As traditional fossil fuels become scarcer and more attention is given to environmental impact of the combustion of fossil fuels, for next-generation aircraft, the focus of development will mainly be on reducing fuel consumption. Open rotor engines have the advantage over conventional turbofans that they are expected to perform 25% to 30% better in terms of fuel consumption. The topic of this thesis focuses on one of the current challenges related to open rotor configurations; the unwanted unsteady effects imposed on the aerodynamic characteristics of a propeller, imposed by an upstream pylon. There is a potential for reducing undesired propeller-pylon installation effects by taking these effects into account in aerodynamic design process of the propeller. A propeller design optimization routine is implemented that includes a parametric modeling tool, a low- and high-fidelity performance analysis method and an existing installation effects performance model.

There is an ever-growing need for clean renewable energy in modern day society. Currently, major developments are being made on Decentralised Power conversion systems that use renewable energy sources. The application of ORC radial-flow turbines in Decentralised Power conversion applications seems promising, however, application of this technology is still sparse due to the lack of knowledge of the design, resulting in an extensive duration of the design cycle. The purpose of this thesis, is to reduce the duration of the design cycle, which can lead to a faster transition towards Decentralised Power Generation to help meet the increasing energy demands.

Curved exhaust ducts are used in aero engine applications for different purposes, including thrust vectoring, shielding of parts from the exhaust or improving stealth properties. Their integration, however, regularly represents a design problem due to flow separation and high aerodynamic losses occurring in the bend. Curved duct flows for both compressible and incompressible conditions have been studied extensively in the past. However, no experimental results of a high Reynolds number flow through a turbine exit guide vane (EGV) followed by a curved duct have yet been published. An in-depth CFD analysis of the aerodynamic effects is therefore carried out, using the RANS solvers TRACE (at MTU Aero Engines) and SU2, to analyze the flow field and geometric sensitivities of a high Reynolds number flow through an EGV followed by a 90 degree bent duct. The geometry of interest is investigated at a Reynolds number of Re=10^6 and a ratio of bend radius to duct diameter of one. The inflow conditions are prescribed to closely resemble typical flow conditions at the low pressure turbine exit plane of a turbojet engine. After validating the solver with experimental data using the test case of a 90 degree bent duct, an initial CFD analysis of the combined exit guide vane geometry with curved duct is carried out to identify the dominant flow phenomena and mutual effects of the EGV and the bend. Three zones of flow separations are found, each at the convex and concave sides of the bend and one at the lower side of the plug. Secondary flows caused by the bend are found to have an effect on the flow upstream of the EGV, leading to a non-uniform flow inlet angle and aerodynamic loading of the individual blades. Separation downstream of the EGV is influenced by the presence of low velocity wakes from the EGV. Subsequently, a sensitivity study is carried out to find the effect of different geometrical parameters on the flow field. Main investigated parameters are the ratio of bend radius to diameter (R_c/D) and the distance between EGV and bend (l/D). Additionally, the aerodynamic effects of the circumferential EGV positioning, swirl and the plug shape are investigated. It is found that an increase in both bend radius and distance between bend and EGV improves aerodynamic efficiency, while swirl can decrease pressure losses in the duct for small bend radii of R_c/D<0.8. Improving the plug shape and rotating the EGV allows to further increase the aerodynamic efficiency without weight increase. For further optimization of the geometry, it is recommended to include duct geometries with a non-constant bend radius and outer duct diameter to increase the design space.