Notes on rotor aerodynamic research.
Rotor aerodynamics research in terms of theoretical and experimental data comparison, rotor blade flow visualization and blade section camber
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Rotor aerodynamics research in terms of theoretical and experimental data comparison, rotor blade flow visualization and blade section camber
Incompressible two dimensional potential flow analysis with compressibility effects for thick highly cambered multibodies in cascade, noting slotted compressor blade performance
A concept is presented that combines the low-noise and high-thrust characteristics of a turbofan at takeoff, together with its high efficiency at subsonic flight speeds, with the high efficiency of a turbojet at supersonic cruise. It consists of a free turbine with tip fan mounted behind the turbine of a conventional turbojet engine. Fan air is supplied from blow-in doors or is ducted from the main engine inlet. At high flight speeds where fan augmentation is not desirable, the fan inlet is closed and the free turbine is stopped by adjustment of its variable-camber stators. Estimates of noise, cycle performance, and example configurations are presented for a typical supersonic transport application.
Performance parameters are presented for cascades of slotted double circular-arc hydrofoils tested over a range of systematically introduced variables in a rectilinear cascade tunnel which uses water as the test medium. Cascade configurations included various combinations of an inlet flow angle of 50, 60 and 70 deg; a cascade solidity of 0.75, 1.00 and 1.50; a hydrofoil camber angle of 20, 30, 40 and 45 deg; and angles of incidence between positive and negative stall. The slot was positioned at the 45 percent chord station and the slot exit width was 0.047-in. Tests were also performed with the slot positioned at the 35 percent chord station and with slot widths of 0.63 and 0.094-in. These data were correlated to indicate the effects of slot location and slot width on minimum loss incidence and deviation angles. In addition, a comparison is presented of the performance parameters for cascades of slotted and unslotted hydrofoils.
The alloys Nimonic 90, IN 100, coated IN 100, B 1900, coated B 1900, MAR M200, and MAR M200DS (directionally solidified) were studied. Maximum temperatures ranged from 770 C to 1120 C (1420 F to 2050 F). Specimen geometries included tapered disks, double-edged wedges, and cambered airfoils. The disks and wedges were heated and cooled in fluidized beds. The airfoil specimens were heated by a Mach 1 natural gas burner and rapid-air-cooled, with and without spanwise loading. Life calculations included two distinct failure modes: conventional low cycle fatigue and cyclic creep. Required material properties were limited to conventional thermal, tensile, and creep rupture data. The complete life calculation system included the calculation of transient temperature distributions, thermal strains, stresses, creep damage, fatigue damage, and cycles to first crack. Calculated lives were within a factor of two for 76 of the 86 data points analyzed. Cyclic creep accounted for 81% of all the calculated damage.
A 0.5 hub/tip radius ratio compressor stage consisting of a 1500 ft/sec tip speed rotor, a variable camber inlet guide vane and a variable stagger stator was designed and tested with undistorted inlet flow, flow with tip radial distortion, and flow with 90 degrees, one-per-rev, circumferential distortion. At the design speed and design IGV and stator setting the design stage pressure ratio was achieved at a weight within 1% of the design flow. Analytical results on rotor tip shock structure, deviation angle and part-span shroud losses at different operating conditions are presented. The variable geometry blading enabled efficient operation with adequate stall margin at the design condition and at 70% speed. Closing the inlet guide vanes to 40 degrees changed the speed-versus-weight flow relationship along the stall line and thus provided the flexibility of operation at off-design conditions. Inlet flow distortion caused considerable losses in peak efficiency, efficiency on a constant throttle line through design pressure ratio at design speed, stall pressure ratio, and stall margin at the 0 degrees IGV setting and high rotative speeds. The use of the 40 degrees inlet guide vane setting enabled partial recovery of the stall margin over the standard constant throttle line.
