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

该提案旨在通过解决使用先进嵌入式推进系统实现商用飞机的挑战，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上的喷气发动机，而不是挂在机翼上。在这种配置下，燃料消耗最多可以减少4%。这相当于仅加拿大航空公司每年就可能节省高达2.38亿美元。在全球范围内，使用嵌入式推进系统每年可减少高达2800万吨的二氧化碳排放。这种类型的发动机配置并没有在现代商用飞机上使用，因为它的实施面临着重大挑战。这些都围绕着这样一个事实，即在这种配置下，进入发动机的气流必然是不均匀的，在速度和压力上都有变化。这使得设计一种效率能与传统翼下配置相匹配的发动机变得具有挑战性。特别是发动机前部的风扇必须处理气流的不均匀性。本提案中描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，但没有一项研究能够提取出能够帮助引擎设计师的一般趋势。这就是拟议工作的目的。其次，将开发创新的发动机风扇简化模型，以准确捕捉非均匀进入气流的影响。这些很重要，因为在设计过程的早期，除非有精确的简化模型，否则不可能正确地考虑不均匀气流的影响。此外，这些模型的存在将使风扇能够在不均匀气流存在的情况下具有特定的性能特征，而不仅仅是预测某个风扇设计的行为。预计这两项研究将为嵌入式推进系统的设计带来新的见解，从而最大限度地减少燃料的使用。计算机模拟和实验将用于测试设计思想，并确定它们在实践中的影响程度。这项工作与加拿大和全世界的航空业有关。普拉特和惠特尼加拿大等发动机制造商以及庞巴迪航空航天等飞机制造商应该对这项工作的结果感兴趣。除加拿大外，其他发动机和飞机制造商以及在相关领域工作的学者也应该找到感兴趣的工作。研究结果将使嵌入式推进系统的使用取得重要进展，并使随之而来的燃油消耗降低成为现实。

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.