Demonstration of a Remotely-Controlled Swirl Generator for Simulating Aircraft Inlet Secondary Flows During Turbine Engine Ground Tests

Abstract

The development of superior combat aircraft demands the complex integration of the airframe, engine, control system, avionics, and on-board weapon systems. The integration of the engine and the inlet is tantamount to prevailing in an engagement due to the thrust required to execute combat maneuvers. For this reason, test and evaluation methods have been developed to help ensure inlet-engine compatibility by design. The most commonly used methodology characterizes inlet distortion in terms of total-pressure descriptors and correlations. The method includes ground tests employing both wind tunnel and engine test facilities, to acquire the information needed to establish inlet-engine compatibility prior to flight test. Advanced aircraft employing evolving technologies never seen in legacy systems have introduced new challenges to the methodology, and to the ground test methods employed by the methodology. One such challenge arises from the significant flow angularity, or swirl, often found in advanced inlet systems. This paper focuses on the simulation of aircraft inlet swirl during direct-connect turbine engine ground tests. To meet the engine test challenges introduced by advanced aircraft, the Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC) embarked on the development of a swirl generator capable of simulating the different types of swirl expected in future inlet systems over a wide range of swirl angles, and with the ability to remotely set steady-state or transient swirl patterns. The development progressed through a five-step process that culminated in the validation and demonstration of a fully-functional prototype. This paper focuses on the prototype swirl generator and the progression from the establishment of simulation requirements through the prototype validation. Following summaries of each development step, the results of the validation test are presented. The paper also summarizes a recent application of the prototype which not only demonstrated the device in an engine test, but which provided a data set to support swirl methodology development.