The application of the nonsteady Lax-Wendroff technique to problems with asymptotically periodic solution which offers a potentially powerful method for the investigation of the interaction of rotating and stationary blade rows in turbomachinery is reported. A technique for specifying boundary conditions with phase lag was developed to accomplish this. A complete nonlinear analysis is carried out numerically to determine the entire flow field without recourse to the assumption of small disturbances of linear equations which underlie the previous acoustic theories. The result, obtained for the case of equal number of rotor and stator blades shows that transonic flow can be handled without difficulty. In addition, the program is not limited with regard to blade thickness, camber or loading. Extension of this method to incorporate viscous wakes and to analysis of fully three dimensional configuration is feasible, and would greatly expand its utility in practical applications.
Alloys investigated were Nimonic 90, IN 100, coated IN 100, B 1900, coated B 1900, MAR M200, and MAR M200DS (directionally solidified). Maximum temperatures ranged from 770 to 1120 C. Specimen geometries included tapered disks, double-edged wedges, and cambered airfoils. The disks and wedges were heated and cooled in fluidized beds. The airfoil specimens were heated by a Mach 1 natural gas burner and rapid-air cooled, with and without spanwise loading. Life calculations included two distinct failure modes: conventional low-cycle fatigue and cyclic creep. The complete life calculation system included the calculation of transient temperature distributions, thermal strains, stresses, creep damage, fatigue damage, and finally cycles to first crack. Calculated lives were within a factor of two for 76 of the 86 data points analyzed.
A finite difference procedure based upon a system of unsteady equations in proper conservation form with either exact or small disturbance steady terms is used to calculate the steady flows over several classes of airfoils. The airfoil condition is fulfilled on a slab whose upstream extremity is a semi-circle overlaying the airfoil leading edge circle. The limitations of the small disturbance equations are demonstrated in an extreme example of a blunt-nosed, aft-cambered airfoil. The necessity of using the equations in proper conservation form to capture the shock properly is stressed. Ability of the steady relaxation procedures to capture the shock is briefly examined.
An investigation has been conducted at Mach numbers ranging from 0.06 to 0.94 to determine the effects of various combinations of leading-edge slat devices on the static aerodynamic characteristics of a twin-jet swept-wing fighter model. The study also included a determination of the effects of wing leading-edge droop, trailing-edge chord-extensions, wing fences, and wing-planform and camber modifications. The angle-of-attack range generally extended from about minus 2 deg to 24 deg and the sideslip angles ranged from about minus 6 deg to 13 deg.
Test results are presented for 19 cascades involving five plain and two tandem blade sections. High camber and/or negative reaction is associated with six of the sections. Exit Mach numbers range up to slightly above sonic. Cascade efficiency, exit flow angle and static pressure, and blade surface pressure data are reported with incidence angle, Mach number, solidity, and relative position of the tandem blades as independent variables.
A study of the boundary layer and turbulence characteristics inside the passages of an axial flow inducer is reported. The first part deals with the analytical and experimental investigation of the boundary layer characteristics in a four bladed flat plate inducer passage operated with no throttle. An approximate analysis for the prediction of radial and chordwise velocity profiles across the passage is carried out. The momentum integral technique is used to predict the gross properties of the boundary layer. Equations are given for the exact analysis of the turbulent boundary layer characteristics using the turbulent field method. Detailed measurement of boundary layer profiles, limiting streamline angle and skin friction stress on the rotating blade is also reported. Part two of this report deals with the prediction of the flow as well as blade static pressure measurements in a three bladed inducer with cambered blades operated at a flow coefficient of 0.065. In addition, the mean velocity and turbulence measurements carried out inside the passage using a rotating triaxial probe is reported.
Users manual for a U.S.A. FORTRAN 4 computer program which determines boundary conditions for a thin wing lifting surface program is described. This program, the geometry program, and several other programs are used together in the analysis of lifting, thin wings in steady, subsonic flow according to a kernel function lifting surface theory. The program calculates specific types of boundary conditions automatically such as those necessary to determine pitch and roll damping derivatives. The program also accepts descriptions of the camber or downwash and twist in the form of tables and/or coefficients of equations. The program performs interpolations so that tables and/or coefficients can apply at stations selected by the user and not at stations dictated by the control point locations.
