Fifth International Conference on Computational Methods for Thermal Problems

THERMACOMP2018, July 9-11, 2018, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, INDIA

N. Massarotti, P. Nithiarasu, Pradip Dutta and C. Ranganyakalu (Eds.)

CFD STUDY OF PROPELLER BLADE TEMPERATURE FOR PUSHER

CONFIGURED TURBO-PROP ENGINE
Mahesh Malia *, Vinay C A.b, Abhijeet Chougulea, Sanjay Kadama
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Rajarambapu Institute of Technology, Sakharale,
Maharashtra-415414, India
b
National Aerospace Laboratories, Bangalore, Karnataka-560017, India
E-mail address: maheshmali7574@gmail.com, vinay.ca@nal.res.in, abhijeet.chougule@ritindia.edu,
sanjay.kadam@ritindia.edu

ABSTRACT
In this paper, aft mounted propeller blade surface temperatures during specific ground operation condition
on the pusher configuration with given exhaust stub installation are analyzed. This analysis is carried out
to understand the exhaust gas impingement and predict the surface temperatures before validating the
compliance demonstration. It is important in pusher applications to ensure that the exposure of the
propeller to the hot exhaust gas is minimized and that exhaust gas does not attach itself to the aft nacelle
and cause overheating of the spinner/hub area of the propeller. An established numerical analysis
approach is applied in this study, CFD analysis for flow through and around the nacelle, engine exhaust
duct and the propeller is presented for ground static condition using SST, k-ω model using commercially
available software ANSYS Fluent. Special emphasis was laid on developing a good quality mesh for the
computational domain with a finer boundary layer mesh along the wall and maintaining a higher density
mesh at critical areas. The flow characteristics derived from this CFD analysis remained unaltered during
grid dependence studies. CFD results are compared with the analytical work to assess the exhaust
temperature at the propeller plane for the engine ground static condition. The results obtained from CFD
study have shown that the temperature distribution around the propeller plane is in agreement with
analytical results. This simulation model will be used to carry out dynamic analysis considering different
flight conditions with propeller rotation.

Key Words: Propeller, CFD, Surface Temperature, Stub.

1 INTRODUCTION
Pusher-Propeller installations have been shown to offer a number of advantages at the aircraft level in
terms of cost, weight and aerodynamic considerations. For example, choice of a stub-wing mounted
pusher over a wing mounted tractor propeller installation avoids the interactions of the propeller
slipstream with the wing and offers the potential to enable significant portions of laminar flow to be
achieved. Another major advantage is that the de-icing boots are not required because this design induces
long exposure of the blades to the hot gases. A good configuration is one that minimizes the exposure of
the blades to the exhaust. In general, exhaust plume characteristics are very difficult to predict, being
subject to the influences of engine power, propeller swirl, and the flow field of the wing/nacelle/ aircraft.
For this reason, some post design development work should be anticipated. Areas on the nacelles, stub-
wings, fuselage etc. that could be prone to heating should be instrumented with temperature sensitive tape
or paint and the aircraft put through all the standard flight and ground manoeuvres so that the temperature
can be assessed.
The general goal was to estimate the temperature on propeller surface when the engine is running at full
power and aircraft is in static condition by simulating the flow field around the nacelle and propeller
using commercial CFD package ANSYS Fluent [1].
 THERMACOMP2018, July 9-11, 2018, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, INDIA
N. Massarotti, P. Nithiarasu, Pradip Dutta and C. Ranganyakalu (Eds.)

2 NUMERICAL STUDY

For CFD analysis, the complete engine assembly geometry i.e. nacelle, propeller and spinner assembly of
Light Transport Aircraft (LTA) were considered as shown in Figure 1. The modeling was done by using
CATIA V5 R20. The IGES file was imported into pre-processor before that domain is created [2]. The
cylindrical domain was created for this study as that one uses the elements most efficiently with minimum
distortion and eliminates edge effect at corners. The full domain is shown in figure 2. After completion of
geometry cleaning the mesh was created. The unstructured tetra mesh was generated for computational
analysis with patch Independent octree technique [3]. The prism layers are generated near the wall. It is a
difficult task to control mesh because of the complexity of the model. 6.9 million elements were
generated.

