Aero-Engine Inlet Vane Structure Optimization for Anti-Icing with Hot Air Film using Neural Network and Genetic Algorithm 2019-01-2021

An improved anti-icing design with film heating ejection slot and cover for the inlet part of aero-engine was brought out, which combines the interior jet impingement with the exterior hot air film heating and shows promising application for those parts manufactured with composite materials. A hybrid method based on the combination of the Back Propagation Neural Network (BPNN) and Genetic Algorithm (GA) is developed to optimize the anti-icing design for a typical aero-engine inlet strut in two dimensions. The optimization aims to maximize the heating performance of the hot air film, which is assessed by heating effectiveness.The film-heating ejection angle and the cover opening angle are the two geometric variables to be optimized. Numerical model was established and validated to generate training samples for BPNN, which is used to predict the objective function and find the optimal design variables in conjunction with the GA. The optimal values of the film-heating ejection angle and the cover opening angle were achieved for a given heat flow rate as a demonstration, and the effects of film-heating ejection angle and cover opening angle on heating effectiveness were further analyzed. The result shows that this coupled method using BP-GA is significantly efficient for optimization of the inlet strut.