Session: 34-07 Turbomachinery Design

Paper Number: 152254

Fan Optimization Under Distorted Boundary Layer Ingesting Flow 

Aviation sustainability is a significant consideration in the designs of future generation aircraft. One way to achieve aviation sustainability is by reducing the overall drag acting on the aircraft. One approach being researched to achieve this goal is the implementation of boundary layer ingesting (BLI) technique. BLI technique has been shown by many researchers around the globe to be able to significantly improve the overall aircraft performance by reducing the drag and noise generated by the aircraft. However, inlets designed to ingest boundary layers tend to develop a large region of low-pressure flow which can drastically harm the overall performance of an engine placed behind the distorted flow. The success of BLI techniques heavily depends on the design of an engine fan that can deliver high aerodynamic performance even under the influence of the distorted inlet flow. The study of this paper outlines a procedure to achieve this goal by utilizing CFD-based design optimization methods. The study was broken up into three primary phases which iterated the design of an initial baseline geometry with the primary objective function being the adiabatic efficiency of the fan. The results of this study show that the optimized fans can improve the adiabatic efficiency by around 4-5% when compared to the baseline design.

Presenting Author: Akiva Wernick The Ohio State University

Presenting Author Biography: Dr. Akiva Wernick graduated from The Ohio State University in the spring of 2023 with his Doctorate in Aerospace Engineering. Dr. Wernick performed his dissertation work in the optimization of a fan designed to be integrated at the exit plane of a boundary layer ingesting inlet. During his work, Dr. Wernick developed a design methodology including a tool which quickly and automatically modifies the mesh representation of the fan’s blade geometry for efficient updates between design iterations. The results of Dr. Wernick’s dissertation successfully demonstrated a significant improvement in the performance of the fan utilizing Dr. Wernick’s design code. Dr. Wernick currently works as a research engineer for an Aerospace and Defense company located near Dayton, Ohio. Dr. Wernick continues to perform his work in turbomachinery design optimization through several research efforts being pursued for his full-time position.

Authors:

Akiva Wernick The Ohio State University
Jen-Ping Chen The Ohio State University
James Giuliani The Ohio State University