Multi-Aeroelastic Phenomena Modeling—Part I: The Development of Whole Low-Pressure Compressor Model for Civil Turbofan Engine

Abstract Aeroelastic phenomena in the low-pressure compression (LPC) system of civil turbofan engines can cause a significant high cycle fatigue (HCF) risk to LPC components. Currently, the mechanical integrity risk to the LPC components is assessed by performing multiple, discrete aeromechanical simulations, which require large resources and incur high time costs. Therefore, the development of a comprehensive modeling simulation approach is necessary to assess multiple phenomena and components simultaneously that can provide accurate results within design timescales. This article presents the methodology for generating a common, system-level model for investigating multiple aeroelastic phenomena in fan and outlet guide vanes (OGVs). The development of a high-fidelity, full-annulus computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of the whole low-pressure compression system is described. Time-accurate unsteady CFD simulations are then conducted at multiple flight conditions. These information-rich simulation models are interrogated to extract various parameters of interest to assess multiple aeroelastic phenomena such as first engine order (1EO) fan forced response, fan alternating passage divergence (APD) forced response, OGV buffet, and OGV resonant forced response. In the Part II of this article, the application of this modeling methodology is demonstrated to evaluate and better understand the efficacy of OGV asymmetric cyclic patterns.