The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the world’s largest aerospace professional society, has selected Professor Dame Ann P. Dowling as the 2024 Pendray Aerospace Literature Award winner, for her publications on combustion noise.
This prestigious award is presented for an outstanding contribution or contributions to aeronautical and astronautical literature.
The Citation said "Professor Dowling is internationally renowned for her research in sound, and her seminal work on jet and combustion noise, and thermoacoustic instability. She has a particular interest in low noise (‘silent’) and low emission combustors with applications in both propulsion and power generation. Her work underlying the mechanics of unsteady flow sound interaction (especially in the control of aeroacoustic instabilities) is recognised to be fundamental to current understanding of the physics in these fields.
"Her contributions in this area are world leading, specifically in the development and control of unstable combustion systems. Professor Dowling is a global leading expert on aeroacoustics and thermoacoustics, where she has developed the fundamental understanding of the physics underlying jet engine instability (known as reheat buzz). She developed the most influential mathematical descriptions of the interaction between acoustics, unsteady flow, and combustion and her developments to combine aeroacoustics with combustion dynamics have driven the design of today’s energy-efficient and ‘quiet’ jet engines."
Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, full article