Rigorous Characterization, Modelling, and Mitigation of Aeroengine Response to Inlet Flow Distortion

该提案旨在通过应对实现具有先进嵌入式推进系统的商用飞机的挑战来提高航空的可持续性。嵌入式推进系统使用集成在飞机机身中的喷气发动机，而不是悬挂在机翼上。在这样的配置中，燃料消耗可以减少高达4%。这相当于仅加拿大航空公司每年可能节省2.38亿加元。在全球范围内，使用嵌入式推进系统每年可以减少多达2800万吨的二氧化碳排放量。 这种类型的发动机配置由于与其实施相关的主要挑战而未用于现代商用飞机。这些问题的中心是这样一个事实，即在这种配置中，进入发动机的气流必然是不均匀的，具有速度和压力的变化。这使得设计一种发动机具有挑战性，该发动机的效率将与传统的翼下构型相匹配。特别是，在发动机前部的风扇必须处理流动不均匀性。 本提案所述的工作将解决这一挑战的两个方面。 首先，将对这些气流不均匀性影响喷气发动机风扇性能的方式进行系统的研究。虽然过去的许多研究都着眼于少数特定的测试案例，但没有研究能够提取出可用于帮助发动机设计人员的一般趋势。这是拟议工作的目的。 其次，将开发出创新的发动机风扇简化模型，这些模型将准确地捕捉非均匀进气气流的影响。这些都是重要的，因为它是不可能的，正确地考虑不均匀气流的影响，在设计过程中的早期，除非准确的简化模型是可用的。此外，这种模型的存在将使风扇能够在存在非均匀气流的情况下设计出具有特定性能特征的风扇，而不仅仅是预测某种风扇设计将如何表现。 预计这两项调查将为如何设计嵌入式推进系统以实现最大可能的燃料使用减少提供新的见解。计算机模拟和实验将被用来测试设计思想，并确定它们在实践中会产生多大的影响。 这项工作与加拿大和全世界的航空业有关。发动机制造商，如普惠加拿大公司以及飞机制造商，如庞巴迪宇航公司应该对这项工作的结果感兴趣。除了加拿大，其他发动机和飞机制造商以及相关领域的学者也应该找到感兴趣的工作。这些成果应该在实现嵌入式推进系统的使用以及随之而来的燃料消耗减少方面取得重要进展。

This proposal aims to improve the sustainability of aviation by addressing challenges to realizing commercial aircraft with advanced, embedded propulsion systems. Embedded propulsion systems use jet engines integrated into the fuselage of the aircraft rather than hung from the wings. In such a configuration, fuel consumption could be reduced by up to 4%. This corresponds to a possible annual savings of up to $238 million for Canadian airlines alone. Worldwide, use of embedded propulsion systems could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 28 million tonnes annually. This type of engine configuration is not used in modern commercial aircraft due to major challenges associated with its implementation. These centre around the fact that in such a configuration, the airflow entering the engine(s) is by necessity non-uniform, having variations in velocity and pressure. This makes it challenging to design an engine whose efficiency will match that achieved in a conventional below-the-wing configuration. In particular, the fan at the front of the engine must deal with the flow non-uniformities. The work described in this proposal will address two aspects of this challenge. First, a systematic study of the manner in which these airflow non-uniformities affect the performance of jet engine fans will be undertaken. While many studies in the past have looked at a small number of specific test cases, no studies have had the scope to extract general trends which can be used to help engine designers. This is the aim of the proposed work. Second, innovative simplified models of the engine fan will be developed which accurately capture the effects of the non-uniform incoming airflow. These are important because it is not possible to properly account for the effects of the non-uniform airflow early on in the design process unless accurate simplified models are available. In addition, the existence of such models will enable the fan to be designed to have specific performance characteristics in the presence of non-uniform airflow, rather than just predicting how a certain fan design will behave. It is expected that these two investigations will lead to new insight into how embedded propulsion systems can be designed to achieve the largest possible reduction in fuel use. Computer simulations and experiments will be used to test out design ideas and determine how much impact they will have in practice. This work is relevant to the aviation industry in Canada and worldwide. Engine manufacturers such as Pratt and Whitney Canada as well as aircraft manufacturers like Bombardier Aerospace should be interested in the results of this work. Beyond Canada, other engine and aircraft manufacturers as well as academics working in related fields should also find the work of interest. The outcomes should make important progress towards making the use of embedded propulsion systems, and the accompanying fuel consumption reduction, a reality.