M. Manna

Effects of Duct Cross Section Camber and Thickness on the Performance of Ducted Propulsion Systems for Aeronautical Applications

The axisymmetric flow field around a ducted rotor is thoroughly analysed by means of a nonlinear and semi-analytical model which is able to deal with some crucial aspects of shrouded systems like the interaction between the rotor and the duct, and the slipstream contraction and rotation. Not disregarding the more advanced CFD based methods, the proposed procedure is characterised by a very low computational cost that makes it very appealing as analysis tool in the preliminary steps of a design procedure of hierarchical type. The work focuses on the analysis of the effects of the camber and thickness of the duct cross section onto the performance of the device. It has been found that an augmentation of both camber and thickness of the duct leads to an increase of the propulsive ideal efficiency.

A comparison of nonlinear actuator disk methods for the performance analysis of ducted marine propellers

This paper presents the validation of a generalised semi-analytical actuator disk model as applied to the study of the flow around ducted propellers. The method, which returns the exact solution as a superposition of ring vortex, duly accounts for the rotation of the wake, the convergence of the slipstream, and the nonlinear mutual interaction between the duct and the propeller. Furthermore, it can deal with an arbitrary radial distribution of the load and ducts of general shape. In order to validate the previously mentioned actuator disk model, results obtained through it are compared with those provided by the so-called “CFD actuator disk method”. The latter is a widely diffused tool for the analysis of the flow around open and ducted propellers which models the rotor by means of radial profiles of blade forces distributed over a disk surface. In this paper, evidence has been given of the excellent agreement between the results of the two methods. Thanks to its extremely reduced computational cost the semi-analytical method is well suited to be integrated into design systems based on the repeated analysis scheme of hierarchical type.

Analysis and Evaluation of the Momentum Theory Errors as Applied to Propellers

This paper offers an analytical formulation of the two errors embodied in the momentum theory. The first one originates from the use of the differential form of the axial momentum equation and the second one originates from the linearization of the tangential velocity terms. Both errors are evaluated by comparing the axial velocity at the disk as predicted by the momentum theories with the one obtained thorough a semianalytical actuator disk method based on the exact solution of the flow. Several cases characterized by different values of the thrust and advance coefficient are analyzed, and the range of validity of the momentum theories is discussed in depth.

Torque reduction in Taylor–Couette flows subject to an axial pressure gradient

The paper investigates the phenomena occurring in a Taylor-Couette flow system subject to a steady axial pressure gradient in a small envelope of the Taylor-Reynolds state space under transitional regimes. A remarkable net power reduction necessary to simultaneously drive the two flows compared to that required to drive the Taylor-Couette flow alone is documented under non-trivial conditions. The energy transfer process characterizing the large-scale coherent structures is investigated by processing a set of statistically independent realizations obtained from direct numerical simulation. The analysis is conducted with an incompressible three-dimensional Navier-Stokes flow solver employing a spectral representation of the unknowns.

Actuator disc methods for open propellers: assessments of numerical methods

ABSTRACT The paper describes the assessment of two different actuator disc models as applied to the flow around open propellers. The first method is based on a semi-analytical approach returning the solution for the nonlinear differential equation governing the axisymmetric, steady, inviscid and incompressible flow around an actuator disc. Despite its low computational cost, the method does not require simplifying assumptions regarding the shape of the slipstream, e.g. the wake contraction is not disregarded or prescribed in advance. Moreover, the presence of a tangential velocity in the wake as well as the spanwise variation of the load are taken into account. The second one is a commonly used procedure based on CFD techniques in which the effects of the propeller are synthetically described through a set of body forces distributed over the disc surface. Both methods avoid the difficulties and the computational costs associated with the resolution of the propeller blades geometrical details. The comparison is based on an in-depth error analysis of the two procedures which results in a set of reference data with controlled accuracy. An excellent agreement has been documented between the two methods while the computational complexity is obviously very different. Among other things the comparison is also aimed at verifying the accuracy of the semi-analytical approach at each point of the computational domain and at quantifying the effect of the errors embodied in the two methods on the quality of the solution, both in terms of global and local performance parameters. Furthermore, the paper provides a set of reference solutions with controlled accuracy that could be used for the verification of new and existing computational methods. Finally, the computational cost of the semi-analytical model is quantified, thus providing a valuable information to designers who need to select a cost effective and reliable analysis tool.

Experimental investigation on the effect of the duct geometrical parameters on the performance of a ducted wind turbine

This paper reports an experimental investigation on the effect of the duct geometry on the aerodynamic performance of an aerofoil shaped ducted wind turbine (DWT). The tested two-dimensional model is composed of an aerofoil equipped with pressure taps and a uniform porous screen. The experimental setup is based on the assumption that the duct flow is axisymmetric and the rotor can be simulated as an actuator disc. Firstly, different tip clearances between the screen and the aerofoil are tested to point out the influence of this parameter on the DWT performance in terms of aerofoil pressure distribution, aerofoil lift and flow field features at the duct exit area. Then, the combined effect of tip clearance, of the angle of attack and of the screen position along the aerofoil chord is evaluated through a Design of Experiments (DoE) based approach. The analysis shows that, among the analysed range of design factor variation, increasing angle of attack and the tip clearance leads to a beneficial effect on the lift and back-pressure coefficients, while they show a poor dependence upon the screen axial position. Finally, the configuration characterized by the maximum value of all three main factors (15 degree of angle of attack, 5% of tip clearance and 30% backward to the nozzle plane), has the best values of lift coefficient and back-pressure coefficient.