Advanced design PrActice for New aero engine Developments and bearing Optimization undeR Extreme conditions – PANDORE

To achieve the objectives set by Europe regarding carbon neutrality, all aircraft engine manufacturers have started seeking original engine architectures that allow them to reach these goals. Several directions for development have been considered which all aim at improving performances in terms of both energy and greenhouse gas emissions. They generally point towards the lightening of structures, larger diameters, the use of high-performance materials (in terms of weight, lifetime, resistance to mechanical and thermal loads, etc.) and original geometries.
The new engines foreseen for 2035 will permit reducing consumption by 20% and reach 30% by taking into account progress achieved in aircraft design. The solutions considered for these new engines lead to technological breakthroughs of the first order requiring exacting in-depth work to ensure precise control over the consequences and ensuring perfect mastery in terms of performance and safety. Thus, for technological programs like RISE for Revolutionary Innovation for Sustainable Engines, launched by SAFRAN, it will be necessary to be capable of precisely analysing the functioning of the new advances achieved and their impacts on engine dynamics and lifetime. Indeed, this project integrates a large number of breakthrough technologies in comparison to conventional architectures such as the open-fan and open-OGV, as well as the high-speed turbine and booster.
These new designs emerge from knowledge gained from experiments carried out up to today, thus it is necessary to explore their impacts and obtain perfect knowledge of their physics to provide the capacity of controlled innovation. In this context the objective of the PANDORE project is to enhance the understanding, modelling, and thus the prediction of rolling bearing behaviour under extreme operating conditions. These conditions include specific aggressive scenarios for aircraft engines: bird ingestion, lightning strikes, oil cut-offs, and highly vibratory transport conditions.