Investigation of a Passive Flow Control Device in an S-Duct Inlet of a Propulsion System With High Subsonic Flow

S-Ducts have wide application on air vehicles with embedded engines. The complex geometry is known to lead to separation downstream of curved profiles. This paper reports the influences on that flow of passive flow control geometries. In these experiments, stream-wise tubercles were applied in an effort to improve the internal performance of S-duct diffusers, parameters including pressure recovery, distortion and swirl. The test articles were tested with the high subsonic (Ma = 0.8) flow and were manufactured using 3D printing. Stream-wise static pressure and exit-plane total pressure were measured in a test rig using surface pressure taps and a 5-probe rotating rake, respectively; the baseline and variant S-ducts were simulated through computational fluid dynamics. The experiments showed that some subtle improvements to the S-Duct distortion could be achieved through careful selection of tubercle geometry. Generally, the recovered flow downstream of the inner radius of the second bend of the S-duct deteriorated, but overall pressure recovery improved. The simulations were useful in characterizing swirl, whereas experiments were not so equipped. Adjustments to the numerical approaches resulted in reasonable agreement with the experiments.

A Novel COGAG Propulsion System for Marine Ships

Considering the increasing development of naval destroyers and the obvious advantages of marine gas turbine, this paper designs a novel COGAG (Combined Gas-turbine And Gas-turbine) propulsion system which mainly consists of four GT25 marine gas turbines and one CCG (Cross Connection Gears) for the large destroyer. Firstly, the overall configuration and key devices of COGAG propulsion system are introduced briefly. Then, the typical operating patterns of COGAG propulsion system under different condition are discussed in detail. Finally, many experimental information are further presented. All the results show that the developed COGAG propulsion system not only has higher flexibility and reliability, but also can effectively improve the fuel economy of marine ships.

A Mixed-Fidelity Numerical Study for Fan-Distortion Interaction

Inlet distortion often occurs at off-design points when flow separates within an intake. This unsteady phenomenon could seriously impact fan performance. Fan-distortion interaction is a highly unsteady aerodynamic phenomenon. High-fidelity simulation can provide a detailed insight into these interactions. However, due to computational resource limitations, the use of eddy resolving methods for a fully resolved fan calculation is currently infeasible for industry. To solve this problem, a mixed-fidelity CFD method is proposed. This method uses the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) to resolve the turbulence associated with separation, and the Immersed Boundary Method with Smeared Geometry (IBMSG) for the fan. The method is validated by an experiment of Darmstadt Rotor, which shows a good agreement in terms of total pressure distributions. A detailed investigation is then conducted on a subsonic rotor with an annular beam generating inlet distortion. A range of studies are performed to investigate fan influence on distortions. Compared to the case without fan, it shows that a fan has a significant effect in reducing distortions. Three fan locations are examined. The fan nearer to the inlet tends to have a higher pressure recovery. Three beams with different heights are also tested to generate various degrees of distortions. The results indicate that the fan can suppress the distortions and its recovery effect is proportional to the degree of inlet distortion.

Impact of Turbine Blade Stagger Angle Adjustment on the Efficiency and Performance of Gas Turbines During Off-Design and Dynamic Operation

Gas turbines in general and aircraft engines in particular undergo frequently dynamic operations. These operations include the routine start-up, load change and shut downs to cover their operation envelope. The frequency of the dynamic operation depends on the size of the engines and the field of application. Engines for commuter aircrafts and particularly helicopter engines operate more often in an off-design mode compared to large commercial aircraft engines and power generation gas turbines. During these routine operations, the compressor mass flow, the pressure ratio, the combustion chamber fuel and air mass flow as well as turbine mass flow change. These changes affect the engine aerodynamic performance and its efficiency. To avoid the inception of rotating stall and surge, high performance gas turbines are equipped with mechanisms that adjust the stator stagger angles thus aligning the stator exit flow angle to the rotor inlet angle, which reduces an excessive incidence. The reduction of incidence angle not only preserves the stable operation of the compressor but it also prevents the compressor efficiency from deterioration. The existence of an inherent positive pressure gradient may cause the boundary layer separation on compressor blades leading to the rotating stall and surge. Such condition, however, does not exist in a turbine, and therefore, there has been no compelling reason to apply the blade adjusting method to the turbine component. For the first time, the impact of turbine blade stagger angle adjustment on the gas turbine efficiency during the operation is shown in this paper. Given a statistically distributed load condition, the extensive dynamic simulation reported in this paper shows how the efficiency can be positively affected through proper blade adjustment. For the time dependent operation, the code GETRAN developed by the author was enhanced to include the turbine blade adjustment as a function of time. To conduct the dynamic simulation with turbine stator stagger angle adjustment during a dynamic operation, the full geometry of the Brown Boveri GT-9 gas turbine was utilized. Starting from the reference stagger angle, it is varied within an incidence range of ± 3 degree. Detailed simulation results show the substantial efficiency improvement through stator stagger blade adjustment.

