Validation of NASA Rotor 67 for the Purpose of Aeroelasticity Study

Computational aeroelasticity have been an important consideration in designing an aeroengine. This is the main topic of the work presented here. The goal of this preliminary work is to gain some basic understanding related to aeroelasticity with the emphasis on the parts mentioned previously. NASA Rotor 67 has been the most commonly research apparatus for the study of aeroelasticity. It is the first single stage of transonic axial fan. Details of the blade geometry were available and presented in by Hathaway [1]. Experimental works are also obtained from NASA technical memorandum archives. Most of these works were using a non-intrusive laser anemometry. The work on the rotor was conducted using a commercial CFD package, FLUENT. It is a three dimensional finite volume density-based solver with a range of proven capability in handling turbomachinery cases. The simulation ran in an unsteady manner such that the unsteady flow phenomenon could be captured which accounts for the pressure and viscous forces variations. The grid also has been refined, particularly in vicinity to the surface of the blade, in order to capture the transonic flow phenomenon, namely the shock-boundary layer interactions which also has its effect on the forces mentioned previously. An exchange of information occurs in aeroelasticity, i.e. between a structure and the fluid surrounding it. In the case of NASA Rotor 67, solving the fluid provides the information of the forces acting on the blade, as mentioned previously. To be able to perform the extraction of these forces, a UDF is utilized. These forces are later to be feed into the 1D structure code developed within this work. However, the results presented in here are confined at validating the performance and the forces acting upon the rotor with the available experimental and other numerical works.