Team 28: Sand Separator

Sponsored by: Pratt and WhitneySponsor Advisor: Dr. Shayan Ahmadian Faculty Advisor: Dr. Tai-Hsi Fan

Pratt and Whitney, a United Technology Corporation subsidy, is a world leading designer, manufacturer, and aftermarket supplier of turbine engines. In the current engine market, fuel efficiency, and replacement part/repair costs are large factors to making an engine supplier competitive and profitable. Today’s aircraft take-off and land all over the world, experiencing various environmental conditions which reduce engine component life, affecting reliability and ultimately company profitability. Selling to airlines that operate in harsh environments with sand laden air has created the need for sand separation in jet engine applications. Sand is composed of calcium magnesium aluminosilicate (CMAS), a low melting eutectic. Upon ingestion from ground vortexes and dust clouds, CMAS causes internal damage to the combustor and airfoils through impingement, coating spallation, and cooling hole blockage. Ultimately the life, efficiency, and reliability of the engine decline.

Current particle separation and removal techniques include centrifugal force and bleed methods to separate the particulate from the gas path. Unfortunately, while effective on large debris, these methods do not efficiently remove the fine sand particles. The team researched current state of the art separation techniques across all fields focusing on fine, micron sized particle separation. Potential concepts were evaluated based on pressure drop and flow path effects, size, weight, cost, reliability, and collection efficiency. Down selection yielded inertial and electrostatic separators as the most viable fit; a complimentary combination of these two methods was chosen for further evaluation and optimization.

Fundamental analytical and computational studies were done to understand the sensitivity of particle motion to inertial, electrical, and aerodynamic effects. It is concluded that particles under 30 µm require an additional external body force independent of their inertia to be separated from the flow conditions, such as an electric force. Inertial particle separator (IPS) geometry studies were performed using CD-Adapco’s Star-CCM+ computation fluid dynamics software package. Geometric optimization for collection efficiency relative to total pressure and mass flow loss was performed. After finalizing the IPS geometry, the device is enhanced by providing an electric potential and charging the particles prior to the inlet, creating an electrostatic inertial particle separator.

An adjustable, low cost IPS was experimentally tested for various geometries to draw direct correlations between design parameters, collection efficiency, and pressure drop. Data was also compared to the CFD simulations.

Dr. Tai-Hsi Fan, Chloe Wei, and Tara D’Ambruoso

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