Investigation of Inlet Distortion on the Flutter Stability of a Highly Loaded Transonic Fan Rotor

Author(s):  
Senad Iseni ◽  
Derek Micallef ◽  
Ronald Mailach

The fundamental mechanisms of blade flutter in modern aircraft engines are very complex. Flutter is a self-excited aeroelastic instability phenomenon which can finally cause material fatigue and, in the worst case, leads to blade failure within a very short time. The risk of flutter has to be considered during the design process and it is necessary to avoid that safety risk. The aeroelastic stability has to be ensured over the whole operating range especially near operating limits or typical flutter boundaries, like at stall or choke conditions. Topic of this paper are inlet distortions, which can have an additional influence on the flutter stability of the fan and the first compressor stages of jet engines. For this purpose a sinusoidal steady total pressure inlet distortion was defined. The influence of this inlet distortion on the flow field and the flutter stability of a highly loaded transonic fan rotor (NASA rotor 67) is investigated. The static deflection of the manufactured blade was considered using an accurate mesh morphing algorithm to update the fan performance characteristic considering the deformed blade structure. The fan rotor interacts with the upstream distorted flow which leads to different blade loading between the adjacent blades. A decoupled flutter stability analysis using the three-dimensional viscous flow solver TBLOCK and the open-source software package CalculiX for pre-stressed modal analyses is carried out. The flutter stability analyses with TBLOCK are performed using the so-called energy method which was introduced by Carta. In order to predict the flutter stability under clean inflow conditions, two different formulations, the Influence Coefficient Method (ICM) and Traveling Wave Mode (TWM) formulation, are taken into account, whereas both formulations are compared to each other. The influence coefficients were directly calculated from the TWM formulation to determine the required number of passages for the ICM. It can be seen that the stability curves obtained with the ICM are in a good agreement to the TWM-method. The use of ICM reduces substantially the number of unsteady CFD calculations because of the fact that only one unsteady CFD calculation is needed to reconstruct the stability curve for each eigenmode and operating point. The effect of inlet distortion on flutter stability is investigated applying the TWM formulation only. Indeed, it was established that such flow disturbances have also for specific blades, considering the operating point, eigenmode and nodal diameter a destabilising impact on their aeroelastic behavior and can cause flutter, which is mostly determined by the time-averaged stability parameter. Just in the same manner a positive effect was observed for certain blades in the blade row.

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peng Sun ◽  
Guotal Feng

A time-accurate three-dimensional Navier-Stokes solver of the unsteady flow field in a transonic fan was carried out using "Fluent-parallel" in a parallel supercomputer. The numerical simulation focused on a transonic fan with inlet square wave total pressure distortion and the analysis of result consisted of three aspects. The first was about inlet parameters redistribution and outlet total temperature distortion induced by inlet total pressure distortion. The pattern and causation of flow loss caused by pressure distortion in rotor were analyzed secondly. It was found that the influence of distortion was different at different radial positions. In hub area, transportation-loss and mixing-loss were the main loss patterns. Distortion not only complicated them but enhanced them. Especially in stator, inlet total pressure distortion induced large-scale vortex, which produced backflow and increased the loss. While in casing area, distortion changed the format of shock wave and increased the shock loss. Finally, the format of shock wave and the hysteresis of rotor to distortion were analyzed in detail.


Author(s):  
K. Vogel ◽  
A. D. Naidu ◽  
M. Fischer

The prediction of aerodynamic damping is a key step towards high fidelity forced response calculations. Without the knowledge of absolute damping values, the resulting stresses from forced response calculations are often afflicted with large uncertainties. In addition, with the knowledge of the aerodynamic damping the aeroelastic contribution to mistuning can be considered. The first section of this paper compares two methods of one-way-coupled aerodynamic damping computations on an axial turbine. Those methods are: the aerodynamic influence coefficient, and the travelling wave mode method. Excellent agreement between the two methods is found with significant differences in required computational time. The average deviation between all methods for the transonic turbine is 4%. Additionally, the use of transient blade row methods with phase lagged periodic boundaries are investigated and the influence of periodic boundaries on the aerodynamic influence coefficients are assessed. A total of 23 out of 33 passages are needed to remove all influence from the periodic boundaries for the present configuration. The second part of the paper presents the aerodynamic damping calculations for a centrifugal compressor. Simulations are predominantly performed using the aerodynamic influence coefficient approach. The influence of the periodic boundaries and the recirculation channel is investigated. All simulations are performed on a modern turbocharger turbine and centrifugal compressor using ANSYS CFX V17.0 with an inhouse pre- and post-processing procedure at ABB Turbocharging. The comparison to experimental results concludes the paper.


