Advanced Cavities Using High Resolution Additive

Informations projet

ACUHRA

N° de convention de subvention: 886112

DOI

10.3030/886112

Projet clôturé

Date de signature de la CE 28 Avril 2020

Date de début 1 Juillet 2020

Date de fin 31 Decembre 2022

Financé au titre de

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport

Coût total

€ 899 321,25

Contribution de l’UE

€ 899 321,25

Coordonné par

THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ACUHRA (Advanced Cavities Using High Resolution Additive)

Période du rapport: 2021-10-01 au 2022-12-31

Résumé du contexte et des objectifs généraux du projet

The work will focus on the use of additive manufacturing to produce lightweight innovative components for swirl control to facilitate the design of more efficient low pressure turbines. The Consortium’s predominant aim is of delivering key technical advancements to the EU aerospace sector that will advance the knowledge and control of flow in LPT seal cavity geometries. This will be achieved through the use of high fidelity CFD, combined with novel optimisation, additive design and manufacture. A comprehensive experimental verification program will also evaluate experimentally the concept designs and provide a substantiated appraisal of concepts.

This in turn will improve flow leakages (15% of turbine inefficiency), which will in turn reduce CO2 emissions and improve engine efficiency leading to greater competitiveness for the EU.

Travail effectué depuis le début du projet jusqu’à la fin de la période considérée dans le rapport et principaux résultats atteints jusqu’à présent

WP1: Concepts definition - Agreement on detailed specification has been performed. Baseline CFD for inner and outer cavity has been mostly completed. The definitions & optimization of Inner cavity Concept I, II and III and Outer Cavity I, II and III are ongoing.
WP2: Test articles design - The baselines for inner and outer cavity have been designed for manufacture. Currently the design of Concept I, II and III and Outer Cavity I, II and III are ongoing, and are being completed as the subtasks in WP1 are being completed.
WP3: Test articles manufacturing - Baselines for inner and outer cavity have been completed. The inner cavity Concept I has been produced and handed over for integration into the Rig.
WP4: Rig Setup - A modular rig has been designed, approved and commissioned. It is currently ready for inner cavity testing and will initiate outer cavity testing in the near future.
WP5: Test campaign - testing is due to begin in October.
WP6: Management, Dissemination, Exploitation and Communication - Website has been setup. There is no dissemination due to the early stage of the project.

Progrès au-delà de l’état des connaissances et impact potentiel prévu (y compris l’impact socio-économique et les conséquences sociétales plus larges du projet jusqu’à présent)

ACUHRA will deliver new experimental data and novel techniques for directing the flow of air through the low pressure turbine in a gas turbine aeroengine. As flow leakages have been identified as the source of 15% of turbine inefficiencies the introduction of new additively manufactured parts to direct the flows and leakages into regimes where the impact on sealing and performance can be mitigated will inevitably lead to gains in performance and key Clean Sky Objectives, namely:
-Reducing CO2 Emissions: better management of air flow and cavity seals within aero-engines will lead to more efficient engines. Additively manufactured substructures within the engine will direct flows and enable more efficient cavity seals. In turn these efficiencies naturally translate into CO2 savings as more efficient seals mean that the turbine encounters less resistance (drag) when turning and therefore require less energy and less fuel burn to achieve the same performance.
-Improving EU Competitiveness: As fuel burn constitutes approximately 30% of aircraft operation, the drive in performance achieved by introduction of the proposed technologies in aero-engines will lead to airlines demanding such engines to power their fleet and aircraft using these engines would receive orders. This is evident with the demand for aircraft powered by the most efficient engines and the established trend for airframers equipping existing aircraft platforms with New Engine Options instead of developing completely new aircraft. The ACUHRA consortium is well placed for enabling this competitiveness with the additive manufacturing expertise of Added Scientific and the position of Nottingham and Bath in the aerospace engine research community.
UBATH have experience in translating impact related to industrial turbomachinery to the aeroengine variant. There will be impact through the following:
(i) an influence of the 1D and 3D design tools used by the Topic Manager with associated risk reduction;
(ii) cost savings due to concept down-selection determined by rig validation, rather than engine-validation tests;
(iii) reduction in expensive engine validation tests.

Manufactured Rig

Rotor Growth Measurements for Commissioning