FIGURE 1. CAD-Model of Turboprop Engine

Domain outlet

Model
Domain inlet

FIGURE 2. Mesh model

The proper boundary conditions were applied to all appropriate places as follows [2],
Sr.
Face Type of boundary condition Magnitude Temperature
No
1. Domain Inlet Velocity Inlet 4 m/s 304 K
2. Domain Outlet Pressure Outlet Pressure Outlet 304 K
3. Domain Wall Wall - No slip condition. 304 K
5. Stub inlets Mass Flow Inlet 0.5935 kg/s 913 K
6. Blades, Spinner, etc. Wall - No slip condition. -

TABLE 1. Boundary conditions for numerical analysis.

 THERMACOMP2018, July 9-11, 2018, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, INDIA
N. Massarotti, P. Nithiarasu, Pradip Dutta and C. Ranganyakalu (Eds.)

3 ANALYTICAL STUDY

The Calculation was done by referring literature. For this calculation, the preliminary data is defined by
CSIR-NAL. Area and Perimeter of stub at the outlet are 0.035 m2 and 0.735 m respectively. Hydraulic
Diameter (Dh) is 0.1924 m, Mass flow rate at stub outlet is 0.59 kg/s, Velocity is 28.8 m/s, Exhaust gas
temperature is 640°c i.e. 913 K, ambient temperature is 34°c i.e. 307 K, therefore Mean temperature is
337°c, Distance from stub to propeller plane (H) is 0.6 m.
By taking the properties of flue gas at mean temperature the calculations are to be done. That are, Density
(ρ) = 0.58296 kg/m3, Viscosity (μ) = 0.0000295002 Ns/m2 or Pa.s, Thermal conductivity (k) = 0.051566
W/m.k, Pr = 0.6463.
Reynolds number,
Re = = 109484

Here the flow coming from stub on to the plane, therefore Nusselt number is,
Nu = 0.023 × (Re) 0.8 × (Pr) 0.3
Nu = 216.94
Martin developed the equation for nusselt number [3] i.e.,

Nuavg = Pr0.42 , when 2000 < Re < 400000

( )

For 30000<Re<120000, F = 0.54 Re0.667

Put value of Nu in above equation,
r/D = 3.6
A correlation for effectiveness is given by Goldstein et al.[4] i.e.,
Effectiveness = 1.193(x/D)-0.98 , when x/D ≥ 3.5
= 0.3399

Effectiveness =

Therefore, Tref = 239.97°c or 513.97 K is the temperature at the propeller plane.

4 RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

In the analytical study, the reference temperature (Tref) is the temperature on the propeller plane which
facing the exhaust gas flow when the surface is considered to be an adiabatic wall. Tref is the average
temperature of particular surface. In Numerical analysis when the solution was carried out nearly 10000
iterations, the stability of residuals is found. In post processing contour of temperature at blade surface or
the plane is taken and temperature profile is shown in Figures 3-4. By considering area weighted average
of the blade surface which faces towards the stub, it shows the temperature of about 531.8 K. This is in
close agreement with the analytical results. After analysis, it is observed that the blade appears high
temperature in a static condition. From this baseline study, the methodology and model are satisfactory
and the same will be used to perform dynamic analysis considering the flight envelope with propeller
rotation.
 THERMACOMP2018, July 9-11, 2018, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, INDIA
N. Massarotti, P. Nithiarasu, Pradip Dutta and C. Ranganyakalu (Eds.)

FIGURE 3. Contours of temperature for a plane

FIGURE 4. Temperature profile at propeller plane

REFERENCES
[1] Jiyuan Tu, Guan Heng Yeoh and Chaoqun Liu, Computational Fluid Dynamics: A Practical Approach,
First Edition, Elsevier, USA, 2008.
[2] Abhijeet B. Chougule, Vinay C A., Suresh R, Pusher Configured turboprop engine oil cooler ejector
performance: CFD analysis and validation, Proceeding of the 6th International and 43rd National
conference on Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Power, 35, 2016.
[3] Abhijeet B. Chougule, Vinay C A., Saleel Ismail, CFD Analysis of Cooler Duct for Turboprop Aircraft
Engine in Pusher Configuration, International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering
and Technology, 5, 2016.
[4] Martin H., Heat and mass transfer between impinging gas jets and solid surfaces, Advances in heat Heat
Transfer, 16, 1977.
[5] R. J. Goldstein, K. A. Sobolik, W. S. Seol, Effect of Entrainment on the Heat Transfer to a Heated
Circular Air Jet Impingement on a Flat Surface, Journal of Heat Transfer, 112, 608-11, 1990.