Turbomachine Heat Exchanger Air Diffusion for Lower Pressure Drop
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing heat exchangers in turbomachines experience significant pressure drops in air flow, leading to increased specific fuel consumption and reduced performance, while traditional designs risk delamination and are insufficient for cooling high-thermal-dissipation components.
Innovation Solution
A heat exchanger design featuring a support wall, fins, and profiled walls with an air intake and exhaust system that includes multiple openings to decelerate and accelerate air streams, minimizing pressure drops and leveraging the Meredith effect for improved aerothermal performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If traditional heat exchanger designs are used, then heat exchange function is provided, but pressure drops on the air side increase due to flow disturbance
Solution Approach 1:
The air intake device is divided into multiple separate air intake openings arranged in the third direction, which segments the airflow path and reduces flow disturbance, thereby decreasing pressure drops while maintaining heat exchange capability
Solution Approach 2:
The profiled walls are configured to locally decelerate and accelerate air streams at specific locations (upstream and downstream of fins), creating favorable flow conditions that reduce overall pressure drops while maintaining effective heat exchange in the fin regions
2Stability of the object's composition
If deceleration wall and acceleration wall are made longer to ensure homogeneous flow, then flow distribution improves, but heat exchanger size increases
Solution Approach 1:
The air intake device uses multiple separate openings that distribute airflow homogeneously across the heat exchanger without requiring excessively long profiled walls, thus achieving flow uniformity while controlling overall size
Solution Approach 2:
The air intake openings are arranged in the third direction (perpendicular to the main airflow direction), allowing homogeneous flow distribution to be achieved through spatial distribution rather than extended wall length
3Loss of energy
If deceleration wall is used to achieve significant deceleration, then pressure drop is reduced, but delamination risk increases in area B
Solution Approach 1:
The air intake device is segmented into multiple separate openings that distribute deceleration effects across different locations, preventing concentrated high-stress zones that would cause delamination while maintaining overall pressure drop reduction
Solution Approach 2:
The profiled walls are designed with specific local geometries that provide gentle deceleration without creating adverse pressure gradients that would cause boundary layer separation and delamination
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The design achieves reduced pressure drops, potentially generating thrust, and enhances aerothermal performance by optimizing airflow through double deceleration and acceleration, thus improving turbomachine efficiency and reducing fuel consumption.
Implementation Method 1
an air diffusion system comprising an air intake device configured to decelerate the air stream in a third direction
Implementation Method 2
The heat generated by these members and/or item of equipment, which may be very high depending on the power of the member and/or item of equipment, is evacuated by heat exchange with a cold source available in the turbomachine and/or the aircraft
Implementation Method 3
The secondary air stream is guided along fins carried by this surface part and which have the role of increasing the contact surface with the secondary air stream and extracting the calories
Data Source
AI summary
A heat exchanger for a turbomachine, in particular an aircraft turbomachine, having a longitudinal axis, including a supporting wall extending in a first direction; a plurality of fins, each of which rises in a second direction from the supporting wall and being intended to be swept by an air stream, and a profiled panel covering the fins and extending in the first direction between a first diverging-profile wall upstream of the fins and a second converging-profile wall downstream of the fins. The heat exchanger includes an air intake device configured to slow the air stream in a third direction, the device having multiple separate air intake openings which are arranged upstream of the fins in the first direction and which are distributed in the third direction.