Numerical Flow Field Analysis in a Highly Bent Intake Duct

Author(s):  
Jakob P. Haug ◽  
Rudolf P. M. Rademakers ◽  
Marcel Stößel ◽  
Reinhard Niehuis

In many modern aircraft concepts, civil as well as military ones, the engine is fully integrated into the fuselage. This integration often requires a highly bent intake duct. Due to the high degree of curvature and also the diffusive character of the intake duct, the inflow at the engine’s fan is non-uniform and may feature severe flow distortions. The size, strength, and pattern of these flow distortions may affect the engine’s compressor system and its safety margins. In this paper the flow through a short highly bent intake duct geometry is analysed by means of CFD. The numerical simulations are validated against experimental data, which are obtained in extensive investigations at the institute’s engine test facility. The setup for the numerical investigations is based on previous studies of the aerodynamics of intake ducts at the Institute of Jet Propulsion, where it is shown that the shape of the entrance cross-section of the intake duct has a strong influence on the flow field throughout the entire intake duct. In this paper the flow throughout the duct is analysed in order to gain information on the flow features which cause the flow distortion at the aerodynamic interface plane (AIP) and how these flow features interact. Two main flow distortion patterns exist at the AIP, one of them is a system of two twin vortices, one on each side in the lower part of the AIP. These are caused by the particular shapes of the cross-sections in the front part of the duct. The dominating flow distortion in the AIP is caused by a large flow separation in the rear part of the duct, which resides in the upper half of the AIP and results in a large total pressure loss and axial velocity deficit, combined with a twin swirl. Although no direct interaction between these two flow patterns is present, it was found that the small vortices in the lower part are influenced by the flow separation at the upper wall in the rear section of the intake duct.

Author(s):  
Jakob P. Haug ◽  
Rudolf P. M. Rademakers ◽  
Marcel Stößel ◽  
Reinhard Niehuis

In many modern aircraft concepts, civil as well as military ones, the engine is fully integrated into the fuselage. This integration often requires a highly bent intake duct. Due to the high degree of curvature and also the diffusive character of the intake duct, the inflow at the engine’s fan is non-uniform and may feature severe flow distortions. The size, strength, and pattern of these flow distortions may affect the engine’s compressor system and its safety margins. In this paper five highly bent intake duct geometries are analyzed by means of CFD. They evolve from the same baseline geometry but are defined by different crosssectional shapes. With this variation of the cross-sections, the influence of the cross-sectional shape on the aerodynamics of the intake duct is investigated qualitatively. Based on these analyses a sixth intake duct geometry was created as test vehicle for experimental investigation of intake-compressor interaction within the engine test facility. The defining cross-sectional shapes were selected in order to achieve a flow distortion at the duct outlet plane, that is small enough to ensure a safe engine operation, but is still strong enough to provoke interaction of the distorted flow and the compressor flow. The setup for these fully numerical investigations is based on previous studies of the aerodynamics of intake ducts at the Institute of Jet Propulsion. It is shown that the entrance cross-section has a strong influence on the flow throughout the whole intake duct. Additionally, it could be determined that the flow distortion caused by the strong curvature of the intake duct can be reduced in size and strength by a proper combination of cross-sectional shapes.


Author(s):  
Alessandro Armellini ◽  
Filippo Coletti ◽  
Tony Arts ◽  
Christophe Scholtes

The present contribution addresses the aero-thermal experimental and computational study of a trapezoidal cross-section model simulating a trailing edge cooling cavity with one rib-roughened wall. The flow is fed through tilted slots on one side wall and exits through straight slots on the opposite side wall. The flow field aerodynamics is investigated in part I of the paper. The reference Reynolds number is defined at the entrance of the test section and set at 67500 for all the experiments. A qualitative flow model is deduced from surface-streamline flow visualizations. Two-dimensional Particle Image Velocimetry measurements are performed in several planes around mid-span of the channel and recombined to visualize and quantify three-dimensional flow features. The jets issued from the tilted slots are characterized and the jet-rib interaction is analyzed. Attention is drawn to the motion of the flow deflected by the rib-roughened wall and impinging on the opposite smooth wall. The experimental results are compared with the numerical predictions obtained from the finite volume, RANS solver CEDRE.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Min-Sik Youn ◽  
Youn-Jea Kim

