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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 37 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1995

Internal Acoustics Measurements of a Full Scale Advanced Ducted Propulsor Demonstrator

Acoustics measurements of a Pratt & Whitney full-scale ADP (Advanced Ducted Propulsor), an ultrahigh by-pass ratio engine, were conducted in the NASA Ames 40- by 80-Foot Wind Tunnel. This paper presents data from measurements taken from sensors on a fan exit guide vane in the ADP. Data from two sensors, one at mid-span and the other at the tip of the fan exit guide vane, are presented. At the blade passage frequency (BPF), the levels observed at the various engine and wind speeds were higher at the mid-span sensor than the tip sensor. The coherence between these internal sensors and external microphones were calculated and plotted as a function of angle (angles ranged from 5 degrees to 160 degrees) relative to the ADP longitudinal axis. At the highest engine and wind speeds, the coherence between the tip sensor and the external microphones was observed to decrease at higher multiples of the BPF. These results suggest that the rotor-stator interaction tones are stronger in the mid-span region than at the tip.

Santa Maria, O. L.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Counterrotating aircraft propulsor blades

A propulsor blade for an aircraft engine includes an airfoil section formed in the shape of a scimitar. A metallic blade spar is interposed between opposed surfaces of the blade and is bonded to the surfaces to establish structural integrity of the blade. The metallic blade spar includes a root end allowing attachment of the blade to the engine.

Nelson, Joey L.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Counterrotating aircraft propulsor blades

A propulsor blade for an aircraft engine includes an airfoil section formed in the shape of a scimitar. A metallic blade spar is interposed between opposed surfaces of the blade and is bonded to the surfaces to establish structural integrity of the blade. The metallic blade spar includes a root end allowing attachment of the blade to the engine.

Nelson, Joey L.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Tradespace Exploration of Distributed Propulsors for Advanced On-Demand Mobility Concepts

Combustion-based sources of shaft power tend to significantly penalize distributed propulsion concepts, but electric motors represent an opportunity to advance the use of integrated distributed propulsion on an aircraft. This enables use of propellers in nontraditional, non-thrust-centric applications, including wing lift augmentation, through propeller slipstream acceleration from distributed leading edge propellers, as well as wingtip cruise propulsors. Developing propellers for these applications challenges long-held constraints within propeller design, such as the notion of optimizing for maximum propulsive efficiency, or the use of constant-speed propellers for high-performance aircraft. This paper explores the design space of fixed-pitch propellers for use as (1) lift augmentation when distributed about a wing's leading edge, and (2) as fixed-pitch cruise propellers with significant thrust at reduced tip speeds for takeoff. A methodology is developed for evaluating the high-level trades for these types of propellers and is applied to the exploration of a NASA Distributed Electric Propulsion concept. The results show that the leading edge propellers have very high solidity and pitch well outside of the empirical database, and that the cruise propellers can be operated over a wide RPM range to ensure that thrust can still be produced at takeoff without the need for a pitch change mechanism. To minimize noise exposure to observers on the ground, both the leading edge and cruise propellers are designed for low tip-speed operation during takeoff, climb, and approach.

Borer, Nicholas K.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Computational Aerodynamic Simulations of an 840 ft/sec Tip Speed Advanced Ducted Propulsor Fan System Model for Acoustic Methods Assessment and Development

Computational Aerodynamic simulations of an 840 ft/sec tip speed, Advanced Ducted Propulsor fan system were performed at five different operating points on the fan operating line, in order to provide detailed internal flow field information for use with fan acoustic prediction methods presently being developed, assessed and validated. The fan system is a sub-scale, lownoise research fan/nacelle model that has undergone extensive experimental testing in the 9- by 15- foot Low Speed Wind Tunnel at the NASA Glenn Research Center, resulting in quality, detailed aerodynamic and acoustic measurement data. Details of the fan geometry, the computational fluid dynamics methods, the computational grids, and various computational parameters relevant to the numerical simulations are discussed. Flow field results for three of the five operating conditions simulated are presented in order to provide a representative look at the computed solutions. Each of the five fan aerodynamic simulations involved the entire fan system, excluding a long core duct section downstream of the core inlet guide vane. As a result, only fan rotational speed and system bypass ratio, set by specifying static pressure downstream of the core inlet guide vane row, were adjusted in order to set the fan operating point, leading to operating points that lie on a fan operating line and making mass flow rate a fully dependent parameter. The resulting mass flow rates are in good agreement with measurement values. The computed blade row flow fields for all five fan operating points are, in general, aerodynamically healthy. Rotor blade and fan exit guide vane flow characteristics are good, including incidence and deviation angles, chordwise static pressure distributions, blade surface boundary layers, secondary flow structures, and blade wakes. Examination of the computed flow fields reveals no excessive boundary layer separations or related secondary-flow problems. A few spanwise comparisons between computational and measurement data in the bypass duct show that they are in good agreement, thus providing a partial validation of the computational results.

