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At least 235 records · Page 13

Hot gas ingestion characteristics and flow visualization of a vectored thrust STOVL concept

A 9.2 percent scale short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) hot gas ingestion model was designed and built by McDonnell Douglas Corporation (MCAIR) and tested in the NASA Lewis Research Center 9- by 15-Foot Low Speed Wind Tunnel (LSWT). Hot gas ingestion, the entrainment of heated engine exhaust into the inlet flow field, is a key development issue for advanced short takeoff and vertical landing aircraft. The Phase 1 test program, conducted by NASA Lewis and McDonnell Douglas Corporation, evaluated the hot ingestion phenomena and control techniques and Phase 2 test program which was conducted by NASA Lewis are both reported. The Phase 2 program was conducted at exhaust nozzles temperatures up to 1460 R and utilized a sheet laser system for flow visualization of the model flow field in and out of ground effects. Hot gas ingestion levels were measured for the several forward nozzle splay configurations and with flow control/lift improvement devices which reduced the hot gas ingestion. The model support system had four degrees of freedom, heated high pressure air for nozzle flow, and a suction system exhaust for inlet flow. The headwind (freestream) velocity for Phase 1 was varied from 8 to 90 kn, with primary data taken in the 8 to 23 kn headwind velocity range. Phase 2 headwind velocity varied from 10 to 23 kn. Results of both Phase 1 and 2 are presented. A description of the model, facility, a new model support system, and a sheet laser illumination system are also provided. Results are presented over a range of main landing gear height (model height) above the ground plane at a 10 kn headwind velocity. The results contain the compressor face pressure and temperature distortions, total pressure recovery, compressor face temperature rise, and the environmental effects of the hot gas. The environmental effects include the ground plane temperature and pressure distributions, model airframe heating, and the location of the ground flow separation. Results from the sheet laser flow visualization test are also shown.

Johns, Albert L.↗

Volume Dynamics Propulsion System Modeling for Supersonics Vehicle Research

Under the NASA Fundamental Aeronautics Program the Supersonics Project is working to overcome the obstacles to supersonic commercial flight. The proposed vehicles are long slim body aircraft with pronounced aero-servo-elastic modes. These modes can potentially couple with propulsion system dynamics; leading to performance challenges such as aircraft ride quality and stability. Other disturbances upstream of the engine generated from atmospheric wind gusts, angle of attack, and yaw can have similar effects. In addition, for optimal propulsion system performance, normal inlet-engine operations are required to be closer to compressor stall and inlet unstart. To study these phenomena an integrated model is needed that includes both airframe structural dynamics as well as the propulsion system dynamics. This paper covers the propulsion system component volume dynamics modeling of a turbojet engine that will be used for an integrated vehicle Aero- Propulso-Servo-Elastic model and for propulsion efficiency studies.

Kopasakis, George↗

Volume Dynamics Propulsion System Modeling for Supersonics Vehicle Research

Under the NASA Fundamental Aeronautics Program, the Supersonics Project is working to overcome the obstacles to supersonic commercial flight. The proposed vehicles are long slim body aircraft with pronounced aero-servo-elastic modes. These modes can potentially couple with propulsion system dynamics; leading to performance challenges such as aircraft ride quality and stability. Other disturbances upstream of the engine generated from atmospheric wind gusts, angle of attack, and yaw can have similar effects. In addition, for optimal propulsion system performance, normal inlet-engine operations are required to be closer to compressor stall and inlet unstart. To study these phenomena an integrated model is needed that includes both airframe structural dynamics as well as the propulsion system dynamics. This paper covers the propulsion system component volume dynamics modeling of a turbojet engine that will be used for an integrated vehicle Aero-Propulso-Servo-Elastic model and for propulsion efficiency studies.

