Investigation on a Blockerless Cascade Thrust Reverser System Based on Response Surface Method

The blockerless cascade thrust reverser is one of the innovative thrust reverser systems, which replaces the traditionally mechanical blocker door with the aerodynamic blocker door by high-pressure secondary injection, thus significantly reduces the nacelle weight and the complexity of the actuator, and especially suitable for high-bypass-ratio turbofan engine. In order to obtain the optimum performance of a blockerless cascade thrust reverser system and provide the guidance for the design of the blockerless cascade thrust reverser system, a blockerless cascade thrust reverser system was studied in this paper based on the Response Surface Method (RSM), focusing on the effect of different geometric and aerodynamic parameters on the thrust reverser performance. Results show that the secondary injection with high pressure forms the blockage effect to the fan flow, then forces the fan flow to deflect and discharge from the cascade window, realizing the reverse thrust. The thrust reverser performance is mainly affected by fan pressure ratio (FPR), secondary flow pressure ratio (SPR), secondary injection position (Xjet), secondary injection angle (αjet) and cascade installation angle (β), and the dominated factors are FPR, SPR and Xjet. According to the obtained response equation of the thrust reverser performance, the relationship between reverse thrust efficiency and various parameters are clearly described, and performance of thrust reverser can be quickly evaluated. Significant interaction effects exist between different two factors, which must be taken into consideration in the design process of the blockerless cascade thrust reverser system, especially for the interaction effect between FPR and Xjet, interaction effect between FPR and β. Optimization design with objective of maximum reverse thrust was carried out to determine the best parameter settings, and reverse thrust ratio ηTrev of 60% is achieved under the constraint of the secondary flow ratio.