Overview
The TATMo project addresses the top level objectives outlined in the aeronautics research work programme, namely, improving the environmental impact with regards to emissions by improving the SFC and thus contributing to the reduction of CO2 emissions by 50% in the long term. At the same time, the aircraft operating costs are reduced through a considerable reduction in fuel consumption thus strengthening the competitiveness of European aero-engine industry.
All major European aero-engine manufacturers together with four research institutes and five universities (including one SME) have bundled their expertise and resources into the TATMo project. The outcome of the project will contribute to these objectives through a 1-2% reduction in engine weight due to reduced blade count, 2% reduction in fuel burn due to high efficient blade designs, 5% reduction in aero-engine development costs and 10% reduction in aero-engine time-to-market through improved design tools.
The main objective of TATMo was to improve calculation capabilities by a better modelling of the flow with and without spanwise roughness elements and synthetic jets, which is necessary for the prediction of these complicated flow fields and the losses. This will be verified by comparisons between numerical calculations and extensive detailed experiments for compressor as well as for turbine blades.
The efficiency of high lift blades for Low Pressure Turbines (LPT) is significantly improved by reducing the undesirable huge separations present at low Reynolds numbers at mid-span using appropriate perturbation devices, e.g. passive roughness elements extending along the spanwise direction of the blade or active measures like synthetic jets. The performance of compressor blades will be improved by avoiding the detrimental corner separations by means of suction and blowing. The effects of real geometry roughness such as fillet radius and weld are assessed as well.
Funding
Results
The understanding of the physics of separations in highly loaded compressor and turbine blades of axial flow turbo- machines and the assessment of the potential benefit of active and passive devices is a pre-requisite to reduce the losses and significantly increase the efficiency of (low pressure-) turbines and compressors of an aero-engine. Moreover, the higher possible load of the blades will decrease the weight of the engine and hence reduce the specific fuel consumption.
The exploitable outcomes of TATMo were:
- Improved aerodynamic simulation tools through code calibration and validation against high quality measurements;
- Improved understanding of the physics of low Reynolds number flows
- New views and insights into a massively separated flow field by means of newly developed unsteady measurement techniques;
- Data base and validated modelling of perturbation devices for highly loaded turbine blades;
- Data base and validated modelling of active flow control devices for highly loaded compressor blades on the blade and on the casing;
- Derivation of new design rules for compressor and turbine blades in the very low Re-Number flow regime.
In light of the arguments elaborated above, the TATMo project outcomes had a significant beneficial impact on the competitiveness of the European aeronautic industry.