Numerical studies of static aeroelastic effects on grid fin aerodynamic performances

The grid fin is an unconventional control surface used on missiles and rockets. Although aerodynamics of grid fin has been studied by many researchers, few considers the aeroelastic effects.In this paper, the static aeroelastic simulations are performed by the coupled viscous computational fluid dynamics with structural flexibility method in transonic and supersonic regimes. The developed coupling strategy including fluid–structure interpolation and volume mesh motion schemes is based on radial basis functions. Results are presented for a vertical and a horizontal grid fin mounted on a body. Horizontal fin results show that the deformed fin is swept backward and the axial force is increased. The deformations also induce the movement of center of pressure, causing the reduction and reversal in hinge moment for the transonic flow and the supersonic flow,respectively. For the vertical fin, the local effective incidences are increased due to the deformations so that the deformed normal force is greater than the original one. At high angles of attack, both the deformed and original normal forces experience a sudden reduction due to the interference of leeward separated vortices on the fin. Additionally, the increment in axial force is shown to correlate strongly with the increment in the square of normal force.     

Streamwise-body-force-model for rapid simulation combining internal and external flow fields

A streamwise-body-force-model (SBFM) is developed and applied in the overall flow simulation for the distributed propulsion system, combining internal and external flow fields. In view of axial stage effects, fan or compressor effects could be simplified as body forces along the streamline. These body forces which are functions of local parameters could be added as source terms in Navier-Stokes equations to replace solid boundary conditions of blades and hubs. The val-idation of SBFM with uniform inlet and distortion inlet of compressors shows that pressure perfor-mance characteristics agree well with experimental data. A three-dimensional simulation of the integration configuration, via a blended wing body aircraft with a distributed propulsion system using the SBFM, has been completed. Lift coefficient and drag coefficient agree well with wind tun-nel test results. Results show that to reach the goal of rapid integrated simulation combining inter-nal and external flow fields, the computational fluid dynamics method based on SBFM is reasonable.     

Numerical study of a 3.5-stage axial compressor at on-and off-design conditions

Numerical investigation is conducted on a 3.5-stage axial compressor,on which numerous experimental projects were carried out at the Institute during the last years and an experimental database was established.In the current study five on-and off-design operating points are simulated using a RANS solver and the results are compared with the measurement.The result shows that the compressor performance can be qualitatively predicted by the mixing-plane method.Better agreement is obtained for the on-design operating point.However,as the flow unsteadiness is insufficiently considered,the numerical method produces end-wall low-speed flow layers accumulated with the flow passing through the passage,which is in no good agreement with the experimental data.In the numerical simulation the rotor rows receive less work and this difference from the measurement increases with the rotational speed.In contrast,the stator rows increase the pressure more efficiently than the measurement.In the simulation the flow in the last stator row tends more to separate on the pressure side of the blade.For the operating points close to the surge line,the predicted separation is more intense than the experimental observation.But for the operating points close to the choke,the separation is suppressed.      

Effect of blade tip winglet on the performance of a highly loaded transonic compressor rotor

The tip leakage flow has an important influence on the performance of transonic com-pressor. Blade tip winglet has been proved to be an effective method to control the tip leakage flow in compressor, while the physical mechanisms of blade tip winglet have been poorly understood. A numerical study for a highly loaded transonic compressor rotor has been conducted to understand the effect of varying the location of blade tip winglet on the performance of the rotor. Two kinds of tip winglet were designed and investigated. The effects of blade tip winglet on the compressor over-all performance, stability and tip flow structure were presented and discussed. It is found that the interaction of the tip winglet with the flow in the tip region is different when the winglet is located at suction-side or pressure-side of the blade tip. Results indicate that the suction-side winglet (SW) is ineffective to improve the performance of compressor rotor. In addition, a significant stall range extension equivalent to 33.74% with a very small penalty in efficiency can be obtained by the pressure-side winglet (PW). An attempt has been made to explain the fundamental mechanisms of blade tip winglet in detail.     

A Structured Mesh Euler and Interactive Boundary Layer Method for Wing/Body Configurations

To compute transonic flows over a complex 3D aircraft configuration, a viscous/inviscid interaction method is developed by coupling an integral boundary-layer solver with an Eluer solver in a ＂semi-inverse＂ manner. For the turbulent boundary-layer, an integral method using Green＇s lag equation is coupled with the outer inviscid flow. A blowing velocity approach is used to simulate the displacement effects of the boundary layer. To predict the aerodynamic drag, it is developed a numerical technique called far-field method that is based on the momentum theorem, in which the total drag is divided into three component drags, i.e. viscous, induced and wave-formed. Consequently, it can provide more physical insight into the drag sources than the often-used surface integral technique. The drag decomposition can be achieved with help of the second law of thermodynamics, which implies that entropy increases and total pressure decreases only across shock wave along a streamline of an inviscid non-isentropic flow. This method has been applied to the DLR-F4 wing/body configuration showing results in good agreement with the wind tunnel data.     

