Fluid-structure interaction study of the splitter plate in a TBCC exhaust system during mode transition phase

Splitter plate plays an important role in a turbine-based combined-cycle (TBCC) exhaust system during the mode transition phase when turbojet engine and ramjet engine operate simultaneously. Dissimilar pressure distribution on both sides of the plate has a potential origin in the aeroelastic coupling, which is an interesting topic while few research works have devoted to that aspect. To better understand the aeroelastic behavior of the plate and the corresponding dynamic flow features, an integrated fluid-structure interaction simulation is conducted under one particular operation condition during mode transition phase in the TBCC exhaust system. A finite-volume-based CFD solver FLUENT is adopted to solve the unsteady Reynolds average Navier-Stokes equations. ABAQUS, a finite-element-method-based CSD solver, is employed to compute the plate elastic deformation. A two-way interaction between the fluid and the structure is accomplished by the mesh-based parallel-code coupling interface (MpCCI) in a loosely-coupled manner. The accuracy of the coupling procedure is validated for the flutter of a flat plate in supersonic flow. Then, features of steady flow field of the TBCC exhaust system are discussed, followed by the investigation of the aeroelastic phenomenon of the splitter plate and the evolution process of the flow field pattern. Finally, performances variation of the exhaust system is obtained and discussed. The results show that the plate vibrates with decaying amplitude and reaches a dynamic stable state eventually. The thrust, lift and pitch moment of the TBCC exhaust system are increased by 0.68%, 2.82% and 5.86%, respectively, compared with the corresponding values in steady state which does not take into account the fluid-structure interaction effects. The analysis reveals the importance of considering the fluid-structure interaction effects in designing the splitter plate in the TBCC exhaust system and demonstrates the availability of the present coupled CFD/CSD method as a tool to predict the aeroelastic phenomenon in the TBCC exhaust system.