Newsletter No. 5 - June 2008

Editorial

Stefan Busam, leader of the sub-project for low pressure turbine

Supported by the European Commission, the VITAL consortium has entered the fourth year of the program. At the third annual meeting held in March in Liege for three days, the EC reviewers said they were very pleased with the achievements of VITAL. They also emphasized that a large number of rig tests are planned towards the end of the year, which will require a major effort by all participants to complete their tasks on time. For SP6 in particular, we will be running a number of rig tests this year and this is a significant challenge for our team : MTU Aero Egines, Avio, ITP and several research centres and universities from Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, Russia and South-Africa. As the SP6 leader, I am very glad to see all rigs ready for the start of testing. Even more importantly, I am looking forward to receiving the final results that will show the way forward to the development of economical and efficient low-pressure turbines.

The numerous tasks in my own work-package 6.4 are all aimed at significantly reducing the weight and noise of low-pressure turbines. From the standpoint of weight, we are significantly increasing aerodynamic loading in order to reduce the number of stages and airfoils. We are all eagerly awaiting the results from the three rig tests scheduled for the third quarter of the year, results that will hopefully confirm the encouraging data from our comprehensive CFD calculations. Additional rig tests will be carried out this year to develop our noise reduction technologies. All in all, the SP6 partners expect to achieve an LPT weight reduction of 20% and noise reduction of 3 dB.

For my company, MTU Aero Engines, the VITAL program addresses the key enabling technologies required for tomorrow’s engines. In addition to the LP turbine,  we are looking for gains on shafts and lightweight boosters that will help pave the way for the next generation of aero-engines. With strong support from our partners in industry and academia, we are sure we can meet the ambitious VITAL objectives on the way to meeting the goals set by ACARE2020.
 

Management Committee

The VITAL Management Committee met in Brussels on May 20-21, 2008. Committee members reviewed the overall progress of this very promising project, and will subsequently submit their conclusions to program partners. Committee members also used this meeting to prepare for the 4th mid-year review meeting on June 19-20, 2008.

 

The firts tests of the Contrafan

After some technical difficulties, the first tests of the Contrafan were carried out last week in the bench C3A of the Central Institute of Aviation Motors (CIAM), in Moscow .

 

 Agenda

- 4th mid-year meeting, June 19-20 June 2008, Sorrento (Italy)

- VITAL Workshop, March 4 and 5, 2009, in Budapest (Hungary)

VITAL News

"Open House" at the European Commission

The European Commission organised an Open House on June 7 to help the public understand what Europe contributes  to its citizens, with a specific focus on research programs. The VITAL program agreed to participate in this effort and hosted a stand at Berlaymont, the Commission’s headquarters.

Jérôme d’Agruma from Techspace Aero welcomed the public at the VITAL stand, describing the different aspects of this program. This Open House turned out to be an excellent venue for interesting discussions, not only with the public, but also with members of the European Commission.

portes ouvertes bruxelles

The VITAL exhibition stand

 Technology Spotlights

PIV test completed

The tests designed to provide very fine aerodynamic characterisation of the behaviour of the jet exhaust, and therefore calibrate the numerical computation codes for each partner, were completed in May on the Cepra 19 test bench at ONERA Saclay near Paris.

Using the highly innovative PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry) technique, these measurement tests went very smoothly, and the test program was completed on May 5. Typical PIV results were delivered to Snecma and Airbus, which confirmed the official end of the VITAL test based on their data analysis. These tests generated a unique set of results, near the limit of what can be achieved by the PIV method in this kind of complex configuration.

     test PIV cepra 19

     test PIV cepra 19_2

Installed Configurations - Cepra 19

   test cepra 19_mean velocity

   test cepra 19_turbulence

Examples of PIV measurements
 Crew :
Managing Editor : Antoinette Menard
Editor in chief : Marie-Aude Zueras
Contact		Made by : Les Argonautes
Pictures copyrights : VITAL