Active flow control of a diffusing S-duct

Abstract

Realization of the S-duct benefits requires scrutiny of certain phenomena such as swirls, secondary flows, and flow distortion creation which are related to the S-duct due to its physical curvature. The first phase of the study investigated the flow field inside the S-duct. NASA Glenn research center’s S-duct was adopted in this study. Geometry was created in SOLIDWORKS and mesh was done using ICEM CFD. Numerical analysis was carried out in ANSYS Fluent software. A turbulence model named kω-SST was incorporated. Boundary conditions were set so as to match the experimental test done by NASA Glenn research center. Computational results showed a significant agreement with the experiment. The results also affirmed the presence of the secondary flow and flow distortion at the aerodynamic interface plane. The second phase of the study investigated the ability to control the flow and reduce the flow distortion on the engine fan face. Results showed a 10% flow distortion reduction and the secondary flow severity decreased by 16.5% on the aerodynamic interface plane (AIP).

Keywords: Active Flow Control (AFC), Aerodynamic Interface Plane (AIP), Flow Distortion, S-duct