Dr Sina Stapelfeldt is a member of the Rolls-Royce Vibration University Technology Centre. Her research focus is on aeroelasticity and unsteady flows in turbomachines. In particular, she is working on improving the modelling tools to predict self-excited and forced vibrations in aero-engines.
The Open Rotor is a revolutionary new engine architecture designed to power upcoming generations of short-haul commercial jets. Utilizing a set of unducted, contra-rotating rotors to achieve a very high bypass ratio and associated propulsive efficiency, the modern Open Rotor aims to reduced fuel consumption and CO2 emission by about 30%.
This magnitude of improvement does not come without its challenges. Similar concepts in the ’80s suffered from high noise levels and unwanted vibrations. These vibrations are driven by fluid-structure interaction and, under unfavourable circumstances, can lead to component and consequently engine failure.
Research at Imperial College used computational simulations to model, predict and understand the origin of these vibrations and develop possible mitigation measures. This presentation will consider the challenges facing modern open rotor designs, discuss how they are being overcome and provide insights into the role of numerical simulations in the analysis and design of future propulsion systems.
The lecture is centred around the paper which won the Best Paper Award at the European Turbomachinery Conference in 2015.