Investigation of Unsteady Flow Phenomena in a Counterrotating Ducted Propfan

Experimental and numerical investigations on a counterrotating propfan (CRISP) have been carried out to study unsteady flow phenomena generated by the interaction of the two rotors. This paper focuses mainly on the downstream effects of rotor 1 on rotor 2. Therefore unsteady Laser-2-Focus, unsteady total pressure measurements and an unsteady simulation have been carried out. The total pressure measurements behind the rotors show variations of the absolute total pressure outside the wake regions up to 30 percent of the average total pressure rise. Some of these are caused by the interaction of the rotor 1-generated wakes with the leading edge of rotor 2. The others may result from the pressure waves generated by the reflection of the rotor 2-shockwaves by the blades of rotor 1.