Previous studies of transonic swept rotors in single stage fans have demonstrated the potential of significant improvements in both efficiency and stall margin with forward swept blading. This paper extends the assessment of the payoff derived from forward sweep to multistage configurations. The experimental investigation compare two builds of an advanced two-stage fan configuration tested alternately with a radial and a forward swept stage 1 blade. In the two-stage evaluations, the testing was extended to include the effect on inlet flow distortion. While the common second stage among the two builds prevented the overall fan from showing clean inlet performance and stability benefits with the forward swept rotor 1, this configuration did demonstrate superior front stage efficiency and tolerance to inlet distortion. Having obtained already low distortion sensitivity with the radial rotor 1 configuration relative to current production military fan standards, the sensitivity to inlet distortion was halved with the forward swept rotor 1 configuration. In the case of the 180-degree one-per-rev distortion pattern, the two-stage configuration was evaluated both with and without inlet guide vanes (IGVs). The presence of the inlet guide vanes had a profound impact in lowering the two-stage fan's sensitivity with inlet distortion.


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    Title :

    Experimental Investigation of a Forward Swept Rotor in a Multistage Fan with Inlet Distortion


    Contributors:


    Publication date :

    2011




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    Unknown




    FORWARD SWEPT ROTOR STUDIES IN MULTISTAGE FANS INCLUDING THE EFFECT ON PERFORMANCE WITH INLET DISTORTION

    Wadia, A.R. / International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences; Optimage Ltd | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2010


    Effect of Inlet Distortion on Forward Swept Fan Rotors

    Wadia, A.R. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2011