3:35pm April 2, 2014 1130 Mechanical Engineering 111 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455

Flow-Physics in a Gas-Turbine Engine Scott Morr is Associate Professor; Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Notre Dame

Mechanical Engineering Department Seminar

Gas-turbine engines are the basis for much of our land-based power generation, and provide propulsion for nearly all modern aviation. Engineering advancements over the last 50 years have resulted in engines that are safe, efficient, and economical. Current research efforts are guided towards continued improvements to engine capability and fuel consumption. This talk will describe several current efforts with internal aerodynamics that are helping to improve engine components through experiments and computational tool development. The talk will include a discussion of turbulent boundary layer flows, fan acoustics, compressor stall, and turbine aerody-namics. The first topic will describe the physics of large-scale motions in turbulent boundary layers. There has been significant new discoveries in the last decade regarding turbulent boundary layer physics. The data presented will include instantaneous realization of the flow field (from PIV) as well as two-point velocity statistics. Both laboratory and atmospheric surface layer examples will be given. The second topic will use the boundary layer information in order to predict the noise generated from the engine fan. Under many operating conditions the fan is the largest contributor to the overall engine noise. A new theory that relates the sound to the two-point boundary-layer statistics will be developed and validated. The next topic is compressor aerodynamics. A signif-icant problem in engine design is compressor stall. Recent research has been able to fully explain stall flow physics and also mechanisms for stall control. Lastly, a brief discussion of turbine aerodynamics will be given. Recent advancements in physical understanding and computational tools has led to designs with 30% higher blade performance compared with designs of just a few years ago.

Bio: Dr. Morris currently directs multiple research projects involving turbomachinery and acoustics. He has designed and constructed a new turbomachinery laboratory at Notre Dame with a focus on improving components of gas turbine engines for propulsion and power system applications. New facilities include a new transonic axial compressor and a high speed research turbine. Both facilities are single stage rotating experiments that allow for advanced diagnostics and flow control under conditions that are similar to full scale engines. The second focus of study is aeroacoustics. This is a multi-disciplinary field involving fluid mechanics, acoustics, fluid structure interactions, and vibra-tions. Experimental work is primarily conducted in the Anechoic Wind Tunnel. Topics of interest in-clude airfoil generated noise and vibration, fan noise, and the sound associated with active flow con-trol devices.