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Fan Performance Scaling With Inlet Distortions, J. J. Defoe, E. Etemadi, D. K. Hall

Mechanical, Automotive & Materials Engineering Publications

Applications such as boundary-layer-ingesting 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 …