Computational and Experimental Turbomachinery Dynamics Research at the OSU Gas Turbine Laboratory (GTL)¶
Abstract¶
Analysis of the dynamics and heat transfer in turbomachinery play a critical role in the design process of aircraft engines. The work at the GTL focuses on both experimentally and computationally investigating research questions relating to the performance and operation of aircraft engines using industrial components at actual operational conditions. This talk will focus on the dynamics portion of the research conducted at the GTL.
The experimental facilities for investigating turbomachinery dynamics at the GTL consist of two spin facilities and a large above ground spin tank. These facilities are designed to house full stage rotors with actual industrial fan, turbine and/or compressor stages spinning at engine speed. Traditionally, strain gauges have been used to measure the response of the blades, but a recently acquired light probe measurement system will enable tip-timing for capturing blade tip vibration responses using a non-contact measurement system. The facilities have previously been used for investigating blade tip-rubs, blade damping, and a variety of other questions.
Standard industrial finite element models of a single sector of a bladed disk are of the order of millions of degrees of freedom. Therefore reduced order models (ROMs) of the system are often required when studying these systems. Furthermore, there is always mistuning (small random variations in each sector due to manufacturing tolerances and in-service wear) that further complicates the analysis of these systems. A variety of computational approaches such as cyclic symmetry analysis, component mode synthesis and component mode mistuning are combined to create accurate and compact ROMs that can be used to further investigate the rotors and complement the experimental studies.
This talk will highlight some of the past computational work that has been developed for modeling turbomachinery and give an overview of the experimental facilities of the GTL. Current research directions will also be discussed.
Bio
Dr. Kiran D’Souza is an Assistant Professor who joined the Ohio State University (OSU) in 2014. He graduated from the University of Michigan with his PhD in 2009. His research before joining OSU covered a wide variety of dynamic and vibration topics from turbomachinery modeling to forecasting bifurcations in nonlinear systems to structural health monitoring. He currently works at the GTL at the Aerospace Research Center (ARC) focusing primarily on experimental and analytical studies of turbomachinery. Additional information can be found here: http://gtl.osu.edu/