Influence of unsteady aerodynamics on rotor blade aeroelastic stability and response

AIAA Journal ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 28 (10) ◽  
pp. 1806-1812 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. P. Friedmann ◽  
L. H. Robinson
Author(s):  
Ryan M. Urbassik ◽  
J. Mitch Wolff ◽  
Marc D. Polanka

A set of experimental data is presented investigating the unsteady aerodynamics associated with a high pressure turbine vane (HPV) and rotor blade (HPB). The data was acquired at the Turbine Research Facility (TRF) of the Air Force Research Laboratory. The TRF is a transient, blowdown facility generating several seconds of experimental data on full scale engine hardware at scaled turbine operating conditions simulating an actual engine environment. The pressure ratio and freestream Reynolds number were varied for this investigation. Surface unsteady pressure measurements on the HPV, total pressure traverse measurements downstream of the vane, and surface unsteady pressure measurements for the rotor blade were obtained. The unsteady content of the HPV surface was generated by the rotor potential field. The first harmonic decayed more rapidly than the second harmonic with a movement upstream causing the second harmonic to be most influential at the vane throat. The blade unsteadiness appears to be caused by a combination of shock, potential field, and vane wake interactions between the vane and rotor blade. The revolution averaged data resulted in higher unsteadiness than a passing ensemble average for both vane and rotor indicating a need to understand each passage for high cycle fatigue (HCF) effects.


2008 ◽  
Vol 15 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 325-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chang Chuan Xie ◽  
Jia Zhen Leng ◽  
Chao Yang

A composite high-aspect-ratio wing of a high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) aircraft was modeled with FEM by MSC/NASTRAN, and the nonlinear static equilibrium state is calculated under design load with follower force effect, but without load redistribution. Assuming the little vibration amplitude of the wing around the static equilibrium state, the system is linearized and the natural frequencies and mode shapes of the deformed structure are obtained. Planar doublet lattice method is used to calculate unsteady aerodynamics in frequency domain ignoring the bending effect of the deflected wing. And then, the aeroelastic stability analysis of the system under a given load condition is successively carried out. Comparing with the linear results, the nonlinear displacement of the wing tip is higher. The results indicate that the critical nonlinear flutter is of the flap/chordwise bending type because of the chordwise bending having quite a large torsion component, with low critical speed and slowly growing damping, which dose not appear in the linear analysis. Furthermore, it is shown that the variation of the nonlinear flutter speed depends on the scale of the load and on the chordwise bending frequency. The research work indicates that, for the very flexible HALE aircraft, the nonlinear aeroelastic stability is very important, and should be considered in the design progress. Using present FEM software as the structure solver (e.g. MSC/NASTRAN), and the unsteady aerodynamic code, the nonlinear aeroelastic stability margin of a complex system other than a simple beam model can be determined.


Author(s):  
Christopher Koch

AbstractThis paper demonstrates the importance of assessing the whirl flutter stability of propeller configurations with a detailed aeroelastic model instead of local pylon models. Especially with the growing use of electric motors for propulsion in air taxis and commuter aircraft whirl flutter becomes an important mode of instability. These configurations often include propeller which are powered by lightweight electric motors and located at remote locations, e.g. the wing tip. This gives rise to an aeroelastic instability called whirl flutter, involving the gyroscopic whirl modes of the engine. The driving parameters for this instability are the dynamics of the mounting structure. Using a generic whirl flutter model of a propeller at the tip of a lifting surface, parameter studies on the flutter stability are carried out. The aeroelastic model consists of a dynamic MSC.Nastran beam model coupled with the unsteady ZAERO ZONA6 aerodynamic model and strip theory for the propeller aerodynamics. The parameter studies focus on the influence of different substructures (ranging from local engine mount stiffness to global aircraft dynamics) on the aeroelastic stability of the propeller. The results show a strong influence of the level of detail of the aeroelastic model on the flutter behaviour. The coupling with the lifting surface is of major importance, as it can stabilise the whirl flutter mode. Including wing unsteady aerodynamics into the analysis can also change the whirl flutter behaviour. This stresses the importance of including whirl flutter in the aeroelastic stability analysis on aircraft level.


Author(s):  
Florian Fruth ◽  
Damian M. Vogt ◽  
Torsten H. Fransson

The influence of the Blade Count Ratio (BCR) on the aerodynamic forcing of a transonic high pressure turbine has been investigated numerically. Main focus here was put on the change in unsteady aerodynamics, modal properties and the mode excitation. Using a scaling technique, six different transonic turbine stages with different numbers of scaled blades but maintained steady aerodynamics were generated and further analyzed. In the analysis a non-linear, time marching CFD solver was used and the unsteady, harmonic forces projected onto the mode shapes. For this transonic turbine the unsteady pressure at the rotor blade decreases in amplitude and spanwise distribution from low to high blade count ratios. In chordwise direction a local minimum for intermediate blade count ratios was found for the rotor and stator blades. Mode frequencies decreased monotonically with an increasing BCR. Significant mode changes for modes 5 and 6 of the different BCRs were captured using the Modal Assurance Criteria. It was found that for these transonic turbines the blade count ratio and reduced frequency are amongst others key parameters for a reduction in aerodynamic forcing. Even though an almost monotonic trend was found for the stator blade excitation, the rotor blade excitation behaves highly non-monotonic. A maximum value in excitation potential was found close to reported blade count ratio values. Optimization of certain modes is possible but case dependent, due to the non-monotonic nature. Moreover it was found that for a minor increase in upstream blade count the mean unsteady forces on the rotor blades is reduced, but the mode excitation not necessarily has to decrease.


1993 ◽  
Vol 115 (1) ◽  
pp. 197-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. R. Manwaring ◽  
S. Fleeter

A series of experiments is performed in an extensively instrumented axial flow research compressor to investigate the fundamental flow physics of wake-generated periodic rotor blade row unsteady aerodynamics at realistic values of the reduced frequency. Unique unsteady data are obtained that describe the fundamental unsteady aerodynamic gust interaction phenomena on the first-stage rotor blades of a research axial flow compressor generated by the wakes from the inlet guide vanes. In these experiments, the effects of steady blade aerodynamic loading and the aerodynamic forcing function, including both the transverse and chordwise gust components, and the amplitude of the gusts, are investigated and quantified.


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