Aerodynamics and Power Balance of a Distributed Aft-Fuselage Boundary Layer Ingesting Aircraft

Abstract

This paper presents a first investigation into the aerodynamics and performance breakdown of a distributed aft-fuselage boundary layer ingesting (BLI) tube-and-wing aircraft using fully coupled Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) calculations that resolve the complete fan and installation geometries. Through the URANS simulations, the interaction between the turbulence from the fuselage boundary layer (BL) and the BLI propulsor is identified as an area that warrants further research. Using the URANS approach, the ingested turbulence leads to a 4.5% reduction in the propulsor stage total–total isentropic efficiency. A mechanical power balance has been drawn up to compare the power sources and sinks throughout the installation and propulsor for two test cases with different thicknesses of ingested BL. The test case with a thinner BL was found to generate significantly more dissipation in the BL development upstream of the propulsor, the flow separation over the outer cowl, and the interaction between the reversed flow over the cowl and the propulsor exhaust jet. Due to this increase in dissipation, the case with thinner ingested BL consumes 7% more power relative to a baseline case with thicker BL, representative of the upstream fuselage at cruise. This demonstrates the importance of matching the installation with the incoming fuselage BL.