Kopasakis, George↗

Volume Dynamics Propulsion System Modeling for Supersonics Vehicle Research

Under the NASA Fundamental Aeronautics Program the Supersonics Project is working to overcome the obstacles to supersonic commercial flight. The proposed vehicles are long slim body aircraft with pronounced aero-servo-elastic modes. These modes can potentially couple with propulsion system dynamics; leading to performance challenges such as aircraft ride quality and stability. Other disturbances upstream of the engine generated from atmospheric wind gusts, angle of attack, and yaw can have similar effects. In addition, for optimal propulsion system performance, normal inlet-engine operations are required to be closer to compressor stall and inlet unstart. To study these phenomena an integrated model is needed that includes both airframe structural dynamics as well as the propulsion system dynamics. This paper covers the propulsion system component volume dynamics modeling of a turbojet engine that will be used for an integrated vehicle Aero-Propulso-Servo-Elastic model and for propulsion efficiency studies.

Kopasakis, George↗

Dynamic simulation of compressor and gas turbine performance

Dynamic simulation of compressor and gas turbine performance is useful in a variety of design, analysis, and test applications. Mathematical models employing estimated or experimentally-derived component characteristics have been widely used, especially for near-design-point studies of acceleration and deceleration transients and control strategies. With recent progress in simulation methods and computational power, it has become possible to build models with detail at the stage level, and with fundamental fluid mechanics input. Such models are more useful because of the ability to study the details of inter-component flow property behavior during machine transients, even including stall and surge. Dynamic performance simulation models are discussed with emphasis on the fundamental principles of the models and the methods used to represent component and stage flow characteristics. Results of several simulations of the dynamic behavior of multistage compressors are shown with comparisons to experimental data. Possibilities for advanced computational techniques for near-real-time simulations of compressors and gas turbines are reviewed.

Walter F O'Brien↗

Component-level Performance and Mass Sensitivity Analysis of NEP MW-class Power System

Nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) is a promising option towards enabling missions to Mars and is an area of interest for NASA’s Space Nuclear Propulsion project. This project is currently investigating technology development opportunities for an NEP vehicle. Physics-based modeling can be used in the early stages of technology development to gain understanding of the effects of technology and performance assumptions on the system performance and mass. This information can then inform technology maturation planning for near term development. By using a Brayton power conversion model and vehicle mass model for megawatt class NEP applications, a sensitivity analysis is performed to assess the impact of individual components’ performance on the power conversion system performance and system mass. A Monte Carlo simulation is also used to determine the variability in system mass based on uncertainty within the modeling parameters. The sensitivity analysis shows a high sensitivity to power conversion inlet temperature, compressor inlet temperature, and recuperator performance. A Monte Carlo analysis suggests a range of -10% to +15% for a 90% confidence interval on system mass based on the uncertainties in the model inputs.

Nuclear electric propulsion↗

Critical speeds and forced response solutions for active magnetic bearing turbomachinery, part 2

The need for better performance of turbomachinery with active magnetic bearings has necessitated a study of such systems for accurate prediction of their vibrational characteristics. A modification of existing transfer matrix methods for rotor analysis is presented to predict the response of rotor systems with active magnetic bearings. The position of the magnetic bearing sensors is taken into account and the effect of changing sensor position on the vibrational characteristics of the rotor system is studied. The modified algorithm is validated using a simpler Jeffcott model described previously. The effect of changing from a rotating unbalance excitation to a constant excitation in a single plane is also studied. A typical eight stage centrifugal compressor rotor is analyzed using the modified transfer matrix code. The results for a two mass Jeffcott model were presented previously. The results obtained by running this model with the transfer matrix method were compared with the results of the Jeffcott analysis for the purposes of verification. Also included are plots of amplitude versus frequency for the eight stage centrifugal compressor rotor. These plots demonstrate the significant influence that sensor location has on the amplitude and critical frequencies of the rotor system.