Tweedt, Daniel L.↗
NASA NTRS2017

Structural Design Exploration of an Electric Powered Multi-Propulsor Wing Configuration

Advancements in aircraft electric propulsion may enable an expanded operational envelope for electrically powered vehicles compared to their internal combustion engine counterparts. High aspect ratio wings provide additional lift and drag reduction for a proposed multi-propulsor design, however, the challenge is to reduce the weight of wing structures while maintaining adequate structural and aeroelastic margins. Design exploration using a conventional design-and-build philosophy coupled with a finite element method (FEM)-based design of experiments (DOE) strategy are presented to examine high aspect ratio wing structures that have spanwise distributed electric motors. Multiple leading-edge-mounted engine masses presented a challenge to design a wing within acceptable limits for dynamic and aeroelastic stability. Because the first four primary bending eigenmodes of the proposed wing structure are very sensitive to outboard motor placement, safety-of-flight requirements drove the need for multiple spars, rib attachments, and outboard structural reinforcements in the design. Global aeroelasticity became an increasingly important design constraint during the on-going design process, with outboard motor pod flutter ultimately becoming a primary design constraint. Designers successively generated models to examine stress, dynamics, and aeroelasticity concurrently. This research specifically addressed satisfying multi-disciplinary design criteria to generate fluid-structure interaction solution sets, and produced high aspect ratio primary structure designs for the NASA Scalable Convergent Electric Propulsion Technology and Operations Research (SCEPTOR) project in the Aeronautic Research Mission Directorate at NASA. In this paper, a dynamics-driven, quasi-inverse design methodology is presented to address aerodynamic performance goals and structural challenges encountered for the SCEPTOR demonstrator vehicle. These results are compared with a traditional computer aided design based approach.

Moore, James B.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Coupled Aeropropulsive Design Optimization of a Podded Electric Propulsor

New aircraft concepts are increasingly relying on non-traditional propulsion systems to achieve lower energy consumption. These non-traditional technologies, such as boundary layer ingestion or distributed electric propulsion, require a tight integration of the propulsion sys- tem to the airframe, and therefore, a traditional design approach where the aerodynamics and propulsion disciplines are considered separately is likely to result in sub-optimal designs. As a result, we have to rely on coupled aeropropulsive design optimization, in which fully coupled aeropropulsive models are optimized to maximize the advantages of these tightly integrated propulsion systems. Despite its advantages, aeropropulsive design optimization is a relatively new field, and significant advancements are required for wide adoption of this approach, especially in the context of robustness. In this work, we introduce two fully coupled aeropropulsive design optimization approaches that are compatible with CFD models with body-force terms and boundary conditions to model the effects of the propulsion system in the flow field. To test these new approaches, we developed a podded electric fan model based on the aft-propulsor of NASA’s STARC-ABL concept. This simple design problem enables us to rapidly develop and test different aeropropulsive coupling approaches, while including the challenging physical interactions that arise from coupling CFD and propulsion models. The coupled aeropropulsive model is implemented using the MPhys library, which is built with NASA’s OpenMDAO frame- work. Using this benchmark design problem, we demonstrate the robustness of the approaches and our aeropropulsive design optimization framework by performing a sweep of optimizations for a total of 50 CFD-based aeropropulsive design optimizations. Furthermore, the new aero- propulsive coupling approaches enable multi-point design optimizations. We demonstrate this capability in a multi-point design optimization problem where we optimize cruise performance subject to a fan-face distortion constraint at rolling take-off conditions. The aeropropulsive modeling approaches we present in this work represent a significant milestone in the field of aeropropulsive design optimization. The framework we developed is extremely robust and flexible, and these developments will be crucial for future aeropropulsive design optimizations of complete turbofan engines.

Optimization propulsion aerodynamics↗
NASA NTRS1974

An introduction to the design of marine propulsors

A summary of methods for marine propulsion design is presented. A list of reports dealing with the design of open propellers, ducted propellers or pumpjets, and waterjets is included. The major problems involved in marine propulsion design are discussed.

