A Three-Dimensional Inverse Method for Turbomachinery: Part I—Theory

1990 ◽  
Vol 112 (3) ◽  
pp. 346-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. E. Borges

There are surprisingly few inverse methods described in the literature that are truly three dimensional. Here, one such method is presented. This technique uses as input a prescribed distribution of the mean swirl, i.e., radius times mean tangential velocity, given throughout the meridional section of the machine. In the present implementation the flow is considered inviscid and incompressible and is assumed irrotational at the inlet to the blade row. In order to evaluate the velocity field inside the turbomachine, the blades (supposed infinitely thin) are replaced by sheets of vorticity, whose strength is related to the specified mean swirl. Some advice on the choice of a suitable mean swirl distribution is given. In order to assess the usefulness of the present procedure, it was decided to apply it to the design of an impeller for a low-speed radial-inflow turbine. The results of the tests are described in the second part of this paper.

1989 ◽  
Author(s):  
João Eduardo Borges

There are surprisingly few inverse methods described in the literature that are truly three-dimensional. Here, one such method is presented. This technique uses as input a prescribed distribution of the mean swirl, i.e., radius times mean tangential velocity, given throughout the meridional section of the machine. In the present implementation the flow is considered inviscid and incompressible and is assumed irrotational at inlet to the blade row. In order to evaluate the velocity field inside the turbomachine, the blades (supposed infinitely thin) are replaced by sheets of vorticity whose strength is related to the specified mean swirl. Some advice on the choice of a suitable mean swirl distribution is given. In order to assess the usefulness of the present procedure, it was decided to apply it to the design of an impeller of a low-speed radial-inflow turbine. The results of the tests are described in the second part of this paper.


Author(s):  
Alain Demeulenaere ◽  
Olivier Léonard ◽  
René Van den Braembussche

The use of a three-dimensional Euler inverse method for the design of a centrifugal impeller is demonstrated. Both the blade shape and the endwalls are iteratively designed. The meridional contour is modified in order to control the mean velocity level in the blade channel, while the blade shape is designed to achieve a prescribed loading distribution between the inlet and the outlet. The method salves the time dependent Euler equations in a numerical domain of which some boundaries (the blades or the endwalls) move and change shape during the transient part of the computation, until a prescribed pressure distribution is achieved on the blade surfaces. The method is applied to the design of a centrifugal compressor impeller, whose hub endwall and blade surfaces are modified by the inviscid inverse method. The real performance of both initial and modified geometries are compared through three-dimensional Navier-Stokes computations.


2000 ◽  
Vol 122 (4) ◽  
pp. 593-603 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan G. van de Wall ◽  
Jaikrishnan R. Kadambi ◽  
John J. Adamczyk

The unsteady process resulting from the interaction of upstream vortical structures with a downstream blade row in turbomachines can have a significant impact on the machine efficiency. The upstream vortical structures or disturbances are transported by the mean flow of the downstream blade row, redistributing the time-average unsteady kinetic energy (K) associated with the incoming disturbance. A transport model was developed to take this process into account in the computation of time-averaged multistage turbomachinery flows. The model was applied to compressor and turbine geometry. For compressors, the K associated with upstream two-dimensional wakes and three-dimensional tip clearance flows is reduced as a result of their interaction with a downstream blade row. This reduction results from inviscid effects as well as viscous effects and reduces the loss associated with the upstream disturbance. Any disturbance passing through a compressor blade row results in a smaller loss than if the disturbance was mixed-out prior to entering the blade row. For turbines, the K associated with upstream two-dimensional wakes and three-dimensional tip clearance flows are significantly amplified by inviscid effects as a result of the interaction with a downstream turbine blade row. Viscous effects act to reduce the amplification of the K by inviscid effects but result in a substantial loss. Two-dimensional wakes and three-dimensional tip clearance flows passing through a turbine blade row result in a larger loss than if these disturbances were mixed-out prior to entering the blade row. [S0889-504X(00)01804-3]


Author(s):  
T. Q. Dang ◽  
T. Wang

This paper presents an extension of a recently developed three-dimensional inverse method for turbomachine blades to handle multi-stage machines in the limit of an infinite number of blades in each blade row. The axisymmetric flowfield is assumed to be inviscid, compressible, and rotational. The use of blockage and entropy-increase terms are included in the theory to model losses. An iterative procedure is presented for the calculations of the blade profiles which produce prescribed swirl schedules in the bladed regions. The numerical technique employed to solve the relevant equations is based on a finite-volume formulation. The method is applied to the design of a low-pressure multi-stage centrifugal compressor used in industrial processing.


