Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings equation

The Lighthill acoustic analogy for a moving body has a volume acoustic quadrupole, a surface acoustic monopole from acoustic thickness noise, and a surface acoustic dipole from acoustic loading noise. For an impermeable moving surface, with outward normal $n$, normal surface speed $v_n$, and fluid and body normal velocities equal, the surface mass coefficient is ${\rho }_0{v}_n$ and the surface loading is the force exerted on the fluid. Schematically, the density-source equation isThe density perturbation is understood with the chosen interior extension. Permeable-surface versions have additional mass and momentum flux terms. Source approximations must distinguish local thickness radiation from cancellation of its compact net-volume contribution.

Loading noise is the acoustic dipole radiation of the force exerted by a body on its surrounding fluid. For a compact, slowly moving source, the radiating acoustic density perturbation is $n\cdot \dot{\mathcal{F}}(t-R/c_0)/(4\pi c_0^{3}R)$, where $\mathcal{F}$ is the total force. If this total is constant, finite source-delay corrections can still create higher acoustic multipole sources.

Thickness noise is the sound generated by displacement of fluid by a moving impermeable body, represented by the surface acoustic monopole term. For a rigid body, ${\int }_S{v}_{n}dS=d\mathcal{V}/dt=0$, so its leading acoustic compact-source approximation has no net-volume monopole. Its local source need not vanish: a moving finite-volume body can radiate through higher spatial moments. A thin-body or negligible-volume approximation is needed when all such radiation is to be omitted.