Flow Characteristics of Double Serpentine Convergent Nozzle With Different Inlet Configuration

Author(s):  
Sun Xiao-Lin ◽  
Wang Zhan-Xue ◽  
Zhou Li ◽  
Shi Jing-Wei ◽  
Cheng Wen

Serpentine nozzles have been used in stealth fighters to increase their survivability. For real turbofan aero-engines, the existence of the double ducts (bypass and core flow), the tail cone, the struts, the lobed mixers, and the swirl flows from the engine turbine, could lead to complex flow features of serpentine nozzle. The aim of this paper is to ascertain the effect of different inlet configurations on the flow characteristics of a double serpentine convergent nozzle. The detailed flow features of the double serpentine convergent nozzle including/excluding the tail cone and the struts are investigated. The effects of inlet swirl angles and strut setting angles on the flow field and performance of the serpentine nozzle are also computed. The results show that the vortices, which inherently exist at the corners, are not affected by the existence of the bypass, the tail cone, and the struts. The existence of the tail cone and the struts leads to differences in the high-vorticity regions of the core flow. The static temperature contours are dependent on the distributions of the x-streamwise vorticity around the core flow. The high static temperature region is decreased with the increase of the inlet swirl angle and the setting angle of the struts. The performance loss of the serpentine nozzle is mostly caused by its inherent losses such as the friction loss and the shock loss. The performance of the serpentine nozzle is decreased as the inlet swirl angle and the setting angle of the struts increase.

Author(s):  
Zhijun Lei ◽  
Ali Mahallati ◽  
Mark Cunningham ◽  
Patrick Germain

This paper presents a detailed experimental investigation of the influence of core flow swirl on the mixing and performance of a scaled turbofan mixer with 12 scalloped lobes. Measurements were made downstream of the mixer in a co-annular wind tunnel. The core-to-bypass velocity ratio was set to 2:1, temperature ratio to 1.0, and pressure ratio to 1.03, giving a Reynolds number of 5.2 × 105, based on the core flow velocity and equivalent hydraulic diameter. In the core flow, the background turbulence intensity was raised to 5% and the swirl angle was varied using five vane geometries from 0° to 30°. Seven-hole pressure probe measurements and surface oil flow visualization were used to describe the flowfield and the mixer performance. At low swirl angles, additional streamwise vortices were generated by the deformation of normal vortices due to the scalloped lobes. With increased core swirl, greater than 10°, the additional streamwise vortices were generated mainly due to radial velocity deflection, rather than stretching and deformation of normal vortices. At high swirl angles, stronger streamwise vortices and rapid interaction between various vortices promoted downstream mixing. Mixing was enhanced with minimal or no total pressure and thrust losses for the inlet swirl angles less than 10°. However, the reversed flow downstream of the center-body was a dominant contributor to the loss of thrust at the maximum core flow swirl angle of 30°.


Author(s):  
Zhijun Lei ◽  
Ali Mahallati ◽  
Mark Cunningham ◽  
Patrick Germain

This paper presents a detailed experimental investigation of the influence of core flow swirl on the mixing and performance of a scaled turbofan mixer with 12 scalloped lobes. Measurements were made downstream of the mixer in a coaxial wind tunnel. The core-to-bypass velocity ratio was set to 2:1, temperature ratio to 1.0, and pressure ratio to 1.03, giving a Reynolds number of 5.2 × 105, based on the core flow velocity and equivalent diameter. In the core flow, the background turbulence intensity was raised to 5% and the swirl angle was varied from 0 deg to 30 deg with five vane geometries. At low swirl angles, additional streamwise vortices were generated by the deformation of normal vortices due to the scalloped lobes. With increased core swirl, greater than 10 deg, the additional streamwise vortices were generated mainly due to radial velocity deflection, rather than stretching and deformation of normal vortices. At high swirl angles, stronger streamwise vortices and rapid interaction between various vortices promoted downstream mixing. Mixing was enhanced with minimal pressure and thrust losses for the inlet swirl angles less than 10 deg. However, the reversed flow downstream of the center body was a dominant contributor to the loss of thrust at the maximum core flow swirl angle of 30 deg.


2012 ◽  
Vol 246-247 ◽  
pp. 127-130
Author(s):  
Bing Li ◽  
Xue Song Hu ◽  
Xiao Feng Cao ◽  
Gui Qi Jia ◽  
Fang Xi Xie ◽  
...  

