Abstract
The reduction in specific fuel consumption (SFC) is crucial for small/mid-size cost-controllable aircraft, which is very conducive to reducing cost and carbon dioxide emissions. To decrease the SFC, increasing the bypass ratio (BPR) is an important way. Conventional high-BPR engines have several limitations, especially the conflicting spool-speed requirements of a fan and a low-pressure turbine. This research proposes an air-driven fan with a tip turbine (ADFTT) as a potential device for a high-bypass propulsion system. Moreover, a possible application of this ADFTT is introduced. Thermodynamic analysis results show that an ADFTT can improve thrust from a prototype turbofan. As a demonstration, we selected a typical small-thrust turbofan as the prototype and applied the ADFTT concept to improve this model. Three-dimensional flow fields were numerically simulated through a Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS)-based computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method. The performance of this ADFTT has the possibility of amplifying the BPR more than four times and increasing the thrust by approximately 84% in comparison with the prototype turbofan.
Highlights
In recent years, small/mid-size cost-controllable aircrafts, such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), small airplanes for general aviation and cruising missiles, have demonstrated considerable value in the military/civilian fields [1,2]
Given the limitation in the blade number from an air-driven fan, the solidity of the tip turbine is too low and cannot establish an integrated flow path by its adjacent blades if the low and cannot establish an integrated flow path by its adjacent blades if the turbine is designed through a normal design process of turbomachinery
This research presents a conceptual design of an ADFTT for a high-bypass propulsion system
Summary
Small/mid-size cost-controllable aircrafts, such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), small airplanes for general aviation and cruising missiles, have demonstrated considerable value in the military/civilian fields [1,2]. The propulsion systems of these aircraft have two important requirements, namely, long voyage and low cost of use and manufacturing. As an important performance parameter, specific fuel consumption (SFC) is related to the two requirements. Several traditional techniques, such as increasing the overall pressure ratio (OPR), turbine inlet temperature and components efficiency, can be performed to improve the SFC. Increasing bypass ratio (BPR) is an appropriate method. Zimbrich in [3] suggests that, ideally, the SFC has a positive trend with increasing BPR, whereas the optimum fan pressure ratio has a continuous downward trend. Many segments of the aircraft industry and NASA
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