Undergraduate Research Hub

This research is dedicated to advancing gas turbine technology for greener and more cost-effective commercial air transportation. The focus lies in optimizing the High Pressure Compressor (HPC) component of NASA’s Energy Efficient Engine (EEE) which compresses air prior to entering the combustion chamber. The goal for the research project was to improve the compressor’s pressure ratio from inlet to outlet to enhance the efficiency of the combustion process. Factors affecting compressor performance, such as blade twist angle, blade geometry, and shroud and hub tip clearance, are analyzed and optimized to improve efficiency and overall performance. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models were created within the Ansys software suite and successfully optimized by leveraging the San Diego Supercomputer Center. This research achieved a pressure ratio increase across the first four stages of a ten-stage compressor, surpassing NASA's 1980 model. This paper outlines the methodology, including geometry generation using Ansys BladeModeler, blade row meshing with TurboGrid, and CFX (Fluid dynamics) simulations. The optimization process involved multiple design iterations and a response surface method to attain the highest pressure ratio. The multidisciplinary approach underscores the potential of leveraging emerging technologies of CFD and High Performance Computing to significantly improve the efficiency of existing models, as exemplified by the successful optimization of the EEE’s HPC.