NEW COMPUTATIONAL METHOD FOR AEROELASTIC PROBLEMS IN TURBOMACHINES

THE PROPOSED RESEARCH WILL TEST A NOVEL AND FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT APPROACH TO CALCULATIONS OF AEROELASTIC AND STRUCTURAL RESPONSE OF COMPRESSOR AND TURBINE ENGINE ROTORS.THE FIRST PHASE OF THIS EFFORT WILL ATTEMPT TO DEMONSTRATE THE FEASIBILITY OF COUPLING A FINITE DIFFERENCE EULER CODE TO A GENERAL PURPOSE FINITE ELEMENT CODE, USING A MIXED EULERIAN-LAGRANGIAN FORMULATION. PART OF THIS WORK CONSISTS OF DEMONSTRATING THE FEASIBILITY OF CARRYING OUT TIME-ACCURATE EULER CALCULATIONS ON A MIXED-TOPOLOGY PERIODIC, DEFORMABLE CASCADE MESH, USING A FINITE VOLUME SCHEME WITH ADAPTIVE DISSIPATION. THIS WORK INCLUDES ESTABLISHING THE NECESSARY CONFORMITY RELATIONS AT THE FLUID-STRUCTURE INTERFACE, AND SHOWING THAT A CONSISTENT MIXED FINITE DIFFERENCE-FINITE ELEMENT DISCRETIZATION CAN BEACHIEVED. AEROELASTIC CALCULATIONS FOR A PROTOTYPE CASCADE PROBLEM WILL BE INITIATED IN PHASE I; THIS CODE WOULD BE DEVELOPED INTO A RESEARCH TOOL IN PHASE II AND A COMMERCIAL CODE IN PHASE III. THE RESULTS FROM THIS RESEARCH WOULD GREATLY INCREASE THE COMPUTATIONAL CAPABILITY OF SUPERCOMPUTERS IN DEALING WITH FLUID-STRUCTURE INTERACTION PROBLEMS IN ALL FIELD OF ENGINEERING.