Volvo Aero Corporation designs and manufactures components for civil jet engines. Design solutions for intermediate cases with integrated outlet guide vanes, which has the job to both carry load and direct the by pass air, are considered competitive for the future. Critical factors when designing integrated outlet guide vanes are weight, cost, structural stiffness, sound damping and operating life.
Historically, the outlet guide vane (OGV) configuration has been solid vanes manufactured in materials like aluminium and titanium. A solid vane design will make the target weight for the outlet guide vanes to be exceeded, especially when engines are getting larger in diameter due to a desire to increase the by-pass flow. One way of reducing the weight of the OGV design is to make them hollow. The question is if a hollow vane will fulfil the mechanical requirements that an OGV configuration must withstand. Several concepts of OGV configurations have been developed and analyzed. Solid vane concepts have also been analyzed for reference purposes. The different concepts have also been evaluated with respect to material selection. Both the use of aluminium and titanium has been considered, since these are the most commonly used materials in outlet guide vanes.
The chosen concept is made in titanium with a sheet thickness of 2 mm and has solid leading and trailing edge. The vane also has a polymer-foam core to increase the stiffness even further. By making the vanes hollow in titanium, the weight can be decreased with 10% compared to making them solid in aluminium. The analysis showed that the configuration with a foam core has better strength properties and is more resistance to buckling than the configuration without a foam core.
Author: Gustavsson, Robert
Source: Lulea University of Technology
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