Rawal, D.↗

Three dimensional flow field inside compressor rotor, including blade boundary layers

The Reynolds stress equation, pressure strain correlation, and dissipative terms and diffusion are discussed in relation to turbulence modelling using the Reynolds stress model. Algebraic modeling of Reynolds stresses and calculation of the boundary layer over an axial cylinder are examined with regards to the kinetic energy model for turbulence modelling. The numerical analysis of blade and hub wall boundary layers, and an experimental study of rotor blade boundary layer in an axial flow compressor rotor are discussed. The Patankar-Spalding numerical method for two dimensional boundary layers is included.

Galmes, J. M.↗

Analysis of turbulent boundary layer on cascade and rotor blades of turbomachinery

The momentum integral technique for predicting the boundary layer growth in three-dimensional flow has been extended to include the entrainment equation as the closure model. The numerical solution is compared with the cascade, inducer, compressor, and fan rotor blade data from various sources. The agreement is found to be excellent in all cases, with the exception of the separated flow. Both the momentum thickness and the limiting streamline angle predicted from this analysis compare well with the measured data for a rotor blade. The technique is extremely useful in engineering design, analysis, and performance prediction.

Lakshminarayana, B.↗

Direct and system effects of water ingestion into jet engine compresors

Water ingestion into aircraft-installed jet engines can arise both during take-off and flight through rain storms, resulting in engine operation with nearly saturated air-water droplet mixture flow. Each of the components of the engine and the system as a whole are affected by water ingestion, aero-thermally and mechanically. The greatest effects arise probably in turbo-machinery. Experimental and model-based results (of relevance to 'immediate' aerothermal changes) in compressors have been obtained to show the effects of film formation on material surfaces, centrifugal redistribution of water droplets, and interphase heat and mass transfer. Changes in the compressor performance affect the operation of the other components including the control and hence the system. The effects on the engine as a whole are obtained through engine simulation with specified water ingestion. The interest is in thrust, specific fuel consumption, surge margin and rotational speeds. Finally two significant aspects of performance changes, scalability and controllability, are discussed in terms of characteristic scales and functional relations.

Murthy, S. N. B.↗

Top-mounted inlet performance for a V/STOL fighter/attack aircraft configuration

Inlet flow-field and compressor-face performance data were obtained for a 0.095-scale model of vertical/short take-off landing (V/STOL) fighter/attack aircraft configuration with twin top-mounted inlets. Tests were conducted at Mach numbers from 0.6 to 2.0 and angles of attack and sideslip up to 27 deg. and 12 deg., respectively. Reynolds number was held constant at 9.8 x 10 to the 6th power per meter. The effects of inlet location, wing leading-edge extension (LEX) planform area, canopy-dorsal integration, variable incidence canards, and wing leading- and trailing-edge flap deflections were determined. The results show that at Mach numbers up to 0.9, distortion is relatively low (20% or less) at all angles of attack and sideslip. However, at Mach numbers of 1.2 and above, operation may be restricted because of either high distortion or low pressure recovery (80% or less), or both. These difficulties may be overcome with alterations to the LEX/canopy/body juncture.

Smeltzer, Donald B.↗

Combustor Simulation

The goal was to perform 3D simulation of GE90 combustor, as part of full turbofan engine simulation. Requirements of high fidelity as well as fast turn-around time require massively parallel code. National Combustion Code (NCC) was chosen for this task as supports up to 999 processors and includes state-of-the-art combustion models. Also required is ability to take inlet conditions from compressor code and give exit conditions to turbine code.

Norris, Andrew↗

NASA C-17 Usage Overview

The usage and integrated vehicle health management of the NASA C-17. Propulsion health management flight objectives for the aircraft include mapping of the High Pressure Compressor in order to calibrate a Pratt and Whitney engine model and the fusion of data collected from existing sensors and signals to develop models, analysis methods and information fusion algorithms. An additional health manage flight objective is to demonstrate that the Commercial Modular Aero-Propulsion Systems Simulation engine model can successfully execute in real time onboard the C-17 T-1 aircraft using engine and aircraft flight data as inputs. Future work will address aircraft durability and aging, airframe health management, and propulsion health management research in the areas of gas path and engine vibration.

