Numerical Simulation of a Turboprop Engine Inlet with a Bypass Channel

Abstract

Turboprop aircraft may face a variety of harsh flight environments during flight, and various foreign objects may be sucked into the engine, among which the inhalation of sand can lead to erosion of the blades of the compressor. Such ingestion often results in compressor blade erosion, which can lead to engine surge and power loss. Therefore, this study explores the aerodynamic and sand separation characteristics of the inlet channel with a bypass channel through numerical simulation methods. ANSYS Fluent software is used to simulate the six-bladed propeller rotation based on the slip-grid technique by combining the unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations (URANS) and shear stress transport (SST) turbulence model. A Lagrangian discrete phase model (DPM) is applied to track the motion of standard coarse sand. The focus is on analyzing the mechanism of different propeller speeds and scavenge ratio (SCR) on the separation efficiency (η).