Boundary Layer Ingesting (BLI) turbofan engines could offer reduced fuel burn compared with podded engines, but the fan stage must be designed to run continuously with severe inlet distortion. This paper aims to explain the fluid dynamics and loss sources in BLI fans running at a cruise condition. High-resolution experimental measurements and full-annulus unsteady CFD have been performed on a low-speed fan rig running with a representative BLI inlet velocity profile. A three-dimensional flow redistribution is observed, leading to an attenuation of the axial velocity non-uniformity upstream of the rotor and to non-uniform swirl and radial angle distributions at rotor inlet. The distorted flow field is shown to create circumferential and radial variations in diffusion factor with a corresponding loss variation around the annulus. Additional loss is generated by an unsteady separation of the casing boundary layer, caused by a localised peak in loading at the rotor tip. Non-uniform swirl and radial angles at rotor exit lead to increased loss in the stator due to the variations in profile loss and corner separation size. An additional CFD calculation of a transonic fan running with the same inlet profile is used to show that BLI leads to wide variations in rotor shock structure, strength and position and hence to loss generation through shock-boundary layer interaction, but otherwise contained the same flow features as the low-speed case. For both fan geometries, BLI was found to reduce the stage efficiency by around 1–2% relative to operation with uniform inlet flow.
The performance of a transonic fan operating within nonuniform inlet flow remains a key concern for the design and operability of a turbofan engine. This paper applies computational methods to improve the understanding of the interaction between a transonic fan and an inlet total pressure distortion. The test case studied is the NASA rotor 67 stage operating with a total pressure distortion covering a 120-deg sector of the inlet flow field. Full-annulus, unsteady, three-dimensional CFD has been used to simulate the test rig installation and the full fan assembly operating with inlet distortion. Novel post-processing methods have been applied to extract the fan performance and features of the interaction between the fan and the nonuniform inflow. The results of the unsteady computations agree well with the measurement data. The local operating condition of the fan at different positions around the annulus has been tracked and analyzed, and this is shown to be highly dependent on the swirl and mass flow redistribution that the rotor induces ahead of it due to the incoming distortion. The upstream flow effects lead to a variation in work input that determines the distortion pattern seen downstream of the fan stage. In addition, the unsteady computations also reveal more complex flow features downstream of the fan stage, which arise due to the three dimensionality of the flow and unsteadiness.
The negative external impacts of aviation are currently under unprecedented scrutiny. In response, a number of studies into future prospects for improvement have recently been carried out. This paper reviews these studies and discusses their combined implications for emissions of carbon dioxide, oxides of nitrogen, and noise. The results are also compared with targets for emissions reduction proposed by ACARE and NASA. It is concluded that significant future gains are achievable, but not to the extent implied by the ACARE and NASA targets, which represent an unrealistically optimistic view of technological potential over the next 20-40 years. The focus on technological advance also deflects attention from the substantial benefits available from combining present-day technology with behavioural change. Finally, difficult policy decisions will be necessary; the greatest benefits are associated with technological developments that will require major, and long-term, investment for their realisation, and there will be increasing conflict between environmental and noise goals.
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