A320 Cabin door noise

[aristoclis]

Hi all,

During last flight, at FL360 cruise, we were notified by cabin crew about a noise coming from 1R cabin door. I went to check myself. It was not an aerodynamic noise, it was not an air leaking noise. It sounded like a horn or siren:confused:. Actually it was so loud, you could hear it in the cockpit. It stopped after a while, during the initial part of the descent. It did not stop suddenly, it kind of "faded" away. Any ideas what this could be? Anything to do with the door damper actuator?

Thanks.

[gusting_45]

It will be a dodgy seal for sure. Have had a noise so bad previously that it was quite difficult to hear in the cockpit.

It's not a big deal, but very disconcerting for all.

[john_tullamarine]

Consider the sound initiating action with a concert flute - suggest that a similar situation applies here.

Small leak allows a plume of cabin air to exit the seal and that excites a standing wave in the air in the near seal structure .. varies or disappears during descent as the pressure differential changes along with the exiting air leak plume.

[aristoclis]

Well, quite interesting. The noise was so misleading, it reminded me on the horn that used to sound, when the ground power units in the Air Force ran out of fuel.

Thank you for your replies.:ok:

[DesiPilot]

Well, similar thing happen with us, during climb than it stopped, during cruise a few times until we rectified our problem. Ours was more like grinding noise with vibrations and it could be heard from FD all the way to third row.

We checked all the parameters- all in normal and green, we changed the pressurisation controllers- no help. We turned the BLWR to OVRD and the noise stopped immediately, back to AUTO and noise started again. After landing told the engineering of the same and after running diagnostics, I was told that the the system should have been in closed configuration but it was actually in open configuration with flaps fluttering and vibrating and creating all the noise. All the indications on the SD was normal. Now the aircraft is flying in MEL.

[Tinwacker]

Aristoclis,

If you still have reports of this noise after the door has been opened and cycled and checked for obvious seal damage. No catering debris under the door seal then this could well be the door 1R sill scuff plate.

Quick t/shooting and isolation is to apply aluminium high speed tape to the outer door sill. The scuff plate sealant may have de-bonded from the fuselage and is now causing high speed airflow to give that high pitch whistle - 'blowing across a coke bottle top'. Remeber to ask the crew to report back as this noise is a killer in cruise.

Fix will be eventually to remove the scuff plate and reseal with aerodynamic sealant. It is a fairly common fault that I have come across on both Boeing and Airbus aircraft.

TW

[aristoclis]

Hi,

On the return flight everything was normal (door had been opened and closed during turnaround) so I conclude it might have been some kind of debris in the seal. Strange thing was that it started shortly before descent in the outbound flight, which was at about after 30 minutes in cruise level. We informed engineers and next crew at home base, so they would be aware for the next flight. Of course we had perfectly normal cabin pressure and v/s indications all the time without any kind of vibrations.

Thank you for sharing your experience.