Engine ground vortex ingestion occurs during ground maneuvering of transport airplanes. It poses foreign object damage and engine surge hazards, and it greatly hinders the ability to land in austere fields. The sprinkler system developed by Boeing utilizes high pressure bleed air from the compressor,which is plumbed to a valve located inside the engine cowl. The continuous jet is discharged through a nozzle that swivels intermittently, just like a sprinkler (1,2). The slew motion of the ejecting fluid disrupts the global flow in front of the engine and prevents the formation of ground vortices, thereby ensuring the operational health of the engine. The CFD simulation describes jet ejection by releasing particles from the sprinkler nozzles during the first five cycles from start of actuation (0.036 seconds, 140Hz).

The C-17 along with the sky and background was rendered with 3D Studio Max.  The particles were rendered in EnSight.  The two sets of images were overlaid in Adobe After Effects (which is also when the color bar and ERDC MSRC watermark was added) and rendered into a movie file. Movies courtesy of Yoram Yadlin of Boeing.   ERDC MSRC Richard Walters made this movie, using Yoram Yadlin's data.

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