Miller, Christopher R.↗

Wavelet Methods Developed to Detect and Control Compressor Stall

A "wavelet" is, by definition, an amplitude-varying, short waveform with a finite bandwidth (e.g., that shown in the first two graphs). Naturally, wavelets are more effective than the sinusoids of Fourier analysis for matching and reconstructing signal features. In wavelet transformation and inversion, all transient or periodic data features (as in compressor-inlet pressures) can be detected and reconstructed by stretching or contracting a single wavelet to generate the matching building blocks. Consequently, wavelet analysis provides many flexible and effective ways to reduce noise and extract signals which surpass classical techniques - making it very attractive for data analysis, modeling, and active control of stall and surge in high-speed turbojet compressors. Therefore, fast and practical wavelet methods are being developed in-house at the NASA Lewis Research Center to assist in these tasks. This includes establishing user-friendly links between some fundamental wavelet analysis ideas and the classical theories (or practices) of system identification, data analysis, and processing.

Le, Dzu K.↗

Progress of High Efficiency Centrifugal Compressor Simulations Using TURBO

Three-dimensional, time-accurate, and phase-lagged computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of the High Efficiency Centrifugal Compressor (HECC) stage were generated using the TURBO solver. Changes to the TURBO Parallel Version 4 source code were made in order to properly model the no-slip boundary condition along the spinning hub region for centrifugal impellers. A startup procedure was developed to generate a converged flow field in TURBO. This procedure initialized computations on a coarsened mesh generated by the Turbomachinery Gridding System (TGS) and relied on a method of systematically increasing wheel speed and backpressure. Baseline design-speed TURBO results generally overpredicted total pressure ratio, adiabatic efficiency, and the choking flow rate of the HECC stage as compared with the design-intent CFD results of Code Leo. Including diffuser fillet geometry in the TURBO computation resulted in a 0.6 percent reduction in the choking flow rate and led to a better match with design-intent CFD. Diffuser fillets reduced annulus cross-sectional area but also reduced corner separation, and thus blockage, in the diffuser passage. It was found that the TURBO computations are somewhat insensitive to inlet total pressure changing from the TURBO default inlet pressure of 14.7 pounds per square inch (101.35 kilopascals) down to 11.0 pounds per square inch (75.83 kilopascals), the inlet pressure of the component test. Off-design tip clearance was modeled in TURBO in two computations: one in which the blade tip geometry was trimmed by 12 mils (0.3048 millimeters), and another in which the hub flow path was moved to reflect a 12-mil axial shift in the impeller hub, creating a step at the hub. The one-dimensional results of these two computations indicate non-negligible differences between the two modeling approaches.

turbomachinery↗

Detonation wave augmentation of gas turbines

The results of a feasibility study that examined the effects of using detonation waves to augment the performance of gas turbines are reported. The central ideas were to reduce compressor requirements and to maintain high performance in jet engines. Gasdynamic equations were used to model the flows associated with shock waves generated by the detonation of fuel in detonator tubes. Shock wave attenuation to the level of Mach waves was found possible, thus eliminating interference with the compressor and the necessity of valves and seals. A preliminary parametric study of the performance of a compressor working at a 4:1 ratio in a conceptual design of a detonation wave augmented jet engine in subsonic flight indicated a clear superiority over conventional designs in terms of fuel efficiency and thrust.

