Similarity Study of Lightly Loaded Shrouded Rotors for Distributed Propulsion

Abstract

Achieving the objectives of the American and European long-term air transport in terms of emission reduction requires to shift to hybrid/electric aircraft by 2050. This implies the development of distributed propulsion systems using multiple low-diameter lightly-loaded shrouded rotors, operating at high rotational speed and moderate flight Mach number. The relevance of characteristic maps of such a propulsive system is discussed in this paper. It is based on an integrative approach, that takes advantage of the two different formalisms generally found when dealing with aeronautical propulsion : either propeller diagrams (external aerodynamics) or turbomachinery maps (internal aero-dynamics). It outlines the main parameters representing the shrouded rotors performance and the parameters that drive them in a self-similar way. This is done by dimensional analysis, taking into account the geometric and operating parameters of both the rotor and the shroud and their combined variables. The self-similarity is observed with potential flow and RANS computations, which credits the proposed formalism as a powerful tool for scaling the shrouded rotors.