Numerical flow simulation of rotating circular saw blades for the investigation of sound generation mechanisms

Emission of airborne sound in the production industry is endangering the employees’ health and is lowering productivity. Circular saw blades in particular cause high sound pressure levels. Therefore, the tool geometry of saw blades should be improved in the sense that the emission of airborne sound is lowered. In this work, the basics for the tool optimization regarding the emission of airborne sound are elaborated. To avoid high costs for various prototypes and experimental investigations, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation is used. By this, the effects of the adjustments of the geometry on the fluid mechanics can be researched efficiently. Using the acoustic analogy of Ffowcs-Williams/Hawkings, the results of the numerical flow simulation are converted into the sound pressure level. To validate the calculated results, previously conducted experiments are used for comparison. The calculated results correspond well to the values from the experimental measurements. Hence, it is possible to use the developed method to predict the influence of geometry adjustments on the acoustic behaviour, making the optimization process possible. In an outlook, the concept for an optimization loop is explained, which couples the CFD simulation with a parameterized geometry model and an evaluation algorithm.