Tue, 22 February, 2022
There has been progress with the MOTIVE project in recent weeks, with the completion of a programme of work and an extension to the project’s due completion date.
The project should now reach a conclusion by the end of September 2022, allowing the partners more time to provide the data and models needed to improve bleed air system behaviour modelling for aircraft engines.
The latest package of work to be completed focused on measuring the level of aerodynamic torque generated by butterfly valves. To achieve this, VENTIL developed an aerodynamic torque bench to measure the butterfly valve’s torque geometries for mass flow rates up to 2kg/s, matching those used for friction testing.
The design of the torque bench was assisted by ESI, who developed CFD models of the test rig in order to provide a realistic simulation of the behaviour of the test rig during testing and operation. This allowed the experimental set-up to be fine tuned to obtain the most accurate results before the experimental testing campaign began in full.
The completion of the aerodynamic test bench means that the apparatus is capable of measuring the volume flow rate of air, the pressures upstream and downstream of the butterfly valve, and the aerodynamic opening and closing torques to a high accuracy.
These measurements can then inform performance factors including:
- Pressure drop
- Aerodynamic torque
- Flow coefficient
- Loss coefficient
These performance factors were computed at 10 different valve opening angles (ranging from 0° when closed to 90° when fully open) in 10° increments. For each valve opening angle, five different flow rates up to 2kg/s were considered.
The experimental data gained from this testing campaign will be used later in the project to calibrate and validate multi-physics models describing the butterfly valve aerodynamic properties.
The MOTIVE project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 785530