Volume 34, Issue 2 -

Experiments were carried on nozzles with different exit geometry to study their impact on supersonic core length. Circular, hexagonal, and square exit geometries were considered for the study. Numerical simulations and schlieren image study were performed. The supersonic core decay was found to be of different length for different exit geometries, though the throat to exit area ratio was kept constant. The impact of nozzle exit geometry is to enhance the mixing of primary flow with ambient air, without requiring tab, wire or secondary method to increase the mixing characteristics. The non-circular mixing is faster comparative to circular geometry, which leads to reduction in supersonic core length. The results depict that shorter the hydraulic diameter, the jet mixing is faster. To avoid the losses in divergent section, the cross section of throat was maintained at same geometry as the exit geometry. Investigation shows that the supersonic core region is dependent on the hydraulic diameter and the diagonal. In addition, it has been observed that number of shock cells remain the same irrespective of exit geometry shape for the given nozzle pressure ratio.

Film cooling performances of laidback hole and laidback fan-shaped hole have been investigated using transient liquid crystal measurement technique. For film cooling of laidback hole, the increase of inclination angle reduces the film cooling effectiveness under small blowing ratio, while produces better film coverage and higher film cooling effectiveness under larger blowing ratios. Heat transfer coefficient is higher in the upstream region of laidback hole film cooling with large inclination angle, while laidback hole with small inclination angle has relatively higher heat transfer coefficient in the downstream region. The increase of inclination angle reduces the film cooling effectiveness and heat transfer coefficient of laidback fan-shaped hole film cooling, especially in the upstream region. Increase of inclination angle is beneficial to the thermal protection of laidback hole film cooling under large blowing ratio. Film hole with large inclination angle has larger discharge coefficient due to smaller aerodynamic loss in the hole.

Acceleration control of turbofan engines is conventionally designed through either schedule-based or acceleration-based approach. With the widespread acceptance of model-based design in aviation industry, it becomes necessary to investigate the issues associated with model-based design for acceleration control. In this paper, the challenges for implementing model-based acceleration control are explained; a novel Hammerstein-Wiener representation of engine models is introduced; based on the Hammerstein-Wiener model, a nonlinear generalized minimum variance type of optimal control law is derived; the feature of the proposed approach is that it does not require the inversion operation that usually upsets those nonlinear control techniques. The effectiveness of the proposed control design method is validated through a detailed numerical study.

The fatigue life prediction method of a low pressure turbine shaft of the turbojet engine is presented. According to working conditions and assembled conditions of the turbojet engine, load types, load values and constraints of the turbine shaft are analyzed. ANSYS software is employed to simulate actual working conditions to obtain stress-strain distributions of the low pressure turbine shaft. Finally, based on stress-strain curves and surface quality, the fatigue life of the low-pressure turbine shaft is calculated with the modified local stress-strain method and the linear cumulative fatigue damage model.

It has been observed that the geometry of a brush seal has a significant effect on the sealing performance. However, the relationship between rotordynamic coefficients and geometry factors of the brush seal itself are rarely considered. In this article, the rotordynamic coefficients of a typical single-stage brush seal for different geometries and operating conditions were numerically analyzed using CFD RANS solutions coupled with a non-Darcian porous medium model. The reaction force which plays an essential role in rotordynamic coefficients was obtained by integrating the dynamic pressure distribution. The influence of the bristle pack thickness, fence height, clearance size and other working condition parameters on aerodynamic force, stiffness coefficients, and damping coefficients of brush seal were presented and compared. In addition, the effects of various geometric configurations on pressure and flow features were also discussed.

Transient performance of pumps during transient operating periods, such as startup and stopping, has drawn more and more attentions recently due to the growing engineering needs. During the startup period of a pump, the performance parameters such as the flow rate and head would vary significantly in a broad range. Therefore, it is very difficult to accurately specify the unsteady boundary conditions for a pump alone to solve the transient flow in the absence of experimental results. The closed-loop pipe system including a centrifugal pump is built to accomplish the self-coupling calculation. The three-dimensional unsteady incompressible viscous flow inside the passage of the pump during startup period is numerically simulated using the dynamic mesh method. Simulation results show that there are tiny fluctuations in the flow rate even under stable operating conditions and this can be attributed to influence of the rotor–stator interaction. At the very beginning of the startup, the rising speed of the flow rate is lower than that of the rotational speed. It is also found that it is not suitable to predict the transient performance of pumps using the calculation method of quasi-steady flow, especially at the earlier period of the startup.

The environmental parameters such as temperature and air pressure which are changing depending on altitudes are effective on thrust and fuel consumption of aircraft engines. In flights with long routes, thrust management function in airplane information system has a structure that ensures altitude and performance management. This study focused on thrust changes throughout all flight were examined by taking into consideration their energy and exergy performances for fuel consumption of an aircraft engine used in flight with long route were taken as reference. The energetic and exergetic performance evaluations were made under the various altitude conditions. The thrust changes for different altitude conditions were obtained to be at 86.53 % in descending direction and at 142.58 % in ascending direction while the energy and exergy efficiency changes for the referenced engine were found to be at 80.77 % and 84.45 %, respectively. The results revealed here can be helpful to manage thrust and reduce fuel consumption, but engine performance will be in accordance with operation requirements.

On account of the complexity of turboprop engine control system, real-time simulation is the technology, under the prerequisite of maintaining real-time, to effectively reduce development cost, shorten development cycle and avert testing risks. The paper takes RT-LAB as a platform and studies the real-time digital simulation of turboprop engine control system. The architecture, work principles and external interfaces of RT-LAB real-time simulation platform are introduced firstly. Then based on a turboprop engine model, the control laws of propeller control loop and fuel control loop are studied. From that and on the basis of Matlab/Simulink, an integrated controller is designed which can realize the entire process control of the engine from start-up to maximum power till stop. At the end, on the basis of RT-LAB platform, the real-time digital simulation of the designed control system is studied, different regulating plans are tried and more ideal control effects have been obtained.

In the present study, the ignition effect on detonation initiation was investigated in the air-breathing pulse detonation engine. Two kinds of fuel injection and ignition methods were applied. For one method, fuel and air was pre-mixed outside the PDE and then injected into the detonation tube. The droplet sizes of mixtures were measured. An annular cavity was used as the ignition section. For the other method, fuel-air mixtures were mixed inside the PDE, and a pre-combustor was utilized as the ignition source. At firing frequency of 20 Hz, transition to detonation was obtained. Experimental results indicated that the ignition position and initial flame acceleration had important effects on the deflagration-to-detonation transition.