impacts of UAS operations.
Objectives:
The primary goal of this activity is to develop guidelines for acoustic mission planning for UAS (and other unconventional aircraft) and generate data to support the validation of tools developed to these guidelines. These guidelines should encompass: experimental source noise characterization of UAS and UCA, including guidelines for noise measurements, data processing, and source noise representation; methods for empirical or semi-empirical modeling of UAS and UCA noise sources, to include both steady and maneuvering vehicle operating conditions; methods for experimentally quantifying the uncertainty and variability of source noise models; the use of first principles simulation models as a first approach to estimating source noise characteristics; propagation models, with a particular emphasis on propagation in urban settings; background noise estimation; human response to UAS and UCA noise, including the masking of noise by the background; and, supplemental noise metrics for community and environmental impact analyses.
The activity will result in a final report detailing recommended guidelines for assessing the acoustic impacts of UAS and UCA operation and reproducible datasets of UAS acoustic measurements suitable for validating the methods recommended in the final report.
Topics:
This activity will cover a range of topics relevant to UAS and UCA operational noise modeling. These topics include: UAS/UCA noise measurement, including acceptable atmospheric conditions, flight procedures, microphone installations, and instrumentation requirements; semi empirical source noise modeling, including noise source representations, vehicle operating conditions, data interpolation, and data formats; propagation models, including through urban atmospheric conditions and multipath propagation in urban canyons; background noise modeling, include data collection methodologies and requirements for spatial and temporal resolution; human response models, including auditory masking and auditory scene analysis, perception of UAS noise, and psychoacoustic metrics; environmental impact analyses, including the identification of supplemental noise metrics appropriate to UAS and UCA operations.
Contact:
Open2Partners:
Title:
Created at 24/10/2023 18:00 by System Account
Last modified at 17/05/2024 00:00 by System Account
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