Numerical evaluation of tandem rotor for highly loaded transonic fan

Transonic tandem rotor was designed for highly loaded fan at a corrected tip speed of 381m/s and another conventional rotor was designed as a baseline to evaluate the loading superiority of tandem rotor with three-dimensional (3-D) numerical simulation. The aft blade solidity and its impact on total loading level were studied in depth. The result indicates that tandem rotor has potential to achieve higher loading level and attain favorable aerodynamic performance in a wide range of loading coefficient 0.55~0.68, comparing with the conventional rotor which produced a total pressure ratio of 2.0 and loading coefficient of 0.42.      

Trailing-edge shock loss control with self-sustaining synthetic jet in a supersonic compressor cascade

To effectively reduce the loss of strong shock wave at the trailing edge of the supersonic cascade under high backpressure, a shock wave control method based on self-sustaining synthetic jet was proposed. The self-sustaining synthetic jet was applied on the pressure side of the blade with the blow slot and the bleed slot arranged upstream and downstream of the trailing-edge shock,respectively. The flow control mechanism and effects of parameters were investigated by numerical simulation. The res...     

Unsteady Flow Variability Driven by Rotor-stator Interaction at Rotor Exit

Numerical investigation of the unsteady flow variability driven by rotorstator interaction in a transonic axial compressor is performed. Two models with close and far axial gap between rotor and stator rows are studied in the simulation. Particular attention is attached to the analysis of mechanisms involved in driving rotor wake oscillation, rotor wake skewing and flow angle fluctuation at rotor exit. The results show that smaller axial gap is favorable to enhance the interaction in the region between two adjacent rows, and the fluctuation of the static pressure difference between two sides of rotor wake is improved by potential field from down stator, which is the driving force for rotor wake oscillation. The interaction between rotor and stator is weakened by increasing axial distance, rotor wake shifts to suction side of rotor blade with 5%-10% of rotor pitch, the absolute value of flow angle at rotor exit is less than that in the case of close interspace for every time step, and the fluctuation amplitude is also decreased.     

Influence of coupled boundary layer suction and bowed blade on flow field and performance of a diffusion cascade

Based on the investigation of mid-span local boundary layer suction and positive bowed cascade, a coupled local tailored boundary layer suction and positive bowed blade method is developed to improve the performance of a highly loaded diffusion cascade with less suction slot. The effectiveness of the coupled method under different inlet boundary layers is also investigated.Results show that mid-span local boundary layer suction can effectively remove trailing edge separation, but deteriorate the flow fields near the endwall. The positive bowed cascade is beneficial for reducing open corner separation, but is detrimental to mid-span flow fields. The coupled method can further improve the performance and flow field of the cascade. The mid-span trailing edge separation and open corner separation are eliminated. Compared with linear cascade with suction, the coupled method reduces overall loss of the cascade by 31.4% at most. The mid-span loss of the cascade decreases as the suction coefficient increases, but increases as bow angle increases. The endwall loss increases as the suction coefficient increases. By contrast, the endwall loss decreases significantly as the bow angle increases. The endwall loss of coupled controlled cascade is higher than that of bowed cascade with the same bow angle because of the spanwise inverse ‘‘C" shaped static pressure distribution. Under different inlet boundary layer conditions, the coupled method can also improve the cascade effectively.     

Hover performance of helicopter main and tail rotors with swirl velocities

It is important to quickly predict the hover performance of main and tail rotors with sufficient precision for helicopter design. To investigate the effects of swirl velocities on the hover performance of main and tail rotors, and give a better prediction for the hover performance, a flight performance model was derived and a swirl velocity model was coupled into it. The test data of the UH-60A helicopter were used for validation. When the blade loading coefficient of the main rotor was higher than 005, the effects of the swirl velocities on the main rotor power became significant. The swirl velocities increased the profile torque of the main rotor. The increased torque required the tail rotor to produce more thrust with more power consumption. At a higher blade loading coefficient of the main rotor of 012, the swirl velocities increased the main rotor power, tail rotor power and total power by 380%, 524% and 508%, respectively. The profile power increase of the main rotor caused by the profile swirl velocity was less than that of the induced swirl velocity, but the power increase was higher at high rotor blade loadings. Considering the swirl velocities in the main rotor can improve the prediction precision of the hover performance, especially at high blade loadings      