Abstract Demands of a modern aircraft regarding its aerodynamic performance and high efficiency are ever-growing. An S-shaped inlet, as known as a serpentine duct, plays a significant role in increasing fuel efficiency. Recently, the serpentine duct is commonly employed for military aircraft to block the front of the jet engine from radar. However, delivering a non-uniformly distorted flow to the engine face (aerodynamic interface plane, AIP) though a serpentine duct is inevitable due to the existence of flow separation and swirl flow in the duct. The effect of distortion is to cause the engine compressor to surge; thus, it may impact on the life-cycle of aircraft engine. In this study, aerodynamic characteristics of a serpentine duct mounted on a blended-wing-body (BWB) aircraft was thoroughly investigated to determine where and how the vortex flow was generated. In particular, both passive and active flow control were implemented at a place where the flow separation was occurred to minimize the flow distortion rate in the duct. The passive and active flow control systems were used with vortex generator (VG) vanes and air suctions, respectively. A pair of VG s have been made as a set, and 6 sets of VG in the serpentine duct. For the active flow control, 19 air suctions have been implemented. Both flow control devices have been placed in three different locations. To evaluate the performance of flow control system, it is necessary to quantify the flow uniformity at the AIP. Therefore, coefficient of distortion, DC(60) was used as the quantitative measure of distortion. Also, change in DC(60) value while the BWB aircraft is maneuvering phase was analyzed.


Author(s):  
Kasra Amini ◽  
Alireza Mani

The flow field analysis has been numerically performed on the effectiveness of a flow control mechanism called the Flow Controlling Plate (FCP) on buildings. For this purpose, the gable roof geometry has been considered as a common urban element in the western residential architecture. As the justification step towards the functionality of the concept of FCPs, the 2D numerical investigation of the flow field under the realistic assumptions of atmospheric boundary layer profiles for the spectrum ranging from the so-called light air to strong breeze wind speed classifications have been performed. The CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) field calculations have been conveyed as an unsteady case for the flow around a bluff body, using RANS (Reynolds Average Navier-Stokes) averaging methods targeting a solution of Navier-Stokes equations of the fluid flow. The results have proven the hypotheses of the contribution of the FCPs on preventing the flow separation on a partial region of the surface and improving the boundary layer development on the rest of the gable roof facades, which have led to a drastic reduction in the convective heat transfer coefficient as well as the drag force exerted on the roof


Author(s):  
S. J. van der Spuy ◽  
T. W. von Backstro¨m ◽  
D. G. Kro¨ger

The large number of axial flow fans used in modern dry-cooled power plant air-cooled steam condensers necessitates the use of simplified numerical models when simulating the perfromance of such a condenser. Three simplified fan models are presented and implemented using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). These are referred to as the pressure jump, actuator disc and extended actuator disc models. The paper compares the CFD results obtained using these three models to experimental results obtained on a multiple axial flow fan test facility. The test facility was configured in such a way that it could accommodate different fan platform heights to vary the level of inlet flow distortion for the facility. The simulations show that the general flow field adjacent to the facility is independent of the simplified fan model that is used in the CFD analysis. However, the predicted flow field directly upstream of the edge fan varies according to the method used to represent the fan. It is also found that the more sophisticated fan models give a more accurate estimate of fan operation at higher levels of inlet flow distortion than the less sophisticated fan models.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Chang Liu ◽  
Zuobing Chen ◽  
Weili Zhang ◽  
Chenggang Yang ◽  
Ya Mao ◽  
...  

The vertical roller mill is an important crushing and grading screening device widely used in many industries. Its classification efficiency and the pressure difference determine the entire producing capacity and power consumption, respectively, which makes them the two key indicators describing the mill performance. Based on the DPM (Discrete Phase Model) and continuous phase coupling model, the flow field characteristics in the vertical roller mill including the velocity and pressure fields and the discrete phase distributions had been analyzed. The influence of blade parameters like the shape, number, and rotating speed on the flow field and classification performance had also been comprehensively explored. The numerical simulations showed that there are vortices in many zones in the mill and the blades are of great significance to the mill performance. The blade IV not only results in high classification efficiency but also reduces effectively the pressure difference in the separator and also the whole machine. The conclusions of the flow field analysis and the blade effects on the classification efficiency and the pressure difference could guide designing and optimizing the equipment structure and the milling process, which is of great importance to obtain better overall performance of the vertical roller mill.


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