Aerodynamic design of gas turbine engine intake duct

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a design solution of an engine intake duct suitable for delivering air to the compressor of a gas turbine engine of a general aviation turboprop aircraft, where the initial duct shape suffers a problem of flow distortion due to flow separation at the compressor inlet. Design/methodology/approach Aerodynamic design uses a three-dimensional inverse-by-optimization approach where the deviation from a desirable target pressure distribution is minimized by means of the adjoint method. Findings By virtue of a minimization algorithm, the specified target pressure distribution does not necessarily have to be fully realizable to drive the initial pressure distribution towards one with a favourable pressure gradient. The resulting optimized engine intake duct features a deceleration region, in a diverging channel, followed by an acceleration region, in a contracting channel, inhibiting flow separation on the compressor inlet plane. Practical implications The flow separation at the compressor inlet has been eliminated allowing proper installation of the engine and flight testing of the aircraft. Originality/value Placement and shaping of the intake duct of a turboshaft and turboprop gas turbine engine is a common industrial problem which can be challenging when the available space is limited. The inverse-by-optimization approach based on a reduced flow model, i.e. inviscid flow based on the Euler equations, and a specification of a simple target pressure distribution constitutes an efficient method to overcome the challenge.