scholarly journals High-Fidelity Simulations of a High-Pressure Turbine Vane Subject to Large Disturbances: Effect of Exit Mach Number on Losses

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaomin Zhao ◽  
Richard D Sandberg
Author(s):  
Dun Lin ◽  
Xinrong Su ◽  
Xin Yuan

The flow in a generic, high-pressure turbine vane was simulated using an in-house DDES code. Two different operating conditions were simulated with one leading to a shock wave while the other does not. One case was used to validate the capability of the DDES method to capture shock waves and other flow structures using an inlet Reynolds number of 271,000 and an exit Mach number of 0.840. The test conditions for the other case were an inlet Reynolds number of 265,000 and an exit Mach number of 0.927, which is representative of a transonic, high pressure turbine vane which was used to further investigate the flow field. The DDES simulations from the first case are compared with published experimental data, RANS simulations and LES simulations. Then, DDES results for two cases with adiabatic and isothermal boundary conditions are compared. The numerical simulations with the isothermal boundary condition are further used to study the flow phenomena with wake vortices, shock waves, pressure waves, wake-shock interactions, and wake-pressure wave interactions. The effects of the pressure waves on the vane heat transfer are also analyzed.


Author(s):  
D. Corriveau ◽  
S. A. Sjolander

Linear cascade measurements for the aerodynamic performance of a family of three transonic, high-pressure (HP) turbine blades have been presented previously by the authors. The airfoils were designed for the same inlet and outlet velocity triangles but varied in their loading distributions. The previous papers presented results for the design incidence at various exit Mach numbers, and for off-design incidence at the design exit Mach number of 1.05. Results from the earlier studies indicated that by shifting the loading towards the rear of the airfoil an improvement in the profile loss performance of the order of 20% could be obtained near the design Mach number at design incidence. Measurements performed at off-design incidence, but still at the design Mach number, showed that the superior performance of the aft-loaded blade extended over a range of incidence from about −5.0° to +5.0° relative to the design value. For the current study, additional measurements were performed at off-design Mach numbers from about 0.5 to 1.3 and for incidence values of −10.0°, +5.0° and + 10.0° relative to design. The corresponding Reynolds numbers, based on outlet velocity and true chord, varied from roughly 4 × 105 to 10 × 105. The measurements included midspan losses, blade loading distributions and base pressures. In addition, two-dimensional Navier-Stokes computations of the flow were performed to help in the interpretation of the experimental results. The results show that the superior loss performance of the aft-loaded profile, observed at design Mach number and low values of off-design incidence, does not extend readily to off-design Mach numbers and larger values of incidence. In fact, the measured midspan loss performance for the aft-loaded blade was found to be inferior to, or at best equal to, that of the baseline, mid-loaded airfoil at most combinations of off-design Mach number and incidence. However, based on the observations made at design and off-design flow conditions, it appears that aft-loading can be a viable design philosophy to employ in order to reduce the losses within a blade row provided the rearward deceleration is carefully limited. The loss performance of the front-loaded blade is inferior or at best equal to that of the other two blades for all operating conditions. As such, it appears that there is no advantage to front loading the airfoil for transonic high-pressure turbine blades. The results also provide a significant addition to the data available in the open literature on the off-design performance of transonic HP turbine airfoils.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Yaomin Zhao ◽  
Richard Sandberg

Abstract We report on a series of highly resolved large-eddy simulations of the LS89 high-pressure turbine (HPT) vane, varying the exit Mach number between Ma=0.7 and 1.1. In order to accurately resolve the blade boundary layers and enforce pitchwise periodicity, we for the first time use an overset mesh method, which consists of an O-type grid around the blade overlapping with a background H-type grid. The simulations were conducted either with a synthetic inlet turbulence condition or including upstream bars. A quantitative comparison shows that the computationally more efficient synthetic method is able to reproduce the turbulence characterictics of the upstream bars. We further perform a detailed analysis of the flow fields, showing that the varying exit Mach number significantly changes the turbine efficiency by affecting the suction-side transition, blade boundary layer profiles, and wake mixing. In particular, the Ma=1.1 case includes a strong shock that interacts with the trailing edge, causing an increased complexity of the flow field. We use our recently developed entropy loss analysis (Zhao and Sandberg, GT2019-90126) to decompose the overall loss into different source terms and identify the regions that dominate the loss generation. Comparing the different Ma cases, we conclude that the main mechanism for the extra loss generation in the Ma=1.1 case is the shock-related strong pressure gradient interacting with the turbulent boundary layer and the wake, resulting in significant turbulence production and extensive viscous dissipation.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Osusky ◽  
Rathakrishnan Bhaskaran ◽  
Dheeraj Kapilavai ◽  
Greg Sluyter ◽  
Sriram Shankaran