Performance optimization of grooved slippers for aero hydraulic pumps

A computational fluid dynamics(CFD) simulation method based on 3-D Navier–Stokes equation and Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian(ALE) method is presented to analyze the grooved slipper performance of piston pump.The moving domain of grooved slipper is transformed into a fixed reference domain by the ALE method,which makes it convenient to take the effects of rotate speed,body force,temperature,and oil viscosity into account.A geometric model to express the complex structure,which covers the orifice of piston and slipper,vented groove and the oil film,is constructed.Corresponding to different oil film thicknesses calculated in light of hydrostatic equilibrium theory and boundary conditions,a set of simulations is conducted in COMSOL to analyze the pump characteristics and effects of geometry(groove width and radius,orifice size) on these characteristics.Furthermore,the mechanics and hydraulics analyses are employed to validate the CFD model,and there is an excellent agreement between simulation and analytical results.The simulation results show that the sealing land radius,orifice size and groove width all dramatically affect the slipper behavior,and an optimum tradeoff among these factors is conducive to optimizing the pump design.     

Effects of Staged Injection on Supersonic Mixing and Combustion

The three-dimensional (3D) reacting flow in a staged supersonic combustor is examined numerically. In order to obtain the optimum stream-wise vortices, a swept ramp injector is chosen as the second-stage wall injection combined with the first-stage central strut injection. The performance of the two-staged injection is compared with that of a one-staged injection, while the strut is kept installed in both cases. The two-staged injections can make full use of the residual oxygen near the wall and release more heat. The second-stage injection further downstream avoids the strong shock waves in the isolator and results in a rising wall pressure and good burning effects after the wall injection. Therefore, it allows more fuel to be injected into the supersonic combustor without causing thermal choking. Parallel injection from the second-stage swept ramp shows low total pressure loss and the best burning efficiency, compared with the other injection angles.     

Simulation of underexpanded supersonic jet flows with chemical reactions

To achieve a detailed understanding of underexpanded supersonic jet structures influenced by afterburning and other flow conditions, the underexpanded turbulent supersonic jet with and without combustions are investigated by computational fluid dynamics(CFD) method.A program based on a total variation diminishing(TVD) methodology capable of predicting complex shocks is created to solve the axisymmetric expanded Navier–Stokes equations containing transport equations of species. The finite-rate ratio model is employed to handle species sources in chemical reactions. CFD solutions indicate that the structure of underexpanded jet is typically influenced by the pressure ratio and afterburning. The shock reflection distance and maximum value of Mach number in the first shock cell increase with pressure ratio. Chemical reactions for the rocket exhaust mostly exist in the mixing layer of supersonic jet flows. This tends to reduce the intensity of shocks existing in the jet, responding to the variation of thermal parameters.     

Effect of tip geometry and tip clearance on aerodynamic performance of a linear compressor cascade

The tip leakage flow between a blade and a casing wall has a strong impact on compressor pressure rise capability, efficiency, and stability. Consequently, there is a strong motivation to look for means to minimize its impact on performance. This paper presents the potential of passive tip leakage flow control to increase the aerodynamic performance of highly loaded compressor blades. Experimental investigations on a linear compressor cascade equipped with blade winglets mounted to the blade tips have been carried out. Results for a variation of the tip clearance and the winglet geometry are presented. Current results indicate that the use of proper tip winglets in a compressor cascade can positively affect the local aerodynamic field by weakening the tip leakage vortex. Results also show that the suction-side winglets are aerodynamically superior to the pressure-side or combined winglets. The suction-side winglets are capable of reducing the exit total pressure loss associated with the tip leakage flow and the passage secondary flow to a significant degree.     

Experimental Study of Corner Stall in a Linear Compressor Cascade

In order to gain a better knowledge of the mechanisms and to calibrate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools including both Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) and large eddy simulation (LES),a detailed and accurate experimental study of corner stall in a linear compressor cascade has been carried out.Data are taken at a Reynolds number of 382 000 based on blade chord and inlet velocity.At first,inlet flow boundary layer is surveyed using hot-wire anemometry.Then in order to investigate the effects of incidence,measurements are acquired at five incidences,including static pressures on both blade and endwall surfaces measured by pressure taps and the total pressure losses of outlet flow measured by a five-hole pressure probe.The maximum losses as well as the extent of losses of the corner stall are presented as a function of the investigated incidences.     

Trajectory Analysis of Fuel Injection into Supersonic Cross Flow Based on Schlieren Method

Trajectory analysis of fuel injection into supersonic cross flow is studied in this paper. A directly-connected wind tunnel is constructed to provide stable supersonic freestream. Based on the test rig, the schlieren system is established to reveal the fuel injection process visually. Subsequently, the method of quantitative schlieren is adopted to obtain data of both fuel/air interface and bow shock with the aid of Photoshop and Origin. Finally, the mechanism based on two influential factors of fuel injection angle and fuel injection driven pressure, is researched by vector analysis. A dimensionless model is deduced and analyzed. The curve fitting result is achieved. The relationship between the data and the two influential factors is established. The results provide not only the quantitative characteristics of the fuel injection in supersonic cross flow but also the valuable reference for the future computational simulation.     

