Water Injection Effects on Compressor Stage Operation

2006 ◽  
Vol 129 (3) ◽  
pp. 778-784 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Roumeliotis ◽  
K. Mathioudakis

In the present paper, experimental work concerning the effect of water injection on a compressor stage is presented. The effect on compressor stage performance and stability is examined for water injection up to 2%. The behavior of the airflow in the blade rows is examined through aerodynamic measurements. The results indicate that although the water injection appears to not have any significant effect on the flow pattern and to stage pressure rise and stall margin, there is a measurable effect on compression efficiency, which seems to result mainly from losses of a mechanical nature and water acceleration. The efficiency degradation is proportional to the water ratio entering the engine.

Author(s):  
I. Roumeliotis ◽  
K. Mathioudakis

In the present paper, experimental work concerning the effect of water injection on a compressor stage is presented. The effect on compressor stage performance and stability is examined for water injection up to 2%. The behaviour of the air flow in the blade rows is examined through aerodynamic measurements. The results indicate that although the water injection appears to not have any significant effect on the flow pattern and to stage pressure rise and stall margin, there is a measurable effect on compression efficiency which seems to result mainly from losses of mechanical nature and water acceleration. The efficiency degradation is proportional to the water ratio entering the engine.


Author(s):  
Quentin Dejour ◽  
Huu Duc Vo

This paper presents the first assessment of a new non-axial counter-rotating compressor concept. This concept consists of replacing the stator of a mixed-flow compressor stage or the diffuser of a centrifugal compressor stage with a counter-rotating rotor that will turn the flow back to the axial direction with much lower diffusion factor, while providing the equivalent in work of the upstream mixed-flow rotor or impeller. This concept has two advantages. First, the very high stage pressure rise means that only a single counter-rotating rotor may be required, making mechanical implementation simpler than for multi-stage axial counter-rotating compressors. Second, the replacement of the high flow turning (high loss) stator/diffuser in a non-axial stage with a low flow turning counter-rotating rotor gives the new concept potential for achieving higher efficiency than conventional non-axial compressors. As a first proof of concept, a subsonic counter-rotating mixed-flow compressor and its conventional (i.e. rotor-stator) equivalent have been designed with the intent of being implemented in a test rig. CFD simulations have been carried out for a comparative evaluation of both configurations. Results show that the counter-rotating mixed-flow compressor produces more than double the pressure rise of its conventional version with a slightly higher peak-efficiency while having a smaller axial length. Moreover, the counter-rotating configuration has a better stall margin than its conventional counterpart, for which the boundary layer separation from excessive flow turning in the stator causes early stall.


Author(s):  
P. V. Ramakrishna ◽  
M. Govardhan

The present numerical work studies the flow field in subsonic axial compressor stator passages for: (a) preceding rotor sweep (b) preceding rotor re-staggering (three stagger angle changes: 0°, +3° and +5°); and (c) stator sweeping (two 20° forward sweep schemes). The following are the motives for the study: at the off-design conditions, compressor rotors are re-staggered to alleviate the stage mismatching by adjusting the rows to the operating flow incidence. Fundamental to this is the understanding of the effects of rotor re-staggering on the downstream component. Secondly, sweeping the rotor stages alters the axial distance between the successive rotor-stator stages and necessitates that the stator vanes must also be swept. To the best of the author’s knowledge, stator sweeping to suit such scenarios has not been reported. The computational model for the study utilizes well resolved hexahedral grids. A commercial CFD package ANSYS® CFX 11.0 was used with standard k-ω turbulence model for the simulations. CFD results were well validated with experiments. The following observations were made: (1) When the rotor passage is closed by re-staggering, with the same mass flow rate and the same stator passage area, stators were subjected to negative incidences. (2) Effect of stator sweeping on the upstream rotor flow field is insignificant. Comparison of total pressure rise carried by the downstream stators suggests that an appropriate redesign of stator is essential to match with the swept rotors. (3) While sweeping the stator is not recommended, axial sweeping is preferable over true sweeping when it is necessary.


Author(s):  
K. Vijayraj ◽  
M. Govardhan

A Counter-Rotating System (CRS) is composed of a front rotor and a rear rotor which rotates in the opposite direction. Compared with traditional rotor-stator system, the rear rotor is used not only to recover the static head but also to supply energy to the fluid. Therefore, to achieve the same performance, the use of a CRS may lead to a reduction of the rotational speed and may generate better homogeneous flow downstream of the stage. On the other hand, the mixing area in between the two rotors induces complicated interacting flow structures. Blade sweep has attracted the turbomachinery blade designers owing to a variety of performance benefits it offers. However, the effect of blade sweep on the performance, stall margin improvements whether it is advantageous/disadvantageous to sweep one or both rotors has not been studied till now. In the current investigation blade sweep on the performance characteristics of contra rotating axial flow fans are studied. Two sweep schemes (axial sweeping and tip chord line sweeping) are studied for two sweep angles (20° and 30°). Effect of blade sweep on front rotor and rear rotor are dealt separately by sweeping one at a time. Both rotors are swept together and effect of such sweep scheme on the aerodynamic performance of the stage is also reported here. The performance of contra rotating fan is significantly affected by all these parameters. Blade sweep improved the pressure rise and stall margin of front rotors. Axially swept rotors are found to have higher pressure rise with reduced incidence losses near the tip for front rotors. Sweeping the rear rotor is not effective since the pressure rise is less than that of unswept rotor and also has less stall margin.