A Methodology for Quantifying Distortion Impacts Using a Modified Parallel Compressor Theory

Efforts to achieve NASA’s N+2 and N+3 fuel burn goals have led to various future aircraft concepts. A commonality in all these concepts is the presence of a high degree of interaction among the various disciplines involved. A tightly integrated propulsion/airframe results in distortion in the flow field around the engine annulus. Although beneficial in terms of propulsive efficiency (due to boundary layer ingestion), the impact of distortion on fan performance and operability remains in question for these concepts. As such, rapid evaluation of the impacts of distortion during the conceptual design phase is necessary to assess various concepts. This is especially important given the expansion of the design space afforded by turbo-electric and hybrid-electric distributed propulsion concepts, in which the gas turbine generator and propulsive devices can be decoupled in space. A simple and rapid methodology to assess operability of compressors is the theory of Parallel Compressors (PC). PC theory views the compressor as two compressors in parallel, one with a uniform high Pt and the other with a uniform low Pt, both operating at the same speed and exiting to a common static pressure. The assumption of two compressors exiting at the common static pressure is not entirely true, especially when the distortion is high. In this paper, the development of a modified parallel compressor model with parametric boundary condition that can capture the impact of non-uniform inflow on fan performance is introduced and validated. Unlike classical PC model, the modified approach introduces a boundary condition dependent on the intensity of distortion (DPCP) at the Aerodynamic Interface Plane (AIP). Additionally, the concept of PC is also extended to Multi-Per Revolution (MPR) distortion. A modeling environment which follows this methodology is created in PROOSIS, an object oriented 0-D cycle code. The model was created using the “compressor” components acting in parallel and a procedure for implementing both design mode and off-design mode solutions was created using the PROOSIS toolset. The example problem was implemented to demonstrate two capabilities — i) the ability of quantifying impacts on thrust and performance of a ducted fan propulsion system, and ii) the ability of predicting loss in stability pressure ratio. The results clearly show the ability of the tool to quantify distortion related losses. The work described in this paper can be integrated to a Multi-Disciplinary Design and Optimization (MDAO) framework along with other disciplines and can be used to evaluate the viability of design space offered by novel aircraft configurations.

An Investigation of Flow Characteristics and Parameter Effects for a New Concept of Hybrid SVC Nozzle

Lighter weight, simpler structure, higher vectoring efficiency and faster vector response are recent trends in development of aircraft engine exhaust system. To meet these new challenges, a concept of hybrid SVC nozzle was proposed in this work to achieve thrust vectoring by adopting a rotatable valve and by introducing a secondary flow injection. In this paper, we numerically investigated the flow mechanism of the hybrid SVC nozzle. Nozzle performance (e.g. the thrust vector angle and the thrust coefficient) was studied with consideration of the influence of aerodynamic and geometric parameters, such as the nozzle pressure ratio (NPR), the secondary pressure ratio (SPR) and the deflection angle of the rotatable valve (θ). The numerical results indicate that the introductions of the rotatable valve and the secondary injection induce an asymmetrically distributed static pressure to nozzle internal walls. Such static pressure distribution generates a side force on the primary flow, thereby achieving thrust vectoring. Both the thrust vector angle and vectoring efficiency can be enhanced by reducing NPR or by increasing θ. A maximum vector angle of 16.7 ° is attained while NPR is 3 and the corresponding vectoring efficiency is 6.33 °/%. The vector angle first increases and then decreases along with the elevation of SPR, and there exists an optimum value of SPR for maximum thrust vector angle. The effects of θ and SPR on the thrust coefficient were found to be insignificant. The rotatable valve can be utilized to improve vectoring efficiency and to control the vector angle as expected.

Investigation on a Blockerless Cascade Thrust Reverser System Based on Response Surface Method

The blockerless cascade thrust reverser is one of the innovative thrust reverser systems, which replaces the traditionally mechanical blocker door with the aerodynamic blocker door by high-pressure secondary injection, thus significantly reduces the nacelle weight and the complexity of the actuator, and especially suitable for high-bypass-ratio turbofan engine. In order to obtain the optimum performance of a blockerless cascade thrust reverser system and provide the guidance for the design of the blockerless cascade thrust reverser system, a blockerless cascade thrust reverser system was studied in this paper based on the Response Surface Method (RSM), focusing on the effect of different geometric and aerodynamic parameters on the thrust reverser performance. Results show that the secondary injection with high pressure forms the blockage effect to the fan flow, then forces the fan flow to deflect and discharge from the cascade window, realizing the reverse thrust. The thrust reverser performance is mainly affected by fan pressure ratio (FPR), secondary flow pressure ratio (SPR), secondary injection position (Xjet), secondary injection angle (αjet) and cascade installation angle (β), and the dominated factors are FPR, SPR and Xjet. According to the obtained response equation of the thrust reverser performance, the relationship between reverse thrust efficiency and various parameters are clearly described, and performance of thrust reverser can be quickly evaluated. Significant interaction effects exist between different two factors, which must be taken into consideration in the design process of the blockerless cascade thrust reverser system, especially for the interaction effect between FPR and Xjet, interaction effect between FPR and β. Optimization design with objective of maximum reverse thrust was carried out to determine the best parameter settings, and reverse thrust ratio ηTrev of 60% is achieved under the constraint of the secondary flow ratio.

