Analysis and simulation on two types of thrust reversers in an aircraft engine

Abstract

With rapid development of new composite material and manufacturing, innovative engineering solutions are supplied to the advanced nacelle, such as integrated propulsion system(IPS), carbon-fiber composite inner skin by single-piece molding process which offers a reduction in fuel burn and less noise produced by engines. The advanced nacelle has an O-duct thrust reverser demonstrator whose composite structure is in the form of an "O" as opposed to the traditional "D-duct". A comparative study is to be conducted to investigate the differences between the latest O-duct and conventional D-duct in numerical approaches. To focus on the quantitative analysis of thrust reverser's operation, this paper mainly uses CATIA/Digital Mock Up(DMU) to simulate under deployment and stowed conditions of two different thrust reverser. After comparing the structural weight, the design models of blocker door are built for kinematic analysis of relevant mechanism and simulation. The results show that simplified design and elimination of multiple interfaces generates weight saving, O-duct improves airflows within the engine, meanwhile D-duct has excellent cost effective and maintainability.