Normal-shock/boundary-layer interactions in transonic intakes at high incidence

During high-incidence manoeuvres, shock-wave boundary layer interactions can develop over transonic inlet lower lips, significantly impacting aerodynamic performance. Here, a novel experimental rig is used to investigate the nature and severity of these interactions for a typical high incidence scenario. Furthermore, we explore the sensitivity to changes in angle of incidence and mass flow rate, as potentially experienced across off-design operations. The reference flow-field, informed by typical climb conditions, is defined by an incidence of 23° and a free stream Mach number M=0.435. The lower lip flow is characterised by a rapid acceleration around the leading-edge and a M=1.4 shock ahead of the intake diffuser. Overall, this flow-field is found to be relatively benign, with minimal shock-induced separation. Downstream of the interaction, the boundary layer recovers a healthy profile ahead of the nominal fan location. Increasing incidence by 2°, the separation becomes noticeably larger and unsteadiness develops. Detrimental effects are exacerbated at an even higher incidence of 26°. Increasing the mass flow rate over the lip by up to 15% of the initial value has minor effects on performance and is not found to inhibit the boundary layer profile recovery

The impact of surface roughness geometry on aero-engine intakes at incidence

© 2018, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA. All rights reserved. Shock Wave-Boundary-Layer Interactions, or SBLI’s, are known to form on engine inlets within a complex transonic flow-field during typical take-off and climb configurations. On the engine inlet, there are a number of potential sources of surface roughness, such as novel de-icing and acoustic systems, or surface contamination. The impact on the flow-field structure, as a result of this roughness, may lead to detrimental side effects, such as losses in engine efficiency or intake flow stability. Previous research into two-dimensional roughness shapes demonstrated flow-field changes, for example a thicker downstream-boundary layer compared to a smooth surface. This paper compares the impact of a two-dimensional ridge roughness to a three-dimensional cubed roughness on the inlet flow-field. The effect of these rough surfaces is examined with schlieren photography and Laser Doppler Velocime-try (LDV) techniques. At an on-design condition, a rough surface promotes a smaller supersonic region, and a thicker boundary-layer downstream of the interaction compared to a smooth surface. At off-design upper surface mass flow rate conditions, modelling a higher mass flow engine demand, the supersonic region grows, leading to a shock location further downstream. Under these conditions, roughness also promotes a thicker downstream boundary-layer. However, comparing the two-dimensional with three-dimensional roughness at an approximate fan-face location, shows that three-dimensional roughness is more benign for all off-design cases. This suggests that the topology of the roughness is influencing the condition of the boundary-layer at this location

A semi-empirical model for streamwise vortex intensification

Vortex intensification plays an important role in a wide range of flows of engineering interest. One scenario of interest is when a streamwise vortex passes through the contracting streamtube of an aircraft intake. There is, however, limited experimental data of flows of this type to reveal the dominant flow physics and to guide the development of vortex models. To this end, the evolution of wing-tip vortices inside a range of streamtube contractions has been measured using stereoscopic particle image velocimetry. A semi-empirical model has been applied to provide new insight on the role of vorticity diffusion during the intensification process. The analysis demonstrates that for mild flow contractions, vorticity diffusion has a negligible influence due to the low rates of diffusion in the vortex flow prior to intensification and the short convective times associated with the streamtube contraction. As the contraction levels increase, there is a substantial increase in the rates of diffusion which is driven by the greater levels of vorticity in the vortex core. A new semi-empirical relationship, as a function of the local streamtube contraction levels and vortex Reynolds number, has been developed. The model comprises a simple correction to vortex filament theory and provides a significant improvement in the estimation of vortex characteristics in contracting flows. For the range of contractions investigated, errors in the estimation of vortex core radius, peak tangential velocity and vorticity are reduced by an order of magnitude. The model can be applied to estimate the change in vortex characteristics for a range of flows with intense axial strain, such as contracting intake streamtubes and swirling flows in turbomachinery

