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Cuneyt KENGER
TUSA Motor Sanayii A.., Muttalip Mevkii 26003, Eskiehir, Turkey
Bulent ACAR
TUSA Motor Sanayii A.., Muttalip Mevkii 26003, Eskiehir, Turkey
Ferhat SAHN
TUSA Motor Sanayii A.., Muttalip Mevkii 26003, Eskiehir, Turkey
Abstract
The use of microjets has found application areas in the propulsion of target drones and missiles. These
propulsion systems have their own challenging topics due to their small sizes and very high rotational
speeds (in the order of 100000 rpm). The complete engine consists of the following main components:
Inlet, Impeller, Diffuser, Combustion Chamber, Turbine and Nozzle. In this paper, the focus was given to
present the methodologies used in the design of the impeller (radial compressor) only, which is one of the
most critical components of an engine. The main function of an impeller is to efficiently compress the air
coming from the inlet and to deliver it to the combustion chamber via a diffuser. The compressor pressure
ratio is highly dependent on the impeller tip speed. Hence, high tip speeds are essential to obtain high
pressure ratios. Therefore, in microjets, high rotational speeds are inevitable. This results in many
challenges such as vibratory behavior, transonic flow, shock waves in diffusers and high stresses.
Furthermore, tip clearance is one of the most important concerns affecting impeller performance. Special
care must be taken to maintain tip clearance close to an optimum value under operating conditions.
Introduction
TEI was established in 1986 and has been assembling, manufacturing, testing and designing aircraft engine
parts in Turkey. The initial area of activity during TEIs development was engine assembly which then
expanded into gas turbine engine parts manufacturing. TEI started its research and development activities
in 1996 and has been participating in international development programs of military aircraft engines.
In addition to participating in collaborative projects, TEI is also undertaking internal projects in order to
continuously enhance its design capabilities. In this scope, TEI started working on developing and
manufacturing a turboprop engine (see Figure 1) to be used in unmanned air vehicles (UAV) in target
drones (see Figure 2). This project was started in September 2004 and planned to be completed in two
phases. As part of the first development phase, TEI-TJ-1X (see Figure 3) was developed and first engine
test and performance tests (see Figure 4) were completed in May 2005. This turbojet engine mainly consists
of inlet, compressor, combustion chamber, turbine and nozzle. In the second phase of the project, a
turboprop engine (TEI-TP-1X) will be developed using the core of the turbojet engine. Once this turboprop
engine has been developed various performance tests will be conducted.
Figure 1. TEI-TP-1X Turboprop engine
In addition to these analyses, detailed rotor dynamic and fatigue analysis were performed, which will not be
discussed in this paper.
Mechanical and aerodynamic loads (fluid temperature and pressure) were applied on the geometries and
due to lack of sufficient knowledge on some boundaries; assumptions simulating the worst cases were
applied. As mechanical loads, max. 120000 rpm rotational speed and 2200 N bolt pre-load were applied.
As for fluid load; pressure and temperature distribution for air passages, ambient pressure and temperature,
backface pressure (0.2MPa-0.3MPa), backface temperature (120-150C) were applied.
Results
Compressor tip clearance has an important effect on the overall performance and operability of a
compressor and has wide-spread consequences involving all components such as rotor, blades and casing
design. The outer contour of the impeller was designed in such a way that 0.2 mm constant tip clearance
will be maintained at all locations, while the engine runs at max speed. According to the performed
analyses of inlet and impeller, the contours are determined respectively. Due to the geometrical form of
impeller (radial compressor), control of tip clearance is not as easy as in axial compressors or turbines.
Therefore, one of the most challenging aspects of the impeller design was to handle the tip clearances.
Thermal expansion of the impeller, inlet and rotor, radial expansion due to centrifugal forces, rotor orbits
due to unbalance, bearing clearances and production tolerances are some of the most important factors in
determining tip clearances. If rubbing occurs due to any reason between rotating impeller and stationary
inlet (casing), this may result in a catastrophic engine failure. For this reason, most of the effort during
impeller design was dedicated to maintaining a safe and efficient tip clearance value. During open air tests,
engine was tested at various speeds including max. speed of 125000 rpm to simulate transient effects, no
sign of rubbing either on impeller blades or inside of the inlet was observed.
As stated previously, the biggest impact on tip clearance comes from both mechanical (centrifugal ) and
aerodynamic (fluid pressure + temperature) loads. This effect was investigated for various loads. As a result
of finite element calculations, it can be concluded that fluid pressure has the least effect among all loading
types. Mechanical loads are especially dominant around the inlet section of the impeller and thermal loads
are as dominant as mechanical loads for exit section of impeller, where fluid temperature reaches max. 150
C. Figure-7 depicts radial deformations for each different type of loading. Basically, tip deformations were
investigated under 3 different load cases, additionally sensitivity analyses were performed to understand the
impeller response against different magnitudes of aerodynamic loads taking place at backface.
MIN MAX
The Figure 9 shows the tip clearance when the impeller and inlet are deformed at max rotational speed.
Figure 9. The tip clearance when the engine is running at max rotational speed.
The deformations of the inlet inner surface were seen to be very small in structural analyses (about 3
microns). So the deformations of the inlet inner side are not taken into consideration. In the figure 10, static
tip clearances are shown:
Figure 10. Static and deformed contours of impeller and cover
As the stresses are considered, there are three hot spots for the impeller depicted in Figure 11 :
MIN MAX
Figure 12: Von Misses Stresses under mechanical and aerodynamic loads
Results of the optimization study for the backface of Base Impeller and the corresponding equivalent stress
distributions are presented in Figure 13. As expected, stress values around the transition radius were
decreased substantially, after introducing a generous radius in this region. On the other hand, this change
had no considerable impact on the stresses around splitter radius and bore. The only drawback of this
optimization is a weight increase of 5% (5 grams).
Weight: 94 g Weight: 92 g Weight: 99 g
MIN MAX
Figure 13. Von Misses Stresses under mechanical and fluid loads for various cases
Modal Analysis of the Impeller
Definition of the Problem
In this study, to determine dynamic characteristics of the impeller, several modal analyses were performed.
Vibration characteristics of the impeller must be investigated in detail to prevent high cycle fatigue (HCF)
and rubbing due to interaction of impeller blade tips with stationary inlet as a result of excessive vibration.
Subsequently, campbell diagram was constructed. According to results, none of the impeller frequencies
intersect with any engine order for the operational range of impeller speed between 100000-120000 rpm.
Results
Figure 14 is a Campbell diagram showing eigenfrequencies for the designed impeller against the rotational
speed. The frequencies change slightly with the engine speed due to both temperature dependent Youngs
Modulus and stress stiffening characteristic. Engine orders are also plotted as multiples of engine speed as
sloping lines originating from 0 rpm. Impeller resonance takes place, provided that the lines of each
impeller frequency crosses through the relevant engine orders. But this itself is not the only criteria. Details
will be discussed later. The design target is to keep the speed range between idle and redline speed free
from resonances (i.e. crossings with the basic engine orders) and engine orders equal to the airfoil numbers
of the upstream and downstream blade rows.
Reference
1) ANSYS Inc., 2004, Users Guide for Release 9.0.
2) ANSYS User Meeting Turkey, 2005, Bulent Acar