Experimental investigation of flow and distortion mitigation by mechanical vortex generators in a coupled serpentine inlet-turbofan engine system

The performance of compact, aggressive ducts in advanced propulsion systems is limited by the internal flow separation coupled with the formation of secondary counter-rotating vortices that give rise to intensive flow distortions at the duct exit. An experimental investigation was conducted to study the flow field and passive suppression of flow separation and Aerodynamic Interface Plane (AIP) distortion in a serpentine air inlet duct. Tests were performed by a turbofan engine at several Engine Operating Points (EOPs) from 56% (idle) to 100% (max). A large total pressure deficit region arose at the upper part of the AIP, which was associated with the upper surface flow separation. Using the new mechanical S-type vortex generators in two longitudinal positions (VG1 and VG2), separation and loss were diminished at the upper part of the duct and AIP. The VG2 arrangement attained the maximum reductions in distortion coefficients which were 73.72%, 60.7% and 37.8% in DC(90°), DC(60°) and ΔP_C/P metrics, respectively. In the next step of the study, some unsteady aspects of the flow field were analyzed inside the duct. The separation onset and reattachment points were determined by the standard deviation of static pressure on the upper surface. The AIP spectral distribution showed that the boundary of low pressure and high pressure recovery regions was dominated by the maximum fluctuations. Furthermore, the PSD diagram of several probes at AIP revealed the vortex shedding frequency and its higher harmonics at separation region. The energy content of distinct unsteady spectral features in the bare configuration was significantly reduced using VGs, which showed the improvement of flow at the duct exit.