Understanding air flow for greener flight
Decreasing the weight and noise of jet engines for economic and environmental reasons is a priority for aircraft engineers. Recently, a great deal of work in this field has focused on jet engine ducts, which often carry loads, support bearings and have thick structural struts. The aim of the EU-funded AIDA project has been to gain a better understanding of air flows, how ducts interact with other engine components and to establish design rules for a new generation of super-efficient ducts. The AIDA project has been successful in identifying optimal strategies for controlling air flows in ducts. If these are adhered to, the project reckons that a 1 to 2 % reduction in engine weight and length can be achieved, leading to a 5 % reduction in engine development costs and a 10 % reduction of engine time-to-market. These optimal design conditions will also have a positive impact on the environment, leading to a 2 % reduction in fuel burn and CO2 emissions and a new class of low-noise engines. Indeed, it is expected that AIDA's results could open the door to the successful design of promising new engine configurations such as those proposed in FP6 European engine integrated projects (IPs), helping to achieve EU noise and emission reduction targets. AIDA's work on passive control devices is also expected to have an impact on a broad range of aerodynamic engineering applications. The database is expected to be available to selected industry and research institutions in order to ensure that the project's potential can be fully exploited by European industry.
