Quantification of Combined Operational and Geometrical Uncertainties in Turbo-Machinery Design

The NASA rotor 37 is investigated accounting for as many as 9 simultaneous operational and geometrical uncertainties. The combined influence of uncertainties on input quantities such as the total inlet pressure, static outlet pressure, tip gap or leading and trailing edge angles on output quantities is studied. These simulations provide results which go far beyond the standard deterministic simulation. A probabilistic collocation method in combination with a sparse grid quadrature is introduced into the software suite FINE™ propagating combined operational and geometrical uncertainties in complex 3D CFD simulations. The modification of the parameterized geometry and the consequent re-meshing is provided by a fully automatic tool, which also couples with the flow solver and provides post-treatment routines. It is this automation, which makes this kind of study feasible. A manual modification of geometry, manual meshing and simulation set-up accounting for a multitude of simultaneous uncertainties is simply unfeasible for as many as hundreds of complex 3D turbo-machinery simulations. This work represents thus a break-through in the uncertainty management towards the application of uncertainty propagation in the daily engineering practice.