Wortman, A.↗

Modeling of Highly Instrumented Honeywell Turbofan Engine Tested with Ice Crystal Ingestion in the NASA Propulsion System Laboratory

The Propulsion Systems Laboratory (PSL), an altitude test facility at NASA Glenn Research Center, has been used to test a highly instrumented turbine engine at simulated altitude operating conditions. This is a continuation of the PSL testing that successfully duplicated the icing events that were experienced in a previous engine (serial LF01) during flight through ice crystal clouds, which was the first turbofan engine tested in PSL. This second model of the ALF502R-5A serial number LF11 is a highly instrumented version of the previous engine. The PSL facility provides a continuous cloud of ice crystals with controlled characteristics of size and concentration, which are ingested by the engine during operation at simulated altitudes. Several of the previous operating points tested in the LF01 engine were duplicated to confirm repeatability in LF11. The instrumentation included video cameras to visually illustrate the accretion of ice in the low pressure compressor (LPC) exit guide vane region in order to confirm the ice accretion, which was suspected during the testing of the LF01. Traditional instrumentation included static pressure taps in the low pressure compressor inner and outer flow path walls, as well as total pressure and temperature rakes in the low pressure compressor region. The test data was utilized to determine the losses and blockages due to accretion in the exit guide vane region of the LPC. Multiple data points were analyzed with the Honeywell Customer Deck. A full engine roll back point was modeled with the Numerical Propulsion System Simulation (NPSS) code. The mean line compressor flow analysis code with ice crystal modeling was utilized to estimate the parameters that indicate the risk of accretion, as well as to estimate the degree of blockage and losses caused by accretion during a full engine roll back point. The analysis provided additional validation of the icing risk parameters within the LPC, as well as the creation of models for estimating the rates of blockage growth and losses.

Simulation↗

Modeling of a Turbofan Engine with Ice Crystal Ingestion in the NASA Propulsion System Laboratory

The main focus of this study is to apply a computational tool for the flow analysis of the turbine engine that has been tested with ice crystal ingestion in the Propulsion Systems Laboratory (PSL) at NASA Glenn Research Center. The PSL has been used to test a highly instrumented Honeywell ALF502R-5A (LF11) turbofan engine at simulated altitude operating conditions. Test data analysis with an engine cycle code and a compressor flow code was conducted to determine the values of key icing parameters, that can indicate the risk of ice accretion, which can lead to engine rollback (un-commanded loss of engine thrust). The full engine aerothermodynamic performance was modeled with the Honeywell Customer Deck specifically created for the ALF502R-5A engine. The mean-line compressor flow analysis code, which includes a code that models the state of the ice crystal, was used to model the air flow through the fan-core and low pressure compressor. The results of the compressor flow analyses included calculations of the ice-water flow rate to air flow rate ratio (IWAR), the local static wet bulb temperature, and the particle melt ratio throughout the flow field. It was found that the assumed particle size had a large effect on the particle melt ratio, and on the local wet bulb temperature. In this study the particle size was varied parametrically to produce a non-zero calculated melt ratio in the exit guide vane (EGV) region of the low pressure compressor (LPC) for the data points that experienced a growth of blockage there, and a subsequent engine called rollback (CRB). At data points where the engine experienced a CRB having the lowest wet bulb temperature of 492 degrees Rankine at the EGV trailing edge, the smallest particle size that produced a non-zero melt ratio (between 3 percent - 4 percent) was on the order of 1 micron. This value of melt ratio was utilized as the target for all other subsequent data points analyzed, while the particle size was varied from 1 micron - 9.5 microns to achieve the target melt ratio. For data points that did not experience a CRB which had static wet bulb temperatures in the EGV region below 492 degrees Rankine, a non-zero melt ratio could not be achieved even with a 1 micron ice particle size. The highest value of static wet bulb temperature for data points that experienced engine CRB was 498 degrees Rankine with a particle size of 9.5 microns. Based on this study of the LF11 engine test data, the range of static wet bulb temperature at the EGV exit for engine CRB was in the narrow range of 492 degrees Rankine - 498 degrees Rankine , while the minimum value of IWAR was 0.002. The rate of blockage growth due to ice accretion and boundary layer growth was estimated by scaling from a known blockage growth rate that was determined in a previous study. These results obtained from the LF11 engine analysis formed the basis of a unique “icing wedge.”

Turbo engine↗