Henderson, R. E.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Investigation of Pneumatic Inlet and Diffuser Blowing on a Ducted Fan Propulsor in Static Thrust Operation

Tilting ducted fans present a solution for the lifting and forward flight propulsion requirements of VTOL aircraft. However, the geometry of the duct enshrouding the propeller has great a effect on the efficiency of the fan in various flight modes. Shroud geometry controls the velocity and pressure at the face of the fan, while maintaining a finite loading out at the tips of the fan blades. A duct tailored for most efficient generation of static lifting thrust will generally suffer from performance deficiencies in forward flight. The converse is true as well, leaving the designer with a difficult trade affecting the overall performance and sizing of the aircraft. Ideally, the shroud of a vertical lifting fan features a generous bell mouth inlet promoting acceleration of flow into the face of the fan, and terminating in a converging nozzle at the exit. Flow entering the inlet is accelerated into the fan by the circulation about the shroud, resulting in an overall increase in thrust compared to an open propeller operating under the same conditions . The accelerating shroud design is often employed in lifting ducted fans to benefit from the thrust augmentation; however, such shroud designs produce significant drag penalties in axial flight, thus are unsuitable for efficient forward flight applications. Decelerating, or diffusing, duct designs are employed for higher speed forward flight configurations. The lower circulation on the shroud tends to decelerate the flow into the face of the fan, which is detrimental to static thrust development; however, net thrust is developed on the shroud while the benefits of finite blade loading are retained. With judicious shroud design for intended flight speeds, a net increase in efficiency can be obtained over an open propeller. In this experiment, conducted under contract to NASA LaRC (contract NAG-1-02093) circulation control is being applied to a mildly diffusing shroud design, intended for improved forward flight performance, to generate circulation in the sense of an accelerating duct design. The intent is to improve static thrust performance of a ducted fan tailored for high speed axial flight, while at the same time significantly reduce the pressure signature on the ground plane. Circulation control on the fan shroud is achieved by the Coanda effect.

Kondor, Shayne↗
NASA NTRS2011

Overview of ERA Ultra High Bypass Propulsor Technology Development

A review of the current research being conducted under the Environmentally Responsible Aviation (ERA) Ultra High Bypass (UHB) Testing subelement is presented. The four exiting tasks under the subelement, a description of each task, and the current status of each are given. The four tasks are: 1. Collaborate with P&W to design, fabricate and test a second generation of Geared Turbofan 2. Design, fabricate and test advanced Over the Rotor acoustic treatment and acoustically treated Soft Vanes 3. Develop a Shape Memory Alloy Variable Area Nozzle concept and demonstrate prototype 4. Refurbish and update the GRC Ultra High Bypass Drive Rig Following the current task updates, an overview of three proposed additional tasks to support the existing tasks is presented. The additional tasks would allow noise reduction and noise diagnostic testing technologies to be demonstrated at TRL 4 as part of existing planned fan model testing in the NASA Glenn 9 x15 Low Speed Wind Tunnel under the ERA UHB Testing subelement.

Hughes, Christopher↗
NASA NTRS2018

Efficient, Low Pressure Ratio Propulsor for Gas Turbine Engines

A gas turbine engine includes a bypass flow passage that has an inlet and defines a bypass ratio in a range of approximately 8.5 to 13.5. A fan is arranged within the bypass flow passage. A first turbine is a 5-stage turbine and is coupled with a first shaft, which is coupled with the fan. A first compressor is coupled with the first shaft and is a 3-stage compressor. A second turbine is coupled with a second shaft and is a 2-stage turbine. The fan includes a row of fan blades that extend from a hub. The row includes a number (N) of the fan blades, a solidity value (R) at tips of the fab blades, and a ratio of N/R that is from 14 to 16.

Gallagher, Edward J.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Efficient, Low Pressure Ratio Propulsor for Gas Turbine Engines

A gas turbine engine includes a gear assembly and a bypass flow passage that includes an inlet and an outlet that define a design pressure ratio between 1.3 and 1.55. A fan is arranged at the inlet. A first turbine is coupled with a first shaft such that rotation of the first turbine will drive the fan, through the first shaft and the gear assembly, at a lower speed than the first shaft. The fan includes a row of fan blades. The row includes 12-16 (N) fan blades, a solidity value (R) that is from 1.0 to 1.3, and a ratio of N/R that is from 10.0 to 16.

Gallagher, Edward J.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Power turbine ventilation system

Air control mechanism within a power turbine section of a gas turbine engine. The power turbine section includes a rotor and at least one variable pitch propulsor blade. The propulsor blade is coupled to and extends radially outwardly of the rotor. A first annular fairing is rotatable with the propulsor blade and interposed between the propulsor blade and the rotor. A second fairing is located longitudinally adjacent to the first fairing. The first fairing and the second fairing are differentially rotatable. The air control mechanism includes a platform fixedly coupled to a radially inner end of the propulsor blade. The platform is generally positioned in a first opening and a first fairing. The platform and the first fairing define an outer space. In a first position corresponding with a first propulsor blade pitch, the platform is substantially conformal with the first fairing. In a second position corresponding with the second propulsor blade pitch, an edge portion of the platform is displaced radially outwardly from the first fairing. When the blades are in the second position and rotating about the engine axis, the displacement of the edge portion with respect to the first fairing allows air to flow from the outer space to the annular cavity.

Wakeman, Thomas G.↗