Numerical study on the impacts of sand particles on blade erosion in a transonic fan rotor

In a real-world environment with high dust and high sand concentrations, continuous ingestion of solid particles results in surface roughness on the fan rotor blade of aero-engines. Such kind of long-term erosion changes the blade geometry and degrades the aerodynamic performance. This study investigates the erosion behavior of sand particles on a transonic fan rotor blade, NASA Rotor 67, using the Euler–Lagrange simulation approach and an empirical erosion model. The effects of particle diameter, mass fraction, and operation conditions on erosion characteristics are studied. Generally, the pressure side of the rotor blade is more severely eroded since the fluid and particle motions are primarily dominated by compression of the rotor blade. As the particle diameter increases, the average erosion rate on the blade first increases and then decreases. Besides, the particle diameter also significantly alters the erosion distribution on the blade. The increase in the mass fraction proportionally increases the erosion rate but maintains the erosion distribution. Under different operation conditions, tip leakage flow and flow separation significantly influence erosion in localized regions of the blade. However, for particles with large diameters, erosion distributions remain similar under different operation conditions as particle trajectories are more likely governed by centrifugal forces.