Abstract Engineers performing computational simulations of flow physics are often faced with a trade-off between turn-around time and accuracy. High-fidelity models that can accurately capture small details of flow, such as turbulent mixing, are typically too expensive and are therefore reserved for studying smaller, component level problems. Standard models, like Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) and Unsteady-RANS, are used to predict larger interactions without the ability to accurately compute the small scales, at a lower computational cost than high-fidelity models. However, with specific algorithmic choices and access to large-scale GPU systems, we can demonstrate high-fidelity simulations of large engine sections that can be completed within engineering design cycle turn-around times, instead of the typical weeks to months required for high fidelity simulations. In this paper we present the high-order GENESIS code, employed in the simulation of complex turbulent flows inside the high-pressure turbine of a jet engine. The code efficiently exploits GPU accelerators to execute high-fidelity simulations, while also demonstrating extraordinary accuracy validated by experimental data and previous RANS model predictions. This is demonstrated for a three-dimensional high-pressure turbine stator domain, for which the LES is able to accurately predict wake mixing and temperature distribution, factors that are critical for designing durable turbine components. The new capability allows for computational studies of phenomena such as laminar to turbulent transition and wake mixing, all applied to relevant three-dimensional geometries present in the high-pressure turbine, all within the time scale of a typical engineering design cycle.


Author(s):  
Yaomin Zhao ◽  
Richard D. Sandberg

Abstract We report on a series of highly resolved large-eddy simulations of the LS89 high-pressure turbine (HPT) vane, varying the exit Mach number between Ma = 0.7 and 1.1. In order to accurately resolve the blade boundary layers and enforce pitchwise periodicity, we for the first time use an overset mesh method, which consists of an O-type grid around the blade overlapping with a background H-type grid. The simulations were conducted either with a synthetic inlet turbulence condition or including upstream bars. A quantitative comparison shows that the computationally more efficient synthetic method is able to reproduce the turbulence characterictics of the upstream bars. We further perform a detailed analysis of the flow fields, showing that the varying exit Mach number significantly changes the turbine efficiency by affecting the suction-side transition, blade boundary layer profiles, and wake mixing. In particular, the Ma = 1.1 case includes a strong shock that interacts with the trailing edge, causing an increased complexity of the flow field. We use our recently developed entropy loss analysis (Zhao and Sandberg, GT2019-90126) to decompose the overall loss into different source terms and identify the regions that dominate the loss generation. Comparing the different Ma cases, we conclude that the main mechanism for the extra loss generation in the Ma = 1.1 case is the shock-related strong pressure gradient interacting with the turbulent boundary layer and the wake, resulting in significant turbulence production and extensive viscous dissipation.


Author(s):  
Dun Lin ◽  
Xinrong Su ◽  
Xin Yuan

In this work, the flows inside the high pressure turbine (HPT) vane and stage are studied with the help of a high-fidelity delayed detached eddy simulation (DDES) code. This work intends to study the fundamental nozzle/blade interaction with special attention paid to the development and transportation of the vane wake vortex. There are two motivations for this work. On the one hand, the high pressure turbine operates at both transonic Mach numbers and high Reynolds numbers, which imposes a great challenge to modern computational fluid dynamics (CFD), especially for scale-resolved simulation methods. An accurate and efficient high-fidelity CFD solver is very important for a thorough understanding of the flow physics and the design of more efficient HPT. On the other hand, the periodic wake vortex shedding is an important origin of turbine losses and unsteadiness. The wake and vortex not only cause losses themselves, but also interact with the shock wave (under transonic working condition), pressure waves, and have a strong impact on the downstream blade surface (affecting boundary layer transition and heat transfer). Built on one of our previous DDES simulations of a HPT vane VKI LS89, this work further investigates the development and length characteristics of the wake vortex, provides explanations of the length characteristics and reveals the transportation of the wake vortex into the downstream rotor passage along with its impact on the downstream aero-thermal performance.


