Volume 33, Issue 4 -

In this paper, an approximate computation method of low-speed component characteristics in aeroengine is used and full-range component characteristics is obtained by combining experimental data above idle. Moreover, based on components matching method and variable specific heat method, a full-range static and dynamic mathematical model of turboshaft engine is built, including start-up state. And the numerical simulation result of the engine whole working process is also showed in this paper. The comparison result between the simulation result and the experimental data shows that, the full-range model built by the computation method of low-speed component characteristics is of a certain accuracy, which can meet the needs of a turboshaft engine semi-physical simulation.

Simulated altitude test is an essential exploring, debugging, verification and validation means during the development of aero-engine. Free-jet engine test can simulate actual working conditions of aero-engine more realistically than direct-connect engine test but with relatively lower cost compared to propulsion wind tunnel test, thus becoming an important developing area of simulated altitude test technology. The Flight Conditions Simulating Control System (FCSCS) is of great importance to the Altitude Test Facility (ATF) but the development of that is a huge challenge. Aiming at improving the design efficiency and reducing risks during the development of FCSCS for ATFs, a Hardware- in-the-Loop (HIL) simulation system was designed and the mathematical models of key components such as the pressure stabilizing chamber, free-jet nozzle, control valve and aero-engine were built in this paper. Moreover, some HIL simulation experiments were carried out. The results show that the HIL simulation system designed and established in this paper is reasonable and effective, which can be used to adjust control parameters conveniently and assess the software and hardware in the control system immediately.

The detailed flow behavior of the nozzle channel of a variable turbine is presented in this paper. The numerical model of a variable nozzle turbine was developed by using computational fluid dynamics method, and validated by the measured performance data of the turbine. Two opening positions of the nozzle vane, as well as two inlet conditions of the nozzle representing different vane loadings, were investigated to evaluate the clearance flow behaviors. It is shown that the channel shock waves are produced at proper conditions, such as small opening and large inlet pressure, which has significant impact on the end wall clearance leakage flow. When the leakage flows through the end wall clearance from the pressure side to the suction side encountering by the main stream, and the leakage vortex is formed. It is found that this leakage vortex gradually enhanced from the trailing edge to the middle edge.

An integrated model including inlet, engine and nozzle with their internal and external characteristics was built to simulate the propulsion installed performance. With the integrated model, a new performance seeking control scheme under supersonic state is firstly proposed, taking inlet ramp angle as optimizing variable, which is equally important to fuel flow rate, nozzle throat area, guided vane angle of fan and compressor. Specially, engine installed thrust replaces its total thrust as one crucial factor for performance seeking control. Installed performances under supersonic state are significantly improved with the new scheme, as installed thrust increases of up to 4.9% in the maximum thrust mode, installed specific fuel consumption improvements of up to 3.8% in the minimum fuel consumption mode, and turbine temperature decreases of up to 0.6% in the minimum turbine temperature mode. The simulation results also indicates that, the performance seeking control scheme proposed shows superiority in restraining of the increasing of rotational speed and turbine temperature in performance seeking control.

The standard k-ε model (SKE) and the Reynolds stress model (RSM) are employed to predict the tip leakage flow (TLF) in a low-speed large-scale axial compressor rotor. Then, a new research method is adopted to “freeze” the turbulent kinetic energy and dissipation rate of the flow field derived from the RSM, and obtain the turbulent viscosity using the Boussinesq hypothesis. The Reynolds stresses and mean flow field computed on the basis of the frozen viscosity are compared with the results of the SKE and the RSM. The flow field in the tip region based on the frozen viscosity is more similar to the results of the RSM than those of the SKE, although certain differences can be observed. This finding indicates that the non-equilibrium turbulence transport nature plays an important role in predicting the TLF, as well as the turbulence anisotropy.

A rotating detonation engine (RDE) is one of candidates of aerospace engines for supersonic cruse, which is better for propulsion system than a pulse detonation engine (PDE) from the view of continuous thrust and simple structure. The propulsion performance of a proto-type RDE and a PDE by single pulse explosion with methane-oxygen is investigated. Furthermore, the performance of the RDE with acetylene-oxygen gas mixtures is investigated. Its impulse is estimated through ballistic pendulum method with maximum displacement and damping ratio. The comparison of specific impulses of the mixture gases at atmospheric pressure is shown. The specific impulses of the RDE and the PDE are almost same with methane-oxygen gas. Furthermore, the fuel-base specific impulse of the RDE with acetylene-oxygen gas is about over twice as large as one of methane-oxygen, and its maximum specific impulse is 1100 seconds.

