The use of boundary-layer-ingesting, embedded propulsion systems can result in inlet flow distortions where the interaction of the boundary-layer vorticity and the inlet lip causes horseshoe vortex formation and the ingestion of streamwise vortices into the inlet. A previously-developed body-force-based fan modeling approach was used to assess the change in fan rotor shock noise generation and propagation in a boundary-layer-ingesting, serpentine inlet. This approach is employed here in a parametric study to assess the effects of inlet geometry parameters (offset-to-diameter ratio and downstream-to-upstream area ratio) on flow distortion and rotor shock noise. Mechanisms related to the vortical inlet structures were found to govern changes in the rotor shock noise generation and propagation. The vortex whose circulation is in the opposite direction to the fan rotation (counter-swirling vortex) increases incidence angles on the fan blades near the tip, enhancing noise generation. The vortex with circulation in the direction of fan rotation (co-swirling vortex) creates a region of subsonic relative flow near the blade tip radius that decreases the sound power propagated to the far-field. The parametric study revealed that the overall sound power level at the fan leading edge is set by the ingested streamwise circulation, and that for inlet designs in which the streamwise vortices are displaced away from the duct wall, the sound power at the upstream inlet plane increased by as much as 9 dB. By comparing the far-field noise results obtained to those for a conventional inlet, it is deduced that the changes in rotor shock noise are predominantly due to the ingestion of streamwise vorticity.

Applications such as boundary-layer-ingesting (BLI) fans and compressors in turboprop engines require continuous operation with distorted inflow. A low-speed axial fan with incompressible flow is studied in this paper. The objectives are to (1) identify the physical mechanisms which govern the fan response to inflow distortions and (2) determine how fan performance scales as the type and severity of inlet distortion varies at the design flow coefficient. A distributed source term approach to modeling the rotor and stator blade rows is used in numerical simulations in this paper. The model does not include viscous losses so that changes in diffusion factor are the primary focus. Distortions in stagnation pressure and temperature as well as swirl are considered. The key findings are that unless sharp pitchwise gradients in the diffusion response, strong radial flows, or very large distortion magnitudes are present, the response of the blade rows for strong distortions can be predicted by scaling up the response to a weaker distortion. In addition, the response to distortions which are composed of nonuniformities in several inlet quantities can be predicted by summing up the responses to the constituent distortions.

Aeroengine fans and compressors increasingly operate subject to inlet distortion in the transonic flow regime. In this paper, innovations to low-order numerical modeling of fans and compressors via volumetric source terms (body forces) are presented. The approach builds upon past work to accommodate any axial fan/compressor geometry and ensures accurate work input and efficiency prediction across a range of flow coefficients. In particular, the efficiency drop-off near choke is captured. The model for a particular blade row is calibrated using data from single-passage bladed computations. Compared to full-wheel unsteady computations which include the fan/compressor blades, the source term model approach can reduce computational cost by at least two orders of magnitude through a combination of reducing grid resolution and, critically, eliminating the need for a time-resolved approach. The approach is applied to NASA stage 67. For uniform flow, at 90% corrected speed and peak-efficiency, the body force model is able to predict the total-to-total pressure rise coefficient of the stage to within 1.43% and the isentropic efficiency to within 0.03%. With a 120∘ sector of reduced inlet total pressure, distortion transfer through the machine is well-captured and the associated efficiency penalty predicted with less than 2.7% error.

Modern aircraft engines must accommodate inflow distortions entering the engines as a consequence of modifying the size, shape, and placement of the engines and/or nacelle to increase propulsive efficiency and reduce aircraft weight and drag. It is important to be able to predict the interactions between the external flow and the fan early in the design process. This is challenging due to computational cost and limited access to detailed fan/engine geometry. In this, the second part of a two part paper, we apply the fan gas path and body force model design process from Part 1 to the problem of predicting flow separation over an engine nacelle lip caused by crosswind. The inputs to the design process are based on NASA Stage 67. A body force model using the detailed Stage 67 geometry is also used to enable assessment of the accuracy of the design process based approach. In uniform flow, the model produced by the design process recreates the spanwise loading distribution of Rotor 67 with a 7% RMS error. Both models are then employed to predict crosswind separation velocity. The two approaches are found to agree in their prediction of the crosswind separation velocity to within 5%.

Despite advances in computational power, the cost of time-accurate flows in axial compressor and fan stages with spatially non-uniform inflow is still too high for design-stage use in industry. Body force modeling reduces the computation time to practical levels, mainly by reducing the problem to a steady one. These computations are important to determine efficiency penalties associated with non-uniform inflows. Previous studies of body force methods have, in most cases, relied on computations with the presence of the blades to calibrate loss models. In some recent studies, uncalibrated models have been used, but such models can drop off in accuracy at conditions where separation would occur on the blade surfaces. In this paper, a neural-network-based loss model introduced in a recent paper by the authors is implemented for NASA rotor 67 for both uniform and non-uniform inflow conditions. For uniform inflow, the spanwise trend of entropy variation is generally captured with the new body force model. Although there are discrepancies at some span fractions, the present model generally predicts the compressor’s isentropic efficiency to within 3 $%$ compared to bladed Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes simulations. For non-uniform inflow, we consider a stagnation pressure profile representative of boundary layer ingestion. The results show that the region of maximum entropy generation is captured by the present model and the prediction of isentropic efficiency penalty due to the non-uniform inflow is only 0.2 points less than that determined from bladed computations.