Simulation of Sand Erosion in a Transonic Fan Stage

Abstract In desert regions, there is a high concentration of dust and sand particles carried by storms and sucked into aircraft engines, leading to severe erosion. This numerical study simulates the movement of sand particles and erosion process in the front components of a high-bypass turbofan engine (HBTFE). The components include the Pitot intake, spinner, fan, core flow inlet guide vanes (IGVs), and secondary flow outlet guide vanes (OGVs). The study focuses on the engine operating conditions during takeoff from a Saharan airfield. The flow field data is obtained separately, and exported to an in-house particle tracking code based on the Lagrangian approach. The finite element method (FEM) is used to track the particles as they move through the mesh cells and determine the precise impacts and conditions to calculate the local erosion rates and material removal. The obtained results indicate large numbers of sand particles impacting the fan blade at high frequency from the hub up to approximately 80% of the span, due to their deflection by the Pitot intake lip and outer contour. The pressure side (PS) of the fan blade experiences extreme erosion rates, while the highest erosion rates occur at the leading edge (LE) and towards the trailing edge (TE). At the exit of fan blade a significant amount of particles pass through the OGVs and typically erode its PS, while fewer particles from the lower sections of the fan pass through the IGVs. These findings reveal the erosion-prone areas that need a special coating protection.