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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 541 records · Page 30

Calculated effects of turbine rotor-blade cooling-air flow, altitude, and compressor bleed point on performance of a turbojet engine

Effects of air-cooling turbine rotor blades on performance of a turbojet engine were calculated for a range of altitudes from sea level to 40,000 feet and a range of coolant flows up to 3 percent of compressor air flow, for two conditions of coolant bleed from the compressor. Bleeding at required coolant pressure resulted in a sea-level thrust reduction approximately twice the percentage coolant flow and in an increase in specific fuel consumption approximately equal to percentage coolant flow. For any fixed value of coolant flow ratio the percentage thrust reduction and percentage increase in specific fuel consumption decreased with altitude. Bleeding coolant at the compressor discharge resulted in an additional 1 percent loss in performance at sea level and in smaller increase in loss of performance at higher altitudes.

TURBINE COOLING↗

The effect of rotor blade thickness and surface finish on the performance of a small axial flow turbine

An experimental investigation was conducted to determine the effect of blade profile inaccuracies and surface finish on the aerodynamic performance of a 11.13 cm tip diameter turbine. The as-received cast rotor blades had a significantly thicker profile than the design intent and a fairly rough surface finish. Stage test results showed an increase of one point in efficieny by smoothing the surface finish and another three points by thinning the blade profiles to near the design profile. Most of the performance gain between the as-cast thick and the thinned rotor blades both with the same surface finish, was attributed to reduced trailing edge losses of the recontoured blades.

Roelke, R. J.↗

Effect of rotor tip clearance and configuration on overall performance of a 12.77-centimeter tip diameter axial-flow turbine

An extensive experimental investigation was made to determine the effect of varying the rotor tip clearance of a 12.77-cm-tip diameter, single-stage, axial-flow reaction turbine. In this investigation, the rotor tip clearance was obtained by use of a recess in the casing above the rotor blades and also by use of a reduced blade height. For the recessed casing configuration, the optimum rotor blade height was found to be the one where the rotor tip diameter was equal to the stator tip diameter. The tip clearance loss associated with this optimum recessed casing configuration was less than that for the reduced blade height configuration.

Haas, J. E.↗

Effect of advanced rotorcraft airfoil sections on the hover performance of a small-scale rotor model

A hover test was conducted on a small scale rotor model for two sets of tapered rotor blades. The baseline rotor blade set used a NACA 0012 airfoil section, whereas the second rotor blade set had advanced rotorcraft airfoils distributed along the radius. The experiment was conducted for a range of thrust coefficients and tip speeds, and the data were compared to the predictions of three analytical methods. The data show the advantage of the advanced airfoils at the higher rotor thrust levels; two of the analyses predicted the correct data trends.

Althoff, Susan L.↗

Improved Mars Helicopter Aerodynamic Rotor Model for Comprehensive Analyses

The Mars Helicopter is part of the NASA Mars 2020 rover mission scheduled to launch in July of 2020. Its goal is to demonstrate the viability and potential of heavier-than-air vehicles in the Martian atmosphere. Ultimately, it aims to bridge the resolution gap between orbiters and the rover as well as allow access to otherwise inaccessible regions. The low density of the Martian atmosphere and the relatively small-scale rotor result in very low Reynolds number flows. The low density and low Reynolds numbers reduce the lifting force and lifting efficiency, respectively. This paper describes the generation of the improved Mars Helicopter aerodynamic rotor model. The goal is to generate a performance model for the Mars Helicopter rotor using a free wake analysis, since this has a low computational cost for design. The improvements in the analysis are two-fold and are expanded on from two prior publications. First, the fidelity of the simulations is increased by performing higher-order two-dimensional time-accurate OVERFLOW simulations allowing for higher accuracy aerodynamic coefficients and a better understanding of the boundary layer behavior as well as its transient features. Second, a version of the model is generated to duplicate the exact testing conditions in the 25-ft. diameter Space Simulator at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which allows for better correlation of rotor performance figures. Previous work correlated performance with that test, but did not consider the higher temperatures in the experiment compared to those of the Martian atmosphere. The higher temperatures in the experiment are expected to give conservative performance estimates, as they give rise to an increase in speed of sound and decrease in observed Reynolds numbers.

Analyses↗

The acoustics of a small-scale helicopter rotor in hover

A 2.1 m diameter, 1/6-scale model helicopter main rotor was tested in hover in the test section of the NASA Ames 40- by 80-foot wind tunnel. Performance and noise data on a small-scale rotor at various thrust coefficients and tip Mach numbers were obtained for comparison with existing data on similar full-scale helicopter rotors. These data form part of a data base to permit the estimation of scaling effects on various rotor noise mechanisms. Another objective was to contribute to a data base that will permit the estimation of facility effects on acoustic testing. Acoustic 1/3-octave-band spectra are presented, together with variations of overall acoustic levels with rotor performance, microphone distance, and directivity angle.

Kitaplioglu, Cahit↗