University of Florence (UNIFI) is one of the largest research and higher education institutions in Italy. The Department of Industrial Engineering (DIEF) is carrying out research projects in a wide range of engineering applications: as far as energy transformation is concerned, the main theoretical research activities develop in the area of gas and hydraulic turbines, axial and centrifugal compressors, pumps, combustion chambers, internal combustion engines, plant design and thermodynamics. The research group involved in TURBO-REFLEX is led by Prof. Andrea Arnone. The core research activity is the development of a CFD flow solver named TRAF, used worldwide by leading companies and research centres (Avio Aero, Termomeccanica, Ansaldo Energia, Advanced Design Technology, VKI). Since 2000 the group has carried out research activities on Computational Aeroelasticity (CA) and Computational Aeroacoustics (CAA) to extend the codes to the prediction of blade flutter and tone noise.

Role in the project

UNIFI is responsible for the design of the bleed extractions based on CFD simulations of multistage compressors at part load with variable inlet guide vanes, variable stator vanes and significant bleed flows (T1.2). Together with the other partners involved in this task, UNIFI will model and setup the baseline compressor and perform its perform analysis and validation. This will be completed by a design study for bleed size and position, considering a variation of bleed mass flows.