A Methodology for Steady and Unsteady Full-Engine Simulations
Authors: Romagnosi Luigi , Li Yingchen , Mezine Mohamed , Teixeira Mateus , Vilmin Stephane , Anker Jan E. , Claramunt Kilian , Baux Yannick , Hirsch Charles 
Published: November 2019

With the increase of computational power, more sophisticated computational methods can be used, larger systems simulated, and complex phenomena predicted more reliably. Nevertheless, up to now, when turbomachinery systems are numerically optimized, each of the components, i.e., the compressor, combustor, and turbine, is simulated separately from the other two. While this approach allows the use of highly dedicated simulation tools, it does not account for the interactions between the different components.

With the purpose to meet the future requirements in terms of low emissions, high reliability and efficiency, a novel, highly efficient, fully-coupled, approach based on the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations (RANS) has been developed, enabling a steady or time-accurate simulation of a full aero-engine within a single code. One of the advantages of a steady, fully coupled approach over a steady component-by-component approach, is that the boundary conditions at the interfaces do not need to be guessed. A fully coupled, time-accurate simulation has furthermore the advantage that the effect of the non-uniform temperature distribution at the outlet of the combustor is accounted for in the determination of the thermal field of the turbine.

A Smart Interface methodology permits a direct coupling between the different engine components, compressor-combustor-turbine, and allows the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models to vary between each component within the same code. This allows the user to switch off, for instance, the combustion model in the turbine and compressor blocks.

For the simulation of the combustion process, the Flamelet Generated Manifold (FGM) method is applied. While the approach is superior to classical tabulated chemistry approaches and reliably captures finite-rate effects, it is computationally inexpensive since it only requires the solution of a few extra scalars and the look-up of a combustion table. The model has been extended so that high-speed compressible flows can be simulated and the potential effects between the combustor and the adjacent blade rows can be accounted for.

The Nonlinear Harmonic (NLH) method is used to model the unsteady interactions between the blade rows as well as the influence of the inhomogeneities at the combustor outlet on the downstream turbine blade rows. Compared to conventional time-accurate RANS simulations (URANS), this method is two to three orders of magnitude faster and makes time-accurate turbomachinery simulations affordable.

With the aim of ensuring thermodynamic consistency between the different components of the engine, the same form of the energy equation is solved in all engine elements. Furthermore, the same thermodynamic coefficients, which are used to describe the reacting processes in the combustor, are used for a caloric description of the fluid in the compressor and turbine blocks. The thermodynamic data between the blocks is transferred using the OpenLabs™ module.

The developed approach is described in detail and the potential of the novel full-engine methodology is exploited on the KJ66 micro-turbine gas engine case. The results of both the steady and the time-accurate, fully coupled approaches are analyzed and the interaction between the different components of the KJ66 engine discussed.