GE Aerospace is coordinating its development of an energy-efficient jet engine into research with Boeing, NASA, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, to model its performance and evaluate the results. The U.S. Dept. of Energy awarded 840,000 supercomputing hours to the Open Fan engine research project through its INCITE program, which provides “computationally intensive” resources to independent research efforts.
An "open fan” (or "open rotor”) engine involves a large, counter-rotating fan operating without a surrounding duct or nacelle, which allows a higher bypass ratio and theoretically improved fuel efficiency compared to a turbofan engine design.
GE’s Open Fan is said to be the “most promising” technology developed by GE’s CFM International joint venture through its Revolutionary Innovation for Sustainable Engines (RISE) technology demonstration program, the focus of which is developing advanced engine architectures, compact core, and hybrid electric systems that are compatible with 100% sustainable aviation fuel.
Last summer, the other partner in CFM, Safran Aircraft Engines, conducted wind-tunnel tests of the Open Fan design with French aerospace research agency ONERA, to demonstrate its aerodynamic and acoustic performance of Open Fan designs.
The GE/Boeing/NASA team research plan is to replicate a full-size Open Fan engine as installed for a Boeing commercial jet, simulate actual effects of flight, and evaluate the engine performance using supercomputing resources made available by DOE.
The researchers will have the use of the world’s second- and third-fastest supercomputers – Aurora at Argonne National Laboratory, and Frontier at Oak Ridge National Laboratory – each one capable of more than a quintillion calculations per second.
“Advanced supercomputing capability is a key breakthrough enabling the revolutionary Open Fan engine design,” stated Arjan Hegeman, general manager for future of flight technology at GE Aerospace. “Airplane integration is critical.”
GE Aerospace engineers have previously used exascale computing to model Open Fan engine components’ performance and noise levels. Now, they will be able to study the engine’s aerodynamics and optimize the design for additional efficiency, noise levels, and other performance benefits.
Replicating a full-size integrated engine and airplane in the design phase would be impossible without the computational power of the newest supercomputing machines.
“We aim to do something our company has never achieved before,” Hegeman explained: “Introduce a new jet engine that is 20% more fuel efficient than our most advanced commercial engines today. This represents a jump in technology development that usually takes multiple generations to achieve. Supercomputing helps make it possible.”
