Experimental and Numerical Investigation of a Contra Rotating Open-Rotor Flowfield
2012
Contrarotating open rotor propulsion systems have seen renewed interest as a possible economic and
environmentally friendly powerplant for future transport aircraft. While the potential efficiency benefits are well
accepted, concerns persist regarding the probable rotor-to-rotor interaction-driven noise penalty this type of engine
would have in comparison to modern ducted turbofan engines. This paper presents results of a collaborative
experimental and numerical study to quantify and study in-depth the complex flowfield of a generic contrarotating
open rotor model at wind-tunnel scale. The model has 10 front blades and 8 aft blades, with blade design similar to
modern propellers for high-disk loadings. The comparison of flow visualization results obtained through the use of
modern stereoscopic particle image velocimetry and unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes simulations helps
to improve understanding of the interactions of front-rotor-blade wakes and tip vortices with the aft rotor, which is
an important aspect to guide the design of future efficient and quiet contrarotating open rotor engines. The generally
good match between the experimental and numerical slipstream results gives confidence in the utility for their
analysis capabilities in this field.
Keywords:
- Correction
- Source
- Cite
- Save
- Machine Reading By IdeaReader
18
References
15
Citations
NaN
KQI