Computational Flow Conditioning Device Design
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current flow-conditioning devices for aircraft engines struggle to produce complex and detailed flow fields, with wire-mesh screens and guide vanes limited in their ability to create desired total pressure and swirl profiles, leading to inefficiencies and increased design iterations.
Innovation Solution
The development of a method using computational procedures for designing and manufacturing flow-conditioning devices, such as guide vanes or airfoils, that can alter incoming flow profiles to achieve desired outlet profiles, including arbitrary total pressure and swirl components, by optimizing geometry and using additive manufacturing for complex geometries.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If wire-mesh screens are used to produce total pressure profiles, then total pressure losses can be controlled, but the device complexity increases and manufacturing precision is limited by available wire-mesh porosities
Solution Approach 1:
The flow conditioning device is divided into multiple guide vanes arranged in series, with each vane contributing to a specific portion of the total pressure distortion. This segmentation allows the complex flow profile to be achieved through multiple simpler components working together, rather than requiring complex wire-mesh screens.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the design parameters from wire-mesh porosity to guide vane geometry parameters (angle, shape, positioning). By controlling the parameters of individual guide vanes, the total pressure profile can be precisely controlled without being limited by pre-fabricated wire-mesh porosity options.
2Adaptability or versatility
If guide vanes are used to produce swirl profiles, then flow direction can be changed, but the manufacturability limits the complexity of swirl profiles that can be produced
Solution Approach 1:
Each guide vane is designed with specific local geometry (angle, shape, positioning) optimized for producing a particular swirl component. The local quality of each vane is tailored to contribute to the overall complex swirl profile, allowing manufacturing of complex profiles through standardized vane designs with optimized local characteristics.
3Manufacturing precision
If multiple wire-mesh screens are designed and constructed to achieve desired total pressure profile, then profile accuracy can be improved, but time and expense increase
Solution Approach 1:
The guide vane geometry is designed using computational procedures that predict the flow profile before physical construction. This preliminary computational design allows the desired total pressure profile to be achieved in fewer physical iterations, reducing time and expense while maintaining high precision.
4Device complexity
If conventional methods are used for flow conditioning, then device simplicity is maintained, but the ability to produce complex flow fields is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The guide vane system serves multiple functions simultaneously: it produces total pressure distortion, generates swirl flow, and controls flow direction. This multi-functionality allows a single device type to produce complex flow fields that would otherwise require multiple specialized components, increasing both device complexity and adaptability.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention provides a process for making a flow conditioning device that transforms an input flow into a desired output flow. The process includes the steps of inputting into a computer program a set of design constraints representative of the input flow and the output flow. The computer program generates a design representative of a flow-conditioning device that transforms the input flow into the output flow. The process then provides the output design to an additive manufacturing or other suitable production system adapted to form a solid representation of the flow-conditioning device.