Inversion of spinning sound fields.

A method is presented for the reconstruction of rotating monopole source distributions using acoustic pressures measured on a sideline parallel to the source axis. The method requires no a priori assumptions about the source other than that its strength at the frequency of interest varies sinusoidally in azimuth on the source disk so that the radiated acoustic field is composed of a single circumferential mode. When multiple azimuthal modes are present, the acoustic field can be decomposed into azimuthal modes and the method applied to each mode in sequence. The method proceeds in two stages, first finding an intermediate line source derived from the source distribution and then inverting this line source to find the radial variation in source strength. A far-field form of the radiation integrals is derived, showing that the far-field pressure is a band-limited Fourier transform of the line source, establishing a limit on the quality of source reconstruction, which can be achieved using far-field measurements. The method is applied to simulated data representing wind-tunnel testing of a ducted rotor system (tip Mach number of 0.74) and to control of noise from an automotive cooling fan (tip Mach number of 0.14), studies which have appeared in the literature of source identification.