Response of a Thin Airfoil Encountering a Strong Density Discontinuity

Abstract

Airfoil theory for unsteady motion has been developed extensively assuming the undisturbed medium to be of uniform density, a restriction accurate for motion in the atmosphere, Glauert (1929), Burgers (1935), Theodorsen (1935), Kussner (1936), Karman and Sears (1938), Kinney and Sears (1975). In some instances, notably for airfoils comprising fan, compressor and turbine blade rows, the undisturbed medium may carry density variations or "spots," resulting from non-uniformaties in temperature or composition, of a size comparable to the blade chord. This condition existsfor turbine blades, Marble (1975), Giles and Krouthen (1988), immediately downstream of the main burner of a gas turbine engine where the density fluctuations of the order of 50 percent may occur. Disturbances of a somewhat smaller magnitude arise from the ingestion of hot boundary layers into fans, Wortman (1975), and exhaust into hovercraft. Because these regions of non-uniform density convect with the moving medium, the airfoil experiences a time varying load and moment which we propose to calculate.