INTEGRATED GPS/INS OF PSEUDO-RANGE DELTA-RANGE SEMI-PHYSICAL SIMULATION'S RESEARCH

In order to further study the performance of tightly integrated navigation system of GPS/INS, a semi-physical simulation of tightly coupled system has been done based on the data gathered from the experiment of integrated system of GPS and INS. The closed-loop Kalman Filter and U-D discompose algorithm have been used. The simulation results associated to four integrated models of pseudo-range, delta-range, pseudo-range and delta-range alternation, and pseudo-range and delta-range synthesis have been provided, and the actual effects of variously integrated models have been analyzed. The results show that the pseudo-range and delta-range synthesis coupled model is the most effective to improve the coupled system performance and the individual delta-range coupled model had better be avoided in application.     

Simulation on effect of throat contraction ratio and strake stagger angle on flow field and aerodynamic performance of scrampressor

The design methods of typical supersonic aircraft intakes and shock wave compression technology have been applied to ram-rotor, an attractive compression system. A ram-rotor is of a typical structure including the compression ramp, the throat and the subsonic diffuser; a scrampressor is similar to ram-rotor, the only difference is that scrampressor has no subsonic diffuser. The work was the continuation of the preparatory work. In order to further study the effect of throat contraction ratio and strake stagger angle on the flow field and performance of a scrampressor, the flow field of a scrampressor with a three-dimensional flow path was numerically simulated with different throat contraction ratios and strake stagger angles. Simulated results indicated that the optional aerodynamic performance of a scrampressor could be achieved with an adiabatic efficiency of 0.8413 a total pressure recovery coefficient of 0.8446, a total pressure ratio of 7.14 and a static pressure ratio of 5.17 for a throat contraction ratio of 0.6 and a strake stagger angle of 12°. It was therefore concluded that an appropriate decrease in throat contraction ratio and an increase in strake stagger angle could help the comprehensive improvement of a scrampressor in performance.      

Parametric study of turbine NGV blade lean and vortex design

The effects of blade lean and vortex design on the aerodynamics of a turbine entry nozzle guide vane (NGV) are considered using computational fluid dynamics. The aim of the work is to address some of the uncertainties which have arisen from previous studies where conflicting results have been reported for the effect on the NGV. The configuration was initially based on the energy efficient engine turbine which also served as the validation case for the computational method. A total of 17 NGV configurations were evaluated to study the effects of lean and vortex design on row efficiency and secondary kinetic energy. The distribution of mass flow ratio is introduced as an additional factor in the assessment of blade lean effects. The results show that in the turbine entry NGV, the secondary flow strength is not a dominant factor that determines NGV losses and therefore the changes of loading distribution due to blade lean and the associated loss mecha-nisms should be regarded as a key factor. Radial mass flow redistribution under different NGV lean and twist is demonstrated as an addition key factor influencing row efficiency.     

Experimental and Numerical Studies of Vitiated Air Effects on Hydrogen-fueled Supersonic Combustor Performance

This paper deals with the vitiation effects of test air on the scramjet performance in the ground combustion heated facilities. The primary goal is to evaluate the effects of H2O and CO2, the two major vitiated species generated by combustion heater, on hydrogen-fueled supersonic combustor performance with experimental and numerical approaches. The comparative experiments in the clean air and vitiated air are conducted by using the resistance heated direct-connected facility, with the typical Mach 4 flight conditions simulated. The H2O and CO2 species with accurately controlled contents are added to the high enthalpy clean air from resistance heater, to synthesize the vitiated air of a combustion-type heater. Typically, the contents of H2O species can be varied within the range of 3.5%-30% by mole, and 3.0%-10% for CO2 species. The total temperature, total pressure, Mach number and O2 mole fraction at the combustor entrance are well-matched between the clean air and vitiated air. The combustion experiments are completed at the fuel equivalence ratios of 0.53 and 0.42 respectively. Furthermore, three-dimensional (3D) reacting flow simulations of combustor flowpath are performed to provide insight into flow field structures and combustion chemistry details that cannot resolved by experimental instruments available. Finally, the experimental data, combined with computational results, are employed to analyze the effects of H2O and CO2 vitiated air on supersonic combustion characteristics and performance. It is concluded that H2O and CO2 contaminants can significantly inhibit the combustion induced pressure rise measured from combustor wall, and the pressure profile decreases with the increasing H2O and CO2 contents in nonlinear trend; simulation results agree well with experimental data and the overall vitiation effects are captured; direct extrapolation of the results from vitiated air to predict the performance of actual flight conditions could result in over-fueling the combustor, possible inlet un-start and inappropriate combustion mode transition. The detailed analysis and discussion are presented and the research conclusions are summarized.