Turbine blades are one of the key components in a typical turbofan engine, which plays an important role in flight safety. In this paper, we establish a establishes a three-dimensional finite element model of the turbine blades, then analyses the strength of the blade in complicated conditions under the joint function of temperature load, centrifugal load, and aerodynamic load. Furthermore, contact analysis of blade tenon and dovetail slot is also carried out to study the stress based on the contact elements. Finally, the Von Mises stress-strain distributions are obtained to acquire the several dangerous points and maximum Von Mises stress, which provide the basis for life prediction of turbine blade.

Ice crystal ingestion at high altitude has been reported to be a threat for safe operation of aero-engine in recently. Ice crystals do not accrete on external surface because of cold environment. But when they enter the core flow of aero-engine, ice crystals melt partially into droplets due to higher temperature. Air-droplets-ice crystal is the mixed-phase, which will give rise to ice accretion on static and rotating components in compressor. Subsequently, compressor surge and engine shutdowns may occur. To provide a numerical tool to analyze this in detail, a numerical method was developed in this study. The mixed phase flow was solved using Eulerian–Lagrangian method. The dispersed phase was represented by one-way coupling. A thermodynamic model that considers mass and energy balance with ice crystals and droplets was presented as well. The icing code was implemented by the user-defined function of Fluent. The method of ice accretion under mixed-phase conditions was validated by comparing the results simulated on a cylinder with experimental data derived from literature. The predicted ice shape and mass agree with these data, thereby confirming the validity of the numerical method developed in this research for mixed-phase conditions.

The steam injection technology for aircraft engines is gaining rising importance because of the strong limitations imposed by the legislation for NOx reduction in airports. In order to investigate the impact of steam addition on combustion and NOx emissions, an integrated performance-CFD-chemical reactor network (CRN) methodology was developed. The CFD results showed steam addition reduced the high temperature size and the radical pool moved downstream. Then different post-processing techniques are employed and CRN is generated to predict NOx emissions. This network consists of 14 chemical reactor elements and the results were in close agreement with the ICAO databank. The established CRN model was then used for steam addition study and the results showed under air/steam mixture atmosphere, high steam content could push the NOx formation region to the post-flame zone and a large amount of the NOx emission could be reduced when the steam mass fraction is quite high.

This paper presents an integrated optimization design method in which uniform design, response surface methodology and genetic algorithm are used in combination. In detail, uniform design is used to select the experimental sampling points in the experimental domain and the system performance is evaluated by means of computational fluid dynamics to construct a database. After that, response surface methodology is employed to generate a surrogate mathematical model relating the optimization objective and the design variables. Subsequently, genetic algorithm is adopted and applied to the surrogate model to acquire the optimal solution in the case of satisfying some constraints. The method has been applied to the optimization design of an axisymmetric diverging duct, dealing with three design variables including one qualitative variable and two quantitative variables. The method of modeling and optimization design performs well in improving the duct aerodynamic performance and can be also applied to wider fields of mechanical design and seen as a useful tool for engineering designers, by reducing the design time and computation consumption.

In this paper, unsteady process of ignition and combustion of turbulent plane-jet diffusion flame of ethylene/air is numerically simulated with detached eddy simulation (DES) and a reduced kinetic mechanism of ethylene. The kinetic mechanism consisting of 25 species and 131 steps is reduced from a 25 species/131 steps detailed mechanism via the method of error-propagation-based directed relation graph (DRGEP). The DES results of averaged temperature profiles at varied downstream locations are compared with the DNS results of Yoo et al. [11] and satisfactory agreement between them is found. Ignition and combustion of ethylene plane-jet diffusion flame is simulated and dynamic changes of temperature field and OH radical are obtained. The present numerical study shows that DES method with a qualified reduced mechanism of hydrocarbon fuels can effectively simulate temporal and spatial evolution of ignition and combustion process.

Numerical simulation is performed for the three-dimensional turbulent flow field in a centrifugal pump by solving the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations and the RNG k-epsilon turbulent model. The finite volume method and the SIMPLE algorithm are employed for the solution of the system. All the parameters in the centrifugal pump at different blade angular positions are obtained by simulation. The flow structure is analyzed and the distributions of the energy gradient function K are calculated at different blade angular positions based on the energy gradient method. According to the energy gradient method, the location which has larger value of K is easier to cause instability and to be of high turbulence intensity. The result shows that the flow instability is easier to be excited nearing the tongue where the value of K is large. The unstable flow area nearing the tongue is also in agreement with the zone where the velocity decreases rapidly. The sudden variation of velocity contributes to the large value of K . The research result also indicates that the tongue has large impact only on the impeller passages passing the tongue.