Author(s):  
N. K. W. Lee ◽  
E. M. Greitzer

An experimental investigation was carried out to examine the effects on stall margin of flow injection into, and flow removal out of, the endwall region of an axial compressor blade row. A primary objective of the investigation was clarification of the mechanism by which casing treatment (which involves both removal and injection) suppresses stall in turbomachines. To simulate the relative motion between blade and treatment, the injection and removal took place through a slotted hub rotating beneath a cantilevered stator row. Overall performance data and detailed (time-averaged) flowfield measurements were obtained. Flow injection and removal both increased the stalling pressure rise, but neither was as effective as the wall treatment. Removal of high blockage flow is thus not the sole reason for the observed stall margin improvement in casing or hub treatment, as injection can also contribute significantly to stall suppression. The results also indicate that the increase in stall pressure rise with injection is linked to the streamwise momentum of the injected flow, and it is suggested that this should be the focus of further studies.


Author(s):  
Lei Yu ◽  
William T. Cousins ◽  
Feng Shen ◽  
Georgi Kalitzin ◽  
Vishnu Sishtla ◽  
...  

In this effort, 3D CFD simulations are carried out for real gas flow in a refrigeration centrifugal compressor. Both commercial and the in-house CFD codes are used for steady and unsteady simulations, respectively. The impact on the compressor performance with various volute designs and diffuser modifications are investigated with steady simulations and the analysis is focused on both the diffuser and the volute loss, in addition to the flow distortion at impeller exit. The influence of the tongue, scroll diffusion ratio, diffuser length, and cross sectional area distribution is examined to determine the impact on size and performance. The comparisons of total pressure loss, static pressure recovery, through flow velocity, and the secondary flow patterns for different volute designs show that the performance of the centrifugal compressor depends upon how well the scroll portion of the volute collects the flow from the impeller and achieves the required pressure rise with minimum flow losses in the overall diffusion process. Finally, the best design is selected based on compressor stage pressure rise and peak efficiency improvement. An unsteady simulation of the full wheel compressor stage was carried out to further examine the interaction of impeller, diffuser and the volute. The unsteady flow interactions are shown to have a major impact on the performance of the centrifugal stage.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Subbaramu Shivaramaiah ◽  
Mahesh K. Varpe

Abstract In the present research work, effect of airfoil vortex generator on performance and stability of transonic compressor stage is investigated through CFD simulations. In turbomachines vortex generators are used to energize boundary and generated vortex is made to interact with tip leakage flow and secondary flow vortices formed in rotor and stator blade passage. In the present numerical investigation symmetrical airfoil vortex generator is placed on rotor casing surface close to leading edge, anticipating that vortex generated will be able to disturb tip leakage flow and its interaction with rotor passage core flow. Six different vortex generator configuration are investigated by varying distance between vortex generator trailing edge and rotor leading edge. Particular vortex generator configuration shows maximum improvement of stall margin and operating range by 5.5% and 76.75% respectively. Presence of vortex generator alters flow blockage by modifying flow field in rotor tip region and hence contributes to enhancement of stall margin. As a negative effect, interaction of vortex generator vortices and casing causes surface friction and high entropy generation. As a result compressor stage pressure ratio and efficiency decreases.


2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Callegaro ◽  
Martin Bartosek ◽  
Franco Masserano ◽  
Marianna Nobili ◽  
Valerio Parasiliti Parasiliti Parracello ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 140 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jichao Li ◽  
Juan Du ◽  
Mingzhen Li ◽  
Feng Lin ◽  
Hongwu Zhang ◽  
...  

The effects of water ingestion on the performance of an axial flow compressor are experimentally studied with and without endwall treatment. The background to the work is derived from the assessment of airworthiness for an aero-engine. The stability-enhancing effects with endwall treatments under rain ingestion are not previously known. Moreover, all the endwall treatments are designed under dry air conditions in the compressor. Water ingestion at 3% and 5% relative to the design mass flow proposed in the airworthiness standard are applied to initially investigate the effects on the performance under smooth casing (SC). Results show that the water ingestions are mainly located near the casing wall after they move through the rotor blade row. The pressure rise coefficient increases, efficiency declines, and torque increases under the proposed water ingestion. The increase of the inlet water increases the thickness of the water film downstream the rotor blade row and aggravates the adverse effects on the performances. Subsequently, three endwall treatments, namely circumferential grooves, axial slots, and hybrid slots–grooves, are tested with and without water ingestion. Compared with no water ingestion, the circumferential grooves basically have no resistance to the water ingestion. The axial slots best prevent the drop of the pressure rise coefficient induced by water ingestion, and hybrid slots–grooves are the second-best place owing to the contribution of the front axial slots. Therefore, the hybrid slots–grooves can not only extend the stall margin with less efficiency penalty compared with axial slots, but also prevent rain ingestion from worsening the compressor performance.


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