Author(s):  
Hossein Khaleghi ◽  
Reza Jalaly

Half-annulus unsteady numerical simulations have been conducted with a 60-deg total pressure circumferential distortion in a transonic axial-flow fan. The effects of inlet distortion on the performance, stability and flow field of the test case are investigated and analyzed. Results show that the incidence angles are reduced when the blades are entering into the distorted region. Conversely, distortion increases the incidence angles onto the blades when they are leaving the distorted section. Results further reveal that the time-averaged flow field at the tip of the blade is similar with and without distortion. However, the distortion applied is found to have detrimental effects on both the stability and performance. The impacts of both annular and discrete tip injection on the endwall flow field are further studied in the current work. It is shown that endwall injection reduces the incidence angles onto the blades. Consequently, the passage shock and the leakage flow are pushed rearward, which postpones stall initiation.


Author(s):  
Peng Sun ◽  
Jingjun Zhong ◽  
Guotai Feng

The performance and stability of a fan in clean and distorted inlet flow can be improved through the use of bowed stator blades. Measurements between the blade rows in transonic and supersonic flow are too complex to provide any useful insights, so 3D flow simulations are required. In this paper, a time-accurate three-dimensional Navier-Stokes solver of the unsteady flow field in a transonic fan is carried out using “Fluent-parallel” in a parallel supercomputer. Two sets of simulations are performed. The first simulation focuses on a better understanding of inlet total pressure distortion effects on a transonic fan. The second set of numerical simulation aims at studying the improvements of fan performance made by bowed stator blades. Three aspects are contained in this paper. The first is about the distortion effects on characteristics of the fan stage with straight stator. The effects of bowed stator on fan performance with inlet distortion are demonstrated secondly. One hand bowed stator increases the loss in rotor. On the other hand, it reduces the flow loss in stator. Finally, the patterns of flow loss caused by total pressure distortion with straight/bowed stator are compared. The scale of vortex in stator induced by inlet total pressure distortion is weakened by bowed blades, which decreases the stator loss.


Author(s):  
Markus May

Reduced order modeling strategies are applied to the aeroelastic stability analysis of the highly loaded transonic DLR UHBR fan. Latin hypercube and risk-based sampling procedures are employed to choose samples in a multidimensional parameter space that enable an accurate prediction of the flutter boundary without performing unsteady CFD simulations for several modes in the whole operating range. The combination with an influence coefficient approach facilitates even further savings in terms of computational time without losing physics quality.


1998 ◽  
Vol 120 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. R. Emmerson

A three-dimensional viscous solver has been used to model the flow in the stator of a highly loaded single-stage transonic fan. The fan has a very high level of aerodynamic loading at the hub, which results in a severe hub endwall stall. Prediction of the flow at the 100 percent speed, peak efficiency condition has been carried out and comparisons are made with experiment, including stator exit traverses and fixed blade surface pressure tappings and flow visualisation. Comparisons are also made with an analysis of the rotor and stator rows using the DERA S1–S2 method. The three-dimensional predictions show good qualitative agreement with measurements in all regions of the flow field. Quantitatively the flow away from the hub region agreed the best. The general trends of the severe hub endwall stall were predicted, although the shape and size did not match experiment exactly. The S1–S2 system was unable to predict the hub endwall stall, since it arises from fully three-dimensional flow effects.


