Versatile Fluid Measurement System for Aerospace Research

要实现英国雄心勃勃的2050年排放目标，将需要雄心勃勃的研究计划，能够使工程系统的效率发生阶段性变化。巴斯大学航空航天工程研究中心(AERC)的目标是通过空气动力学效率高的飞机和更清洁的燃气轮机发动机来实现这一目标。这些传统上相互独立的研究分支已经变得越来越多地跨学科，需要更多的合作和新的研究方法。这两个研究领域面临的主要挑战之一是速度和物种浓度的测量；这些量用肉眼看不到，但对理解流动物理至关重要。为了绕过这个问题，可以对流进行播种和跟踪，从而使不可见的、可见的东西变得可见。这项提议将为AERC提供一种全球独一无二的多功能流体测量系统(VFMS)，用于测量浓度、速度、温度和变形。这种能力绝对是最先进的，AERC将进一步开发，在空气动力学和燃气轮机研究领域创造新的测量可能性。处于颠簸中的飞机对任何乘客来说都很熟悉，然而，与阵风和颠簸相关的问题远远不止是不适。飞机工程师在飞机设计过程中必须考虑到这些负载情况。由于最大的载荷是在阵风、湍流和极端操纵期间经历的，这些情景往往决定飞机的结构，从而决定其重量，尽管它们非常罕见。在AERC中，我们正在开发改进的阵风缓解策略，以实现更轻、更省油的飞机，以及更精确的设计工具，以缩短飞机开发时间并鼓励设计过程中的创新。燃气轮机主要用于飞机推进和工业发电。以前的研究和开发导致了燃气轮机以极高的速度运行，并超过了部件本身的熔点。为了控制这些极端温度，需要从低温压缩机中排出冷空气，以便在高温涡轮部件上形成一层冷却膜。这种冷却剂的有效利用直接影响到涡轮机的效率，但它与主流气体路径的相互作用仍然知之甚少。因此，有很大的改进余地。该设备将用于世界上第一次非侵入式测量，以跟踪三维二次气体路径及其与主流流动的相互作用，并得出转子表面的2D温度图。这些信息将直接与计算模拟进行比较，并用于提高燃气轮机的效率。

Meeting the UK's ambitious 2050 emissions targets will require ambitious research programmes capable of creating a step change in the efficiency of engineering systems. The aim of the Aerospace Engineering Research Centre (AERC), at the University of Bath, is to realise this goal through aerodynamically efficient aircraft and cleaner gas turbine engines. These traditionally separate research strands have grown increasingly interdisciplinary requiring greater collaboration and new research methodologies.One of the principle challenges facing both these research fields is the measurement of velocity and species concentration; these quantities are invisible to the naked eye but vital in understanding the flow physics. To circumvent this problem the flow can be seeded and the material tracked thus making the invisible, visible. This proposal will provide the AERC with a Versatile Fluid Measurement System (VFMS) for concentration, velocity, temperature and deformation measurements that is unique worldwide. This capability is absolutely state of the art and will be further developed by the AERC to create new measurement possibilities in the fields of aerodynamics and gas turbine research. An aircraft in turbulence is familiar to any passenger, however the problem associated with gusts and turbulence goes far beyond mere discomfort. The aircraft engineers must take account of these load scenarios during the aircraft design process. As the largest loads are experienced during gusts, turbulence and extreme manoeuvres these scenarios tend to dictate the aircraft's structure, and therefore its weight, even though they are very rare occurrences. In the AERC we are developing both improved gust alleviation strategies that will allow for lighter, more fuel efficient, aircraft and more accurate design tools that will reduce aircraft development time and encourage innovation in the design process.Gas turbines are predominantly used for aircraft propulsion and industrial power generation. Previous research and development has resulted in gas turbines that operate at extremely high speeds and beyond the melting point of the components themselves. To control these extreme temperatures requires the bleeding of cold air from the low-temperature compressors to create a coolant film over the high-temperature turbine components. Efficient use of this coolant directly impacts on the efficiency of the turbine but its interaction with the mainstream gas path is still poorly understood. There is therefore great scope for improvement. This equipment will be used for world-first non-intrusive measurements to trace the three-dimensional secondary gas path and its interaction with the mainstream flow and to derive 2D temperature maps of the rotor surface. This information will be directly compared with computational simulations and be used to improve gas turbine efficiency.