The fuel flow characteristics in diesel nozzle orifice are key factors to the atomization of fuel near the nozzle orifice. In the paper, two-phase flow model is used to simulate the complex flow features in nozzle orifice, and to study the influences of the relative position of nozzles orifice axis and nozzle axis, and inclination angle of nozzle hole on the internal flow feature.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
David John Rajendran ◽  
Vassilios Pachidis

Abstract The flow distortion at core engine entry for a Variable Pitch Fan (VPF) in reverse thrust mode is described from a realistic flowfield obtained using an integrated airframe-engine-VPF research model. 3D RANS solutions are generated for the complete aircraft landing run from 140 to 20 knots at different VPF settings. The internal reverse thrust flowfield is characterized by nozzle lip separation, pylon wake and recirculation of flow turned back from the VPF. A portion of the reverse flow turns 180° with separation at the splitter edge to feed the core engine. The core feed flow exhibits circumferential and radial non-uniformities that depend on the reverse flow development at different landing speeds. The temporal dependence of the distorted flow features is also explored by an URANS analysis. Total pressure and swirl angle distortion descriptors, and total pressure loss are described for the core feed flow at different VPF settings and landing speeds. It is observed that the radial intensity of total pressure distortion is critical to core engine operation, while the circumferential intensity is within acceptable limits. Therefore, the baseline sharp splitter edge is replaced by two larger rounded splitter edges of radii, ∼0.1x and ∼0.2x times the core duct height. This was found to reduce the radial intensity of total pressure distortion to acceptable levels. The description of the installed core feed flow distortion, as in this study, is necessary to ascertain stable core engine operation, which powers the VPF in reverse thrust mode.


Author(s):  
A. Namet-Allah ◽  
A. M. Birk

The core flow separation in air-air ejectors is significantly affected by the length of the exhaust nozzle. This length was changed by moving the annulus’ center body end 4, 7, and 12 cm upstream and 1 cm downstream of the nozzle inlet. The velocity profiles at the nozzle exit were measured at different mass flow rates and at 10, 20 and 30 degree swirl angles. These measurements were also conducted at two annulus’ center body end positions with elliptical and square shapes, 12 and 7 cm upstream of the nozzle inlet, using two nozzle exit diameters. At 4, 7, and 12 cm upstream and 1 cm downstream of the nozzle inlet, the ejector performance was also measured at ambient temperature and at different flow swirl angles. It was found that the square shape of the annulus’ center body decreased the size of the core flow separation behind the annulus center body compared with the elliptical shape by improving the flatness of the flow velocity at the nozzle exit under different mass flow rates, swirl angles, positions of the annulus’ center body, and nozzle exit diameters. It was seen that moving the end of the annular center body upstream has considerable effects on the size and nature of the core separation behind the annulus’ center body and consequently on the ejector performance. At a zero swirl angle, the ejector pumping ratio slightly increased, decreased, and then increased again by moving the annulus’ center body from 12 cm to 7 cm upstream, from 7 cm to 4 cm upstream, and from 4 cm upstream to 1 cm downstream of the nozzle inlet respectively. These changes in the annulus’ center body position caused the back pressure coefficient to decrease, increase, and then increase again. The same trend in pumping ratio and back pressure was observed for both 10 and 20 degree flow swirl angle conditions when the annulus’ center body was moved as described.


Author(s):  
Zhijun Lei ◽  
Ali Mahallati ◽  
Mark Cunningham ◽  
Patrick Germain

This paper presents a detailed experimental investigation of the influence of core flow inlet swirl on the mixing and performance of a 12-lobe un-scalloped turbofan mixer. Measurements were made downstream of the mixer in a co-annular wind tunnel. The core-to-bypass velocity ratio was set to 2:1, temperature ratio to 1.0, and pressure ratio to 1.03, giving a Reynolds number of 5.2×105, based on the core flow inlet velocity and equivalent hydraulic diameter. In the core flow, the background turbulence intensity was raised to 5% and the swirl angle was varied using five vane geometries, with nominally uniform swirl angles of 0°, 5°, 10°, 20° and 30°. Flow measurements captured flow structures involved in the mixing process. Most of mixing took place immediately downstream of the exit nozzle. The vane wake slightly enhanced large scale mixing of streamwise vortices. At low swirl angles, mixing was found to be mainly due to the interaction between streamwise vortices and normal vortices. At high swirl angles, the lobed mixer acted similar to a guide vane and removed most of the inlet swirl between the crest and trough of the mixer. However, the upstream swirling flow persisted in the core region between the center-body and lobed mixer trough, causing a reverse flow zone downstream of the centre-body. As the reversed flow became larger with increasing swirl, the swirling flow in the core region moved radially outwards and further interacted with the outer region flow. The stronger interaction of streamwise vortices with normal vortex improved mixing from the trough to the crest of the lobed mixer. The balance between enhanced mixing and increased reversed flow downstream of the centre-body, resulted in increased overall total pressure losses with increasing inlet swirl angles.