A numerical solution is presented for the incompressible flow over thin planar and axisymmetric profiles at an angle of attack of 0 degrees. The method uses a finite-difference field solution to the governing equation with a Gauss-Seidel successive overrelaxation scheme. However, the use of a simple Cartesian grid system restricts this method to slender profiles. Results are presented for a cambered airfoil, airfoil in wall effect (two-dimensional flowthrough inlet), body of revolution, and flowthrough nacelle. A computer program is presented which can be used for any of the previously mentioned cases with simple input changes. Results for compressible flow are available with the use of the appropriate two-dimensional or axisymmetric compressibility corrections. Computational time for a typical field calculation of 3000 grid points and 200 cycles through the field is less than 1 minute with less than 50,000 octal storage on the Control Data Corporation 6600 computing system.
An investigation has been conducted to explore the potential for optimizing airfoil shape at high supersonic speeds by utilizing the two-dimensional shock-expansion method. Theoretical and experimental force and moment coefficients are compared for four delta-planform semispan wings having a leading-edge sweep angle of 65 deg and incorporating modified diamond airfoils with a thickness-chord ratio of 0.06. The wings differ only in airfoil maximum-thickness position and camber. The experimental data are obtained at Mach numbers of 3.95 and 4.63 and at a Reynolds number of 9.84 million per meter. A relatively simple method is developed for predicting, in terms of lift-drag ratio, the optimum modified diamond airfoil at high supersonic and hypersonic speeds.
Subsonic flutter analyses for a preliminary space shuttle design were performed to determine the effect of wing-body aerodynamic interaction on the vehicle flutter speed. It was found that the proximity of the large bodies of the shuttle to the wing reduces critical flutter speed by 11%. Aerodynamic reflection off the bodies is the dominant interaction effect while aerodynamic forces caused by body motion are of secondary importance in most cases. The analyses employed a doublet-lattice representation of the space shuttle, where in the wing and body surfaces were modeled by a lattice of nonplanar lifting surface elements. Axial singularities were introduced to account for body incidence, volume, and camber (slender body) effects. A series of studies on the placement and number of these elements was performed to ensure convergence of the results.
Experimental data have been obtained for two series of bodies at Mach 6 and Reynolds numbers, based on model length, from 1.4 million to 9.5 million. One series consisted of axisymmetric power-law bodies geometrically constrained for constant length and base diameter with values of the exponent n of 0.25, 0.5, 0.6, 0.667, 0.75, and 1.0. The other series consisted of positively and negatively cambered bodies of polygonal cross section, each having a constant longitudinal area distribution conforming to that required for minimizing zero-lift wave drag at hypersonic speeds under the geometric constraints of given length and volume. At the highest Reynolds number, the power-law body for minimum drag is blunter (exponent n lower) than predicted by inviscid theory (n approximately 0.6 instead of n = 0.667); however, the peak value of lift-drag ratio occurs at n = 0.667. Viscous effects were present on the bodies of polygonal cross section but were less pronounced than those on the power-law bodies. The trapezoidal bodies with maximum width at the bottom were found to have the highest maximum lift-drag ratio and the lowest mimimum drag.
The design and testing of a tandem row pump inducer having a supercavitating first stage with a 0.60 hub ratio is presented. The second stage tested was a helical impeller with a 0.70 hub ratio. A cubic arc transition was utilized to accomplish the hub change. The first stage had two blades and the free-vortex design approach was empirically modified based on previous experience. The recommended second stage design having four blades and using cambered blade section is presented but the model was not built or tested. The more simple helix was built instead to reduce cost. Data taken included head generation, cavitation observations and unsteady head fluctuations over the 0-100Hz range.