High Fidelity Modeling of the Acceleration of a Turboshaft Engine During a Restart

In order to decrease the fuel consumption, a new flight mode is being considered for twin-engine helicopters, in which one engine is put into sleeping mode (a mode in which the gas generator is kept at a stabilized, sub-idle speed by means of an electric motor, with no combustion), while the remaining engine operates at nominal load. The restart of the engine in sleeping mode is therefore deemed critical for safety reasons. This efficient new flight mode has raised the interest in the modeling of the restart of a turboshaft engine. In this context, the initial conditions of the simulations are better known relative to a ground start, in particular the air flow through the gas generator is constant, the fuel and oil system states are known and temperatures of the casings are equal to ambient. During the restart phase of the engine, the gas generator speed is kept at constant speed until the light-up is detected by a rise in inter-turbine temperature, then the starter torque increases, accelerating the engine towards idle speed. In this paper, the modeling of the acceleration of the gas generator from light-up to idle and above idle speeds is presented. Details on the light-up process are not addressed here. The study is based on the high-fidelity aero-thermodynamic restart model that is currently being developed for a 2000 horse power, free turbine turboshaft. In this case, the term high-fidelity refers not only to the modeling of the flow path components but it also includes all the subsystems, secondary air flows and controls with a high level of detail. The physical phenomena governing the acceleration of the turboshaft engine following a restart — mainly the transient evolution of the combustion efficiency and the power loss by heat soakage — are discussed in this paper and modeling solutions are presented. The results of the simulations are compared to engine test data, highlighting that the studied phenomena have an impact on the acceleration of the turboshaft engine and that the model is able to correctly predict acceleration trends.

Aeroacoustic Optimization of a Pressure-Side Strut Configuration for Subsonic Axial Fans Using Statistical-Empirical Modelling

This paper deals with the reduction of aerodynamically generated noise in passenger car Cooling-Fan-Modules (CFM), caused by the interaction between the impeller and the downstream-located strut configuration of the axial fan. Even after the car engine is switched off, the fan remains active, as long as cooling is required for certain vehicle components. Especially after a car has been parked in closed parking areas, in close proximity to residential buildings or public places, the noise emission can be a problem. This issue is addressed by dampening the rotor-stator-interaction through passive construction measures. In order to ensure optimal noise reduction, 8 critical design features of the struts are identified and investigated using statistical design of experiment methods (DoE). Based on the results, dedicated insights about the effects of concrete strut features on significant regions of the acoustic fan spectrum are obtained. Furthermore, an optimized strut configuration is derived and metrologically validated using a polyoptimization method. Compared to a current serial baseline configuration, a reduction of the overall sound pressure level by 2.6 dB(A), as well as a reduction of the blade passage frequency tone by 17.6 dB(A) is achieved.

Multiphase CFD Modeling of External Oil Flow From a Journal Bearing

High loads and bearing life requirements make journal bearings a potential choice for use in high power, epicyclic gearboxes in jet engines. Particularly in a planetary configuration the kinematic conditions are complex. With the planet gears rotating about their own axis and orbiting around the sun gear, centrifugal forces generated by both motions interact with each other and affect the external flow behavior of the oil exiting the journal bearing. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations using the Volume of Fluid (VoF) method are carried out in ANSYS Fluent [1] to numerically model the two-phase flow behavior of the oil exiting the bearing and merging into the air surrounding the bearing. This paper presents an investigation of two numerical schemes that are available in ANSYS Fluent to track or capture the air-oil phase interface: the geometric reconstruction scheme and the compressive scheme. Both numerical schemes are used to model the oil outflow behavior in the most simplistic approximation of a journal bearing: a representation, rotating about its own axis, with a circumferentially constant, i.e. concentric, lubricating gap. Based on these simplifications, a three dimensional (3D) CFD sector model with rotationally periodic boundaries is considered. A comparison of the geometric reconstruction scheme and the compressive scheme is presented with regards to the accuracy of the phase interface reconstruction and the time required to reach steady state flow field conditions. The CFD predictions are validated against existing literature data with respect to the flow regime, the direction of the predicted oil flow path and the oil film thickness. Based on the findings and considerations of industrial requirements, a recommendation is made for the most suitable scheme to be used. With a robust and partially validated CFD model in place, the model fidelity can be enhanced to include journal bearing eccentricity. Due to the convergent-divergent gap and the resultant pressure field within the lubricating oil film, the outflow behavior can be expected to be very different compared to that of a concentric journal bearing. Naturally, the inlet boundary conditions for the oil emerging from the journal bearing into the external environment must be consistent with the outlet conditions from the bearing. The second part of this paper therefore focuses on providing a method to generate appropriate inlet boundary conditions for external oil flow from an eccentric journal bearing.