Aspects of aero-engine nacelle drag

To address the need for accurate nacelle drag estimation, an assessment has been made of different nacelle configurations used for drag evaluation. These include a sting mounted nacelle, a nacelle in free flow with an idealised, freestream pressure matched, efflux and a nacelle with a full exhaust system and representative nozzle pressure ratio. An aerodynamic analysis using numerical methods has been carried out on four nacelles to assess a near field drag extraction method using computational fluid dynamics. The nacelles were modelled at a range of aerodynamic conditions and three were compared against wind tunnel data. A comparison is made between the drag extraction methods used in the wind tunnel analysis and the chosen computational fluid dynamics approach which utilised the modified near-field method for evaluation of drag coefficients and trends with Mach number and mass flow. The effect of sting mounting is quantified and its influence on the drag measured by the wind tunnel methodology determined. This highlights notable differences in the rate of change of drag with free stream Mach number, and also the flow over the nacelle. A post exit stream tube was also found to create a large additional interference term acting on the nacelle. This term typically accounts for 50% of the modified nacelle drag and its inclusion increased the drag rise Mach number by around ΔM = 0.026 from M=0.849 M=0.849 to M=0.875 M=0.875 for the examples considered

The aerodynamic effects of VHBR engine installation to the Common Research Model

This work describes the assessment of the effect of engine installation parameters such as engine position, size and power setting on the performance of a typical 300 seater aircraft at cruise condition. Two engines with very-high by-pass ratio and with different fan diameters and specific thrusts are initially simulated in isolation to determine the thrust and drag forces for an isolated configuration. The two engines are then assessed in an engine-airframe configuration to determine the sensitivity of the overall installation penalty to the vertical and axial engine location. The breakdown of the interference force is investigated to determine the aerodynamic origins of beneficial or penalising forces. To complete the cruise study a range of engine power settings were considered to determine the installation penalty at different phases of cruise. This work concludes with the preliminary assessment of cruise fuel burn for two engines. For the baseline engine, across the range of installed positions the resultant thrust requirement varied by 1.7% of standard net thrust. The larger engine was less sensitive with a variation of 1.3%. For an assessment over a 10000km cruise flight the overall effect of the lower specific thrust engine showed that the cycle benefits of –5.8% in specific fuel consumption was supplemented by a relatively beneficial aerodynamic installation effect but offset by the additional weight to give a -4.8% fuel burn reduction

Aerodynamic effects of propulsion integration for high bypass ratio engines

This work describes the assessment of the effect of engine installation parameters such as engine position, size, and power setting on the performance of a typical 300-seater aircraft at cruise condition. Two engines with very high bypass ratio and with different fan diameters and specific thrusts are initially simulated in isolation to determine the thrust and drag forces for an isolated configuration. The two engines are then assessed in an engine–airframe configuration to determine the sensitivity of the overall installation penalty to the vertical and axial engine location. The breakdown of the interference force is investigated to determine the aerodynamic origins of beneficial or penalizing forces. To complete the cruise study, a range of engine power settings is considered to determine the installation penalty at different phases of cruise. This work concludes with the preliminary assessment of cruise fuel burn for two engines. For the baseline engine, across the range of installed positions, the resultant thrust requirement varies by 1.7% of standard net thrust. The larger engine is less sensitive with a variation of 1.3%. For an assessment over a 10,000 km cruise flight, the overall effect of the lower specific thrust engine shows that the cycle benefits of −5.8% −5.8% in specific fuel consumption are supplemented by a relatively beneficial aerodynamic installation effect but offset by the additional weight to give a −4.8% −4.8% fuel-burn reduction

