Dust storms and their impact on aero-engines

摘要

The study of flight in adverse weather conditions is important for the improvement of safety and the extension of the operational capabilities of an aircraft. Adverse weather conditions means, among other things, dusty environment which leads to dust ingestion by jet engines. Mineral dust events are considered as hazardous situations especially in low flying aircrafts and during landing and take-off procedures. The main reason is the impact of dust flying in the atmosphere that is ingested in the aircraft engines. These events can be more crucial when associated with stormy conditions, high winds etc. These phenomena, although are triggered in certain desert regions, can be spread out to wider areas of the world. In this work the dust mass ingested by the engines is computed. Calculations are performed for various dust mass contents in the air and various particle size distributions. The surface dust concentrations and vertical profiles are simulated for several cases of Saharan dust events, with a new modeling system developed by the Atmospheric Modeling and Weather Forecasting Group at the University of Athens (RAMS-DUST). Sahara desert is a major source of particulate matter for the area of Mediterranean. The focus on the desert dust is also enhanced by the fact that these particles are highly corrosive because of their sodium and potassium components. The knowledge on the dust mass ingestion computation can be utilized for conducting studies on the erosion and corrosion processes on the aircraft turbines. It can also help for improving safety standards and maintenance procedures for flights under similar conditions.