Experimental and numerical investigation on the effect of turboprop engine exhaust gas impingement on pusher aircraft

Abstract Turboprop engines require an exhaust nozzle or stub to duct the engine exhaust flue gas outboard of the aircraft. The design of these exhaust stubs are dictated primarily by the aircraft’s configuration. In pusher aircraft, the exhaust stubs are designed to minimize the exposure of the flue gases from the engine exhaust on the propeller blades and fuselage. A fluid-thermal-structure coupling analysis is performed to understand the thermal effects of the engine exhaust jet flow on the thermo-mechanical behavior of pusher configured light transport aircraft propeller and structure. The steady thermal flow field of the aircraft with forward and reverse thrust, in which propeller blade angle variations were analyzed for different aircraft speed. The present work investigates a three-dimensional analysis of flow around the nacelle-airframe and the effect of exhaust flue gas impingement on the propeller blade surface. Based on the insights from the numerical results, the designed exhaust duct was integrated on the aircraft and carried out ground static and flight testing for various flight operating conditions in which propeller blade and fuselage surface temperature were measured. Numerical and experimental results are compared and validated for certain flight conditions and found satisfactory.