Inlet Flow Distortion in an Advanced Civil Transport Boundary Layer Ingesting Engine Installation

This article presents first-of-a-kind measurements, and complementary computations, of the flow through the propulsion system of a boundary layer ingesting, twin-engine advanced civil transport aircraft configuration. The experiments were carried out in the NASA Langley 14- by 22-foot Subsonic Tunnel, using a 1:11 scale model of the D8 “double-bubble” aircraft with electric ducted fans providing propulsive power. Overall force and moment measurements and flow field surveys at the inlet and nozzle exit planes were obtained. The computations were carried out with the NASA OVERFLOW code. The measurements and computations were conducted for a range of aircraft angles of attack and propulsor powers representing operating points during the aircraft mission. Velocity and pressure distributions at the propulsor inlet and exit, and integral inlet distortion metrics, are presented to quantify the flow nonuniformity due to boundary layer ingestion. The distorted inflow exhibits qualitative and quantitative changes over the mission, from a unidirectional stratified stagnation pressure at cruise to a streamwise vortex structure at climb conditions. The computations capture these flow features and reveal the interactions between airframe and propulsor that create these three-dimensional flow variations.