Fan-Intake interaction under high incidence

In this paper, we present an extensive numerical study on the interaction between the downstream fan and the flow separating over an intake under high incidence. The objectives of this investigation are twofold: (a) to gain qualitative insight into the mechanism of fan–intake interaction and (b) to quantitatively examine the effect of the proximity of the fan on the inlet distortion. The fan proximity is altered using the key design parameter, L/D, where D is the diameter of the intake, and L is the distance of the fan from the intake lip. Both steady and unsteady Reynolds-averaged numerical simulations (RANS) were carried out. For the steady calculations, a low-order fan model has been used, while a full 3D geometry has been used for the unsteady RANS. The numerical methodology is also thoroughly validated against the measurements for the intake-only and fan-only configurations on a high bypass ratio turbofan intake and fan, respectively. To systematically study the effect of fan on the intake separation and explore the design criteria, a simplified intake–fan configuration has been considered. In this fan–intake model, the proximity of the fan to the intake separation (L/D) can be conveniently altered without affecting other parameters. The key results indicate that, depending on L/D, the fan has either suppressed the level of the postseparation distortion or increased the separation-free operating range. At the lowest L/D (∼0.17), around a 5 deg increase in the separation-free angle of incidence was achieved. This delay in the separation-free angle of incidence decreased with increasing L/D. At the largest L/D (∼0.44), the fan was effective in suppressing the postseparation distortion rather than entirely eliminating the separation. Isentropic Mach number distribution over the intake lip for different L/D's revealed that the fan accelerates the flow near the casing upstream of the fan face, thereby decreasing the distortion level in the immediate vicinity. However, this acceleration effect decayed rapidly with increasing upstream distance from the fan-face.</jats:p

Characteristics of shock-induced boundary layer separation on nacelles under windmilling diversion conditions

The boundary layer on the external cowl of an aero-engine nacelle under windmilling diversion conditions is subjected to a notable adverse pressure gradient due to the interaction with a near-normal shock wave. Within the context of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods, the correct representation of the characteristics of the boundary layer is a major challenge to capture the onset of the separation. This is important for the aerodynamic design of the nacelle as it may assist in the characterization of candidate designs. This work uses experimental data obtained from a quasi-2D rig configuration to provide an assessment of the CFD methods typically used within an industrial context. A range of operating conditions is investigated to assess the sensitivity of the boundary layer to changes in inlet Mach number and mass flow through a notional windmilling engine. Fully turbulent and transitional boundary layer computations are used to determine the characteristics of the boundary layer and the interaction with the shock on the nacelle cowl. The correlation between the onset of shock induced boundary layer separation and pre-shock Mach number is assessed and the boundary layer integral characteristics ahead of the shock and the post-shock recovery evaluated and quantified. Overall, it was found that the CFD is able to discern the onset of boundary layer separation for a nacelle under windmilling conditions

Design optimisation of separate-jet exhausts for the next generation of civil aero-engines

This paper presents the development and application of a computational framework for the aerodynamic design of separate-jet exhaust systems for Very-High-Bypass-Ratio (VHBR) gas-turbine aero-engines. An analytical approach is synthesised comprising a series of fundamental modelling methods. These address the aspects of engine performance simulation, parametric geometry definition, viscous/compressible flow solution, design space exploration, and genetic optimisation. Parametric design is carried out based on minimal user-input combined with the cycle data established using a zero-dimensional (0D) engine analysis method. A mathematical approach is developed based on Class-Shape Transformation (CST) functions for the parametric geometry definition of gas-turbine exhaust components such as annular ducts, nozzles, after-bodies, and plugs. This proposed geometry formulation is coupled with an automated mesh generation approach and a Reynolds Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) flow-field solution method, thus forming an integrated aerodynamic design tool. A cost-e ective Design Space Exploration (DSE) and optimisation strategy has been structured comprising methods for Design of Experiment (DOE), Response Surface Modelling (RSM), as well as genetic optimisation. The integrated framework has been deployed to optimise the aerodynamic performance of a separate-jet exhaust system for a large civil turbofan engine representative of future architectures. The optimisations carried out suggest the potential to increase the engine’s net propulsive force compared to a baseline architecture, through optimum re-design of the exhaust system. Furthermore, the developed approach is shown to be able to identify and alleviate adverse flow-features that may deteriorate the aerodynamic behaviour of the exhaust system