Aircraft Gas Turbine Engine Simulations

Abstract

The Center for Integrated Turbulence Simulations (CITS) was created in October of 1997 under the sponsorship of the Department of Energy (DoE) Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI) Alliance program. The over-arching problem to be solved by this Center is the detailed, high-fidelity simulation of the flowpath through complete aircraft gas turbines including the compressor, combustor, turbine, and secondary flow systems. In order to support this goal, three groups were created to tackle the main components of the program. The turbomachinery group has developed a multiblockstructured, unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) solver called TFLO which is used for the rotating components of the flowpath (compressor and turbine) and for the secondary flow system. The combustion group is responsible for the flow in the combustor and compressor diffuser. Given the complexity of the flow in this region of the engine, an unstructured Large Eddy Simulation (LES) solver called CDP has been developed and validated together with various approaches for combustion simulation and spray tracking. A significant portion of the work in the Center is the integration between the various physics and components being modeled. For this purpose, an integration group is working towards the development of interface definitions for arbitrary URANS and LES solvers. An important aspect of the problems to be solved is that they are of such magnitude and complexity that they require the largest available supercomputers. For this reason, a major thrust of the Center is on the parallel implementation of the solver software and its integration on massively parallel computing platforms. This paper presents some of the major results from each of the three groups in the Center.

Influence of a Central Jet on Isothermal and Reacting Swirling Flow in a Model Combustion Chamber

“…The major issue to be explored is the efficient control of the PVC intensity to increase flame stability for a more efficient performance of combustion chambers and reduction of unwanted emissions. While detailed measurements in full-scale combustion chambers of gas turbines are complicated and expensive, numerical eddy-resolving simulations have not yet reached the required level [26]. Thus, the fundamental aspects of new technology implementation in gas turbine combustors are analyzed in laboratory-scale burners that adequately simulate the important features of real devices and allow detailed measurements and numerical simulation of the basic processes.…”

Turbulent transport in a swirling jet with vortex core breakdown. PIV/PLIF-measurement and numerical simulation

“…Modern methods of numerical simulation allow for a fast optimization of jet-burners and combustion chambers [16]. However, reliable numerical modelling of complex unsteady processes in combustion chambers with strong swirl require complex experimental data for verification of the used mathematical models.…”