Author(s):  
Alex Wright ◽  
Zhijun Lei ◽  
Ali Mahallati ◽  
Mark Cunningham ◽  
Julio Militzer

This paper presents a detailed experimental and computational investigation of the effects of scalloping on the mixing mechanisms of a scaled 12-lobe turbofan mixer. Scalloping was achieved by eliminating approximately 70% of the lobe sidewall area. Measurements were made downstream of the mixer in a co-annular wind tunnel and the simulations were carried out using an unstructured RANS solver, Numeca FINE/Hexa, with k-ω SST model. In the core flow, the swirl angle was varied from 0° to 30°. At high swirl angles, a three-dimensional separation bubble was formed on the lobe’s suction surface penetration region and resulted in the generation of a vortex at the lobe valley. The valley vortex quickly dissipated downstream. Most of the swirl was removed by the lobes, but scalloping allowed residual swirl to persist downstream of the mixer. The interaction of the swirling flow and the vortices resulted in improved mixing rates for the scalloped mixer. Inlet swirl up to 10° provided improved mixing rates, reduced pressure loss and thrust loss for both mixers. High inlet swirl resulted in improved mixing but produced higher pressure and thrust losses as compared to the zero swirl case. At high swirl, the scalloped mixer resulted in better mixing and lower pressure losses than the unscalloped mixer, but at the expense of reduced thrust.


Author(s):  
Brian T. Bohan ◽  
Marc D. Polanka

The Ultra Compact Combustor (UCC) has the potential to offer improved thrust-to-weight and overall efficiency in a turbojet engine. The thrust-to-weight improvement is due to a reduction in engine weight by shortening the combustor section through the use of the revolutionary UCC design. The improved efficiency is achieved by using an increased fuel-to-air mass ratio, and allowing the fuel to fully combust prior to exiting the UCC system. Furthermore, g-loaded combustion offers increased flame speeds that can lead to smaller combustion volumes. The circumferential combustion of the fuel in the UCC cavity results in hot gases present at the outside diameter of the core flow. This orientation creates an issue in that the flow from the circumferential cavity needs to migrate radially and blend with the core flow to present a uniform temperature distribution to the high-pressure turbine rotor. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis is presented for the flow patterns in the combustor section of a representative fighter-scale engine. The analysis included a study of secondary flows, cavity flow characteristics, shear layer interactions and mixing properties. An initial understanding of primary factors that impact the radial migration is presented. Computational comparisons were also made between an engine realistic condition and an ambient pressure rig environment.


Author(s):  
Wenchi Yu ◽  
Zhengzheng Pang ◽  
Yuemin Zhou ◽  
Weicai Li ◽  
Xiaoming Chen

The prevalent fuel assembly geometry of Pressurized Water Reactors (PWR) is constituted of open-lattice rod bundles arranged in a square configuration with grid spacers. In order to enhance the coolant mixing effects across the adjacent flow channels, mixing vanes are added to the grid. The presence of the spacer grids with mixing vanes imposes two opposite effects that would affect the thermal-hydraulic characteristics in the core. Grid spacers with optimized mixing vanes will generate more effective swirl flow across the neighboring subchannel to enhance the local heat transfer rate from the fuel rod cladding to the core coolant downstream the grids, however, it would slightly increase the local pressure drop that would render an negative effect, though it is small, on the core thermal margins. The key elements for mixing effects, such as mixing length, cross and swirl flows, hinged on the coolant flow that is redistributed by the mixing vanes. This paper presents a mixing vane grid design (or concept) that could increase the effectiveness of heat transfer. Its structure includes flow-oriented section and vane. Flow oriented channel section is set on the other side of the neighboring cell which is different from a conventional mixing vane design. For mixing effect, there exists a balance between the incoming flow area and the bending angle. It also effectively draws more coolant from the adjacent cells to the mixing vane. Thus, it is an effective way to create a stable swirl flow downstream. The flow mixing impact travels much longer than that caused by the most conventional mixing vanes.


2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 325-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Xie ◽  
C. Zhong ◽  
D.-F. Ruan ◽  
K. Liu ◽  
B. Zheng

AbstractGeometric model of a lobed mixing exhaust system is created and its flow field is simulated by using the steady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations under the condition of different core flow inlet swirl angles. According to the numerical simulation results, due to the guidance effect of the lobe parallel side wall, the structure and vorticity of streamwise vortices change little near the lobe exit with inlet swirl angle, and it is the same with the thermal mixing efficiency. As the flow develops, although the inlet swirl angle has limited influence on the streamwise vorticity, it greatly affects the structure of streamwise vortices. It causes the thermal mixing efficiency to increase with the swirl angle. As for the total pressure recovery coefficient, it falls slightly when the inlet swirl strengthens. At the nozzle exit, the total pressure recovery coefficient of CFISA = 30° model is 0.5% lower than CFISA = 0° model. Moreover, as the inlet swirl strengthens, the thrust fall of lobed mixing exhaust system gradually accelerates, especially when the inlet swirl angle is over 15°.


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