Wake Filling Techniques for Reducing Rotor-Stator Interaction Noise

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Date
2005-04-28
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Publisher
Virginia Tech
Abstract

Several flow control schemes were designed and tested to determine the most suitable method for reducing the momentum deficit in a rotor wake and thus attenuate rotor-stator interaction noise. A secondary concern of the project was to reduce the amount of blowing required air for wake filling and thus limit the efficiency penalty in an aircraft engine environment. Testing was performed in a linear blow down cascade wind tunnel, which produced an inlet Mach number of 0.345. The cascade consisted of five blades with the stagger angle, pitch, and airfoil cross-section representative of 90% span of the rotor geometry for NASA's Active Noise Control Fan (ANCF) test rig. The Reynolds number for the tests was based on inlet conditions and a chord length of 4 inches. Trailing edge jets, trailing edge slots, ejector pumps, and pressure/suction side jets were among the configurations tested for wake filling. A range of mass flow percentages were applied to each configuration and a pressure loss coefficient was determined for each. Considerable reduction in wake losses took place for discrete jet blowing techniques as well as pressure side and suction side jets. In the case of the pressure and suction side jets, near full wake filling occurred at 0.75% of the total mass flow. In terms of loss coefficients and calculated momentum coefficients, the suction/pressure surface jets were the most successful. Jets located upstream of the trailing edge helped to re-energize the momentum deficits in the wake region by using a flow pattern capable of mixing the region while also adding momentum to the wake. The slotted configuration was modeled after NASA's current blowing scheme and served as a baseline for comparison for all data. Digital particle image velocimetry was performed for flow visualizations as well as velocity analysis in the wake region.

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Keywords
Trailing Edge Blowing, Jet Mixing
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