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Investigation of the Internal Flow Characteristics of a Tiltrotor Aircraft Engine Inlet in a Gust Environment.

Authors :
Zhu, Haicheng
He, Xiaoming
Zhang, Yue
Cheng, Daishu
Wang, Ziyun
Huang, Yufeng
Tan, Huijun
Source :
Aerospace (MDPI Publishing); May2024, Vol. 11 Issue 5, p342, 20p
Publication Year :
2024

Abstract

In the vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) state of tiltrotor aircraft, the inlet entrance encounters the incoming airflow at a 90° attack angle, resulting in highly complex internal flow characteristics that are extremely susceptible to gusts. Meanwhile, the flow quality at the inlet exit directly affects the performance of the aircraft's engine. This work made use of an unsteady numerical simulation method based on sliding meshes to investigate the internal flow characteristics of the inlet during the hover state of a typical tiltrotor aircraft and the effects of head-on gusts on the inlet's aerodynamic characteristics. The results show that during the hover state, the tiltrotor aircraft inlet features three pairs of transverse vortices and one streamwise vortex at the aerodynamic interface plane (AIP). The transverse vortices generated due to the rotational motion of the air have the largest scale and exert the strongest influence on the inlet's performance, which is characterized by pronounced unsteady features. Additionally, strong unsteady characteristics are present within the inlet. Head-on gusts mainly affect the mechanical energy and non-uniformity of the air sucked into the inlet by influencing the direction of the rotor's induced slipstream, thereby impacting the performance of the inlet. The larger head-on gusts have beneficial effects on the performance of the inlet. When the gust velocity reaches 12 m/s, there is a 1.01% increase in the total pressure recovery (σ) of the inlet, a 25.72% decrease in the circumferential distortion index (DC60), and a reduction of 62.84% in the area where the swirl angle |α| exceeds 15°. Conversely, when the gust velocity of head-on gusts reaches 12 m/s in the opposite direction, the inlet's total pressure recovery decreases by 1.13%, the circumferential distortion index increases by 14.57%, and the area where the swirl angle exceeds 15° increases by 69.59%, adversely affecting the performance of the inlet. Additionally, the presence of gusts alters the unsteady characteristics within the inlet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
22264310
Volume :
11
Issue :
5
Database :
Complementary Index
Journal :
Aerospace (MDPI Publishing)
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
177459119
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace11050342