Estimation and Mitigation of Unknown Airplane Installation Effects on GPA Diagnostics

In gas turbines used for airplane propulsion, the number of sensors are kept at a minimum for accurate control and safe operation. Additionally, when data are communicated between the airplane main computer and the various subsystems, different systems may have different constraints and requirements regarding what data transmit. Early in the design process, these parameters are relatively easy to change, compared to a mature product. If the gas turbine diagnostic system is not considered early in the design process, it may lead to diagnostic functions having to operate with reduced amount of data. In this paper, a scenario where the diagnostic function cannot obtain airplane installation effects is considered. The installation effects in question is air intake pressure loss (pressure recovery), bleed flow and shaft power extraction. A framework is presented where the unknown installation effects are estimated based on available data through surrogate models, which is incorporated into the diagnostic framework. The method has been evaluated for a low-bypass turbofan with two different sensor suites. It has also been evaluated for two different diagnostic schemes, both determined and underdetermined. Results show that, compared to assuming a best-guess constant-bleed and shaft power, the proposed method reduce the RMS in health parameter estimation from 26% up to 80% for the selected health parameters. At the same time, the proposed method show the same degradation pattern as if the installation effects were known.

Theoretical Study of the Acoustic Installation Effects in Closed-Vein Wind Tunnels for the Experimental Characterization of Trailing Edge Noise

This study focuses on the acoustic installation effects that may occur during typical aeroacoustic experiments when the latter are conducted in a closed-vein wind tunnel. More precisely, in regard to the specific problem of airfoil trailing edge noise, an analytical model is derived, which allows predicting the wall-induced reverberation effects that such a noise shall be subjected to, when radiating within a closed-vein, hard-wall, wind tunnel. These effects are then assessed through a parametric investigation so as to characterize their impact on in situ acoustic measurements that would be performed using flush-mounted microphones located on the vein’s walls. From a phenomenological perspective, the study highlights how important the reverberation effects by the vein can be. In particular, results reveal how their impact on the noise measurements may greatly vary, depending on the trailing edge noise source location (i.e., the airfoil incidence) and, to a lesser extent, its frequency. The outcomes allow identifying these locations where the installation effects are least, i.e., where to better position a flush-mounted microphone, should in situ noise measurements be conducted. From a methodological viewpoint, the study showcases how the proposed formalism could constitute a simple albeit useful diagnosis tool for mitigating the experimental biases weighing on airfoil trailing edge noise tests to be conducted within closed-vein facilities, whether this would be done a priori by flush-mounting the microphone(s) where these biases are minimal or a posteriori by de-biasing the noise measurements accordingly.

The Effects of Installation on the Elastic Stiffness Coefficients of Spudcan Foundations

Subjected to pre-load, spudcan foundations, widely utilized to support offshore jack-up rigs, may penetrate in a few diameters into soft clays before mobilizing sufficient resistance from soil. While its stress–strain behavior is known to be affected by the embedment condition and soil backflow, the small-strain calculation with wished-in-place assumption was previously adopted to analyze its elastic stiffness coefficients. This study takes advantage of a recently developed dual-stage Eulerian–Lagrangian (DSEL) technique to re-evaluate the elastic stiffness coefficients of spudcans after realistically modelling the deep, continuous spudcan penetration. A numerical parametric exercise is conducted to investigate the effects of strength non-homogeneity, embedment depths, and the spudcan’s size on the elastic stiffness. On these bases, an expression is provided such that the practicing engineers can conveniently factor the installation effects into the estimation of elastic stiffness coefficients of spudcans.

Numerical position optimization of an over-the-wing mounted engine installation

The Collaborative Research Center 880 is investigating different technologies and configurative variants for the purpose of short take-off and landing (STOL) capabilities, ranging from high-lift systems with Coandӑ flaps to unusual but potentially more efficient engine arrangements. The present study focuses on the reference configuration 3 (REF3). This configuration is characterized by an UHBR over-the-wing nacelle (OWN) located above the wing trailing edge. Starting from the wing/body configuration the installation effects of the OWN were investigated. A fully automatized surrogate based optimization was used to evaluate the impact of an engine position variation in vertical and horizontal direction to observe fundamental aerodynamic interactions between wing and OWN in cruise flight conditions. Due to the presence of OWN and pylon, a distinct disturbance on the wing upper surface could be observed leading to significant interference effects. Nevertheless, the overall cruise drag of REF3 could be improved by 37 drag counts or nearly 11% due to the position optimization.