Noise simulation of multi-rotor equipped urban aerial mobility vehicle for environmental assessment

The operation of the rapidly growing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and the promising urban aerial mobility (UAM) vehicles could have a significant noise impact on the environment. In this work, we developed a cloud-based noise simulator to efficiently assess the environmental impact of UAMs and UAVs. The noise sources and long-distance sound propagation are computed by propeller noise prediction models and an advanced Gaussian beam tracing method, respectively, on high-performance computers. One can define the working conditions and vehicle details through a platform with a user-friendly graphical interface. The computed noise level distribution at the observers of interest, such as building facets can be visualized. Advanced algorithms and data structures are employed to accelerate the simulations such that the noise distributions can be simultaneously visualized during a flight. By conducting the virtual flights using the simulator, the noise impact in flight taking into account of atmospheric conditions can be assessed, which can facilitate environmental noise assessment, low noise design, route planning of UAVs and UAMs.