Forced Response Analysis of an Aerodynamically Detuned Supersonic Turbomachine Rotor

High-performance aircraft engine fan and compressor blades are vulnerable to aerodynamically forced vibrations generated by inlet flow distortions due to wakes from upstream blade and vane rows, atmospheric gusts, and maldistributions in inlet ducts. In this paper, an analysis is developed to predict the flow-induced forced response behavior of an aerodynamically detuned rotor operating in a supersonic flow with a subsonic axial component. The aerodynamic detuning is achieved by alternating the circumferential spacing of adjacent rotor blades. The total unsteady aerodynamic loading acting on the blading, due to the convection of the transverse gust past the airfoil cascade and the resulting motion of the cascade, is developed in terms of influence coefficients. This analysis is then utilized to investigate the effect of aerodynamic detuning on the forced response characteristics of a 12-bladed rotor, with Verdon’s Cascade B flow geometry as a uniformly spaced baseline configuration. The results of this study indicate that for forward traveling wave gust excitations, aerodynamic detuning is generally very beneficial, resulting in significantly decreased maximum amplitude blade responses for many interblade phase angles.