Author(s):  
G. P. Steven

AbstractThe contact problem investigated in this paper may be more fully described as a three dimensional elastic body with a circular hole through it; inside this tunnel is press fitted a solid elastic plug of finite length. Shear stresses are taken to be absent along the contact interface.An influence coefficient technique is used to model the governing integral equation. For the elastic region the displacement influence coefficients due to bands of constant pressure are determined using a numerical quadrature on Fourier integrals. However, the plug, being of finite length, requires the superposition of two separate solutions to boundary value problems before the displacement influence coefficients can be determined.Contact pressure distributions are presented for a sample of parameter variations and also for a case where hydrostatic pressure is present in the tunnel in the elastic region. Despite both components being elastic the imposition of a constant interference displacement along the interface still gives rise to the characteristic singularity in contact pressure at the edges of contact due to the strain discontinuity at these points.


Author(s):  
Paul R. Emmerson

A 3D viscous solver has been used to model the flow in the stator of a highly loaded single-stage transonic fan. The fan has a very high level of aerodynamic loading at the hub, which results in a severe hub endwall stall. Prediction of the flow at the 100% speed, peak efficiency condition has been carried out and comparisons are made with experiment, including stator exit traverses and fixed blade surface pressure tappings and flow visualisation. Comparisons are also made with an analysis of the rotor and stator rows using the DRA S1-S2 method. The 3D predictions show good qualitative agreement with measurements in all regions of the flow field. Quantitatively the flow away from the hub region agreed the best. The general trends of the severe hub endwall stail were predicted, although the shape and size did not match experiment exactly. The S1-S2 system was unable to predict the hub endwall stall, since it arises from fully 3D flow effects.


Author(s):  
H. D. Li ◽  
L. He

Prediction of blade forced response and flutter is of great importance to turbomachinery designers. However, calculations of unsteady turbomachinery flows using conventional time-domain methods typically would lead to the use of multi-passage/whole-annulus domains due to the required direct periodic condition. This makes numerical computations extremely time-consuming and is one of the major difficulties for nonlinear unsteady calculations to be applied in a blading design environment. A single-passage approach to three-dimensional unsteady Navier-Stokes calculations using the Fourier-series based Shape-Correction method has been developed, and been applied to analyze inlet distortion driven response and flutter of a transonic fan rotor (NASA Rotor-67). The key feature is that the Shape-Correction method enables a single-passage solution to unsteady flows in blade rows under influences of multiple disturbances with arbitrary inter-blade phase angles. The results show that the single-passage solution can capture deterministic unsteadiness as well as time-averaged flows in good agreement with conventional multi-passage solutions, while the corresponding computing time can be reduced dramatically.


2002 ◽  
Vol 124 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. D. Li ◽  
L. He

Computations of unsteady flows due to inlet distortion driven blade vibrations, characterized by long circumferential wavelengths, typically need to be carried out in multi-passage/whole-annulus domains. In the present work, a single-passage three-dimensional unsteady Navier-Stokes approach has been developed and applied to unsteady flows around vibrating blades of a transonic fan rotor (NASA Rotor-67) with inlet distortions. The phase-shifted periodic condition is applied using a Fourier series based method, “shape-correction,” which enables a single-passage solution to unsteady flows under influences of multiple disturbances with arbitrary interblade phase angles. The computational study of the transonic fan illustrates that unsteady flow response to an inlet distortion varies greatly depending on its circumferential wavelength. The response to a long wavelength (whole-annulus) distortion is strongly nonlinear with a significant departure of its time-averaged flow from the steady state, while that at a short wavelength (two passages) behaves largely in a linear manner. Nevertheless, unsteady pressures due to blade vibration, though noticeably different under different inlet distortions, show a linear behavior. Thus, the nonlinearity of the flow response to inlet distortion appears to influence the aerodynamic damping predominantly by means of changing the time-averaged flow. Good agreements between single-passage solutions and multi-passage solutions are obtained for all the conditions considered, which clearly demonstrates the validity of the phase-shifted periodicity at a transonic nonlinear distorted flow condition. For the present cases, typical CPU time saving by a factor of 5–10 is achieved by the single-passage solutions.


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