Author(s):  
Kenta Mizutori ◽  
Koji Fukudome ◽  
Makoto Yamamoto ◽  
Masaya Suzuki

Abstract We performed numerical simulation to understand deposition phenomena on high-pressure turbine vane. Several deposition models were compared and the OSU model showed good adaptation to any flow field and material, so it was implemented on UPACS. After the implementation, the simulations of deposition phenomenon in several cases of the flow field were conducted. From the results, particles adhere on the leading edge and the trailing edge side of the pressure surface. Also, the calculation of the total pressure loss coefficient was conducted after computing the flow field after deposition. The total pressure loss coefficient increased after deposition and it was revealed that the deposition deteriorates aerodynamic performance.


Author(s):  
Ryan M. Urbassik ◽  
J. Mitch Wolff ◽  
Marc D. Polanka

A set of experimental data is presented investigating the unsteady aerodynamics associated with a high pressure turbine vane (HPV) and rotor blade (HPB). The data was acquired at the Turbine Research Facility (TRF) of the Air Force Research Laboratory. The TRF is a transient, blowdown facility generating several seconds of experimental data on full scale engine hardware at scaled turbine operating conditions simulating an actual engine environment. The pressure ratio and freestream Reynolds number were varied for this investigation. Surface unsteady pressure measurements on the HPV, total pressure traverse measurements downstream of the vane, and surface unsteady pressure measurements for the rotor blade were obtained. The unsteady content of the HPV surface was generated by the rotor potential field. The first harmonic decayed more rapidly than the second harmonic with a movement upstream causing the second harmonic to be most influential at the vane throat. The blade unsteadiness appears to be caused by a combination of shock, potential field, and vane wake interactions between the vane and rotor blade. The revolution averaged data resulted in higher unsteadiness than a passing ensemble average for both vane and rotor indicating a need to understand each passage for high cycle fatigue (HCF) effects.


Author(s):  
Charles W. Haldeman ◽  
Michael G. Dunn ◽  
John W. Barter ◽  
Brian R. Green ◽  
Robert F. Bergholz

Aerodynamic measurements were acquired on a modern single-stage, transonic, high-pressure turbine with the adjacent low-pressure turbine vane row (a typical civilian one and one-half stage turbine rig) to observe the effects of low-pressure turbine vane clocking on overall turbine performance. The turbine rig (loosely referred to in this paper as the stage) was operated at design corrected conditions using the Ohio State University Gas Turbine Laboratory Turbine Test Facility (TTF). The research program utilized uncooled hardware in which all three airfoils were heavily instrumented at multiple spans to develop a full clocking dataset. The low-pressure turbine vane row (LPTV) was clocked relative to the high-pressure turbine vane row (HPTV). Various methods were used to evaluate the influence of clocking on the aeroperformance (efficiency) and the aerodynamics (pressure loading) of the LPTV, including time-resolved and time-averaged measurements. A change in overall efficiency of approximately 2–3% due to clocking effects is demonstrated and could be observed using a variety of independent methods. Maximum efficiency is obtained when the time-average surface pressures are highest on the LPTV and the time-resolved surface pressure (both in the time domain and frequency domain) show the least amount of variation. The overall effect is obtained by integrating over the entire airfoil, as the three-dimensional effects on the LPTV surface are significant. This experimental data set validates several computational research efforts that suggested wake migration is the primary reason for the perceived effectiveness of vane clocking. The suggestion that wake migration is the dominate mechanism in generating the clocking effect is also consistent with anecdotal evidence that fully cooled engine rigs do not see a great deal of clocking effect. This is consistent since the additional disturbances induced by the cooling flows and/or the combustor make it extremely difficult to find an alignment for the LPTV given the strong 3D nature of modern high-pressure turbine flows.


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