Session: 31-08 Compressor Prediction Methodology

Paper Number: 122704

122704 - Large Eddy Simulation of an Open Fan Blade at Full-Scale Reynolds Number 

Large-scale commercial turbofan designs are typically evaluated early in the technology maturation phase through subscale rig tests, while evaluations at full scale can only feasibly occur much later in a given engine development program. Therefore, how Reynolds number (Re) affects the aerodynamic and acoustic performance is of key interest while multiple candidate fan designs are still being evaluated and refined early in the program, and often tested at intermediate Re scaled down relative to the end application. To confidently evaluate high Re performance however, large-scale physical testing is traditionally required because the high-fidelity simulations needed to capture the complex physics associated with high Re turbulent flows, such as wall-resolved Large Eddy Simulations (LES), are challenging due to the extremely high computational cost. In this paper, we present wall-resolved LES of an open fan blade at full scale for a highly loaded design operating at a condition representative of takeoff for acoustic considerations. The simulations are at high order (up to sixth) and have been performed using the unstructured LES solver, GENESIS. These simulations extend prior research to allow for a study of practically relevant flight scale Re, for which wall-resolved LES is now possible with computing capability available at the OLCF exascale supercomputer, Frontier. The observed effects at flight scale Reynolds number of the flow physics on the blade as well as the wake evolution downstream are presented in specific regions of interest that can affect the overall blade aeroacoustic design.

Presenting Author: Stephan Priebe GE Research

Presenting Author Biography: Stephan Priebe is a Senior Engineer at GE Research in Niskayuna, NY.

Authors:

Stephan Priebe GE Research
Eduardo Jourdan GE Research
Arash Mousavi GE Aerospace
Ravish Karve GE Research
Suryapratim Chakrabarti GE Research
Luke D' Aquila GE Research
Junsok Yi GE Research
Mohammad Alhawwary GE Research
Varun Bharadwaj Ananthan GE Aerospace
Kishore Ramakrishnan GE Research
Trevor Wood GE Research