1999 ◽  
Vol 394 ◽  
pp. 303-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. VERNET ◽  
G. A. KOPP ◽  
J. A. FERRÉ ◽  
FRANCESC GIRALT

Simultaneous velocity and temperature measurements were made with rakes of sensors that sliced a slightly heated turbulent wake in the spanwise direction, at different lateral positions 150 diameters downstream of the cylinder. A pattern recognition analysis of hotter-to-colder transitions was performed on temperature data measured at the mean velocity half-width. The velocity data from the different ‘slices’ was then conditionally averaged based on the identified temperature events. This procedure yielded the topology of the average three-dimensional large-scale structure which was visualized with iso-surfaces of negative values of the second eigenvector of [S2+Ω2]. The results indicate that the average structure of the velocity fluctuations (using a triple decomposition of the velocity field) is found to be a shear-aligned ring-shaped vortex. This vortex ring has strong outward lateral velocities in its symmetry plane which are like Grant's mixing jets. The mixing jet region extends outside the ring-like vortex and is bounded by two foci separated in the spanwise direction and an upstream saddle point. The two foci correspond to what has been previously identified in the literature as the double rollers.The ring vortex extracts energy from the mean flow by stretching in the mixing jet region just upstream of the ring boundary. The production of the small-scale (incoherent) turbulence by the coherent field and one-component energy dissipation rate occur just downstream of the saddle point within the mixing jet region. Incoherent turbulence energy is extracted from the mean flow just outside the mixing jet region, but within the core of the structure. These processes are highly three-dimensional with a spanwise extent equal to the mean velocity half-width.When a double decomposition is used, the coherent structure is found to be a tube-shaped vortex with a spanwise extent of about 2.5l0. The double roller motions are integral to this vortex in spite of its shape. Spatial averages of the coherent velocity field indicate that the mixing jet region causes a deficit of mean streamwise momentum, while the region outside the foci of the double rollers has a relatively small excess of streamwise momentum.


Author(s):  
Y. L. Yang

A three-dimensional inverse design of turbomachinery blading for arbitrary blade thickness was obtained by using two periodic bound vortex sheets representing the pressure side and suction side of a blade row. The mean swirl distribution and blade tangential thickness distribution are specified in the present inverse design method. The prescribed mean swirl distribution is split into two fractions to form the strength of two bound vortex sheets. However, the designed results are uniquely determined by the specification of the mean swirl distribution and blade tangential thickness distribution, while splitting the mean swirl distribution into any two fractions for two bound vortex sheets is irrelevant. The resulting velocity field is composed of three parts: the first is sawtooth integrated from two bound vortex sheets; the second is axisymmetrical to provide an irrotational flow outside the two bound vortex sheets; and the last is potential to ensure mass conservation. The blade shape is determined from either the pressure side or suction side boundary condition, without a difference. Numerical results of a subsonic stator blade row designed by the present inverse design have been compared with three-dimensional Euler solutions and show a good agreement. For transonic calculation, a special form of retarding density was implemented to avoid transformation of the coordinate. However, due to the nonisentropic and rotational nature of shock wave, the present inverse solution does not give a correct answer after shocks. Coupling the entropy change and generation of vorticity after shocks with the present analytical formulation is recommended in the future work.


1990 ◽  
Vol 112 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. E. Borges

The performance of an impeller of a low-speed radial-inflow turbine, designed using a three-dimensional inverse technique, was evaluated experimentally. This performance was compared with that achieved by a rotor typical of the present technology. Besides measuring overall quantities, in special efficiency, some traverses of flow velocity were carried out. The results of the tests showed that the new design had a peak total-to-static efficiency 1.4 points better than the conventional build. The traverses indicated that the level of swirl at exhaust of the new impeller was only half as big as that for the conventional rotor, in spite of the fact that both impellers were designed to have zero swirl at outlet. It is also shown that the rotor loss for the new impeller is considerably lower than for the conventional wheel. This research points to the desirability of using a three-dimensional inverse method for the design of turbomachines with significant three-dimensional flows.


2005 ◽  
Vol 129 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. P. C. van Rooij ◽  
T. Q. Dang ◽  
L. M. Larosiliere

Current turbomachinery design systems increasingly rely on multistage CFD as a means to diagnose designs and assess performance potential. However, design weaknesses attributed to improper stage matching are addressed using often ineffective strategies involving a costly iterative loop between blading modification, revision of design intent, and further evaluation of aerodynamic performance. A scheme is proposed herein which greatly simplifies the design point blade row matching process. It is based on a three-dimensional viscous inverse method that has been extended to allow blading analysis and design in a multi-blade row environment. For computational expediency, blade row coupling is achieved through an averaging-plane approximation. To limit computational time, the inverse method was parallelized. The proposed method allows improvement of design point blade row matching by direct regulation of the circulation capacity of the blading within a multistage environment. During the design calculation, blade shapes are adjusted to account for inflow and outflow conditions while producing a prescribed pressure loading. Thus, it is computationally ensured that the intended pressure-loading distribution is consistent with the derived blading geometry operating in a multiblade row environment that accounts for certain blade row interactions. The viability of the method is demonstrated in design exercises involving the rotors of a 2.5 stage, highly loaded compressor. Individually redesigned rotors display mismatching when run in the 2.5 stage, evident as a deviation from design intent. However, simultaneous redesign of the rotors in their multistage environment produces the design intent, indicating that aerodynamic matching has been achieved.


1993 ◽  
Vol 115 (3) ◽  
pp. 527-541 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. D. Hathaway ◽  
R. M. Chriss ◽  
J. R. Wood ◽  
A. J. Strazisar

An experimental and computational investigation of the NASA Low-Speed Centrifugal Compressor (LSCC) flow field has been conducted using laser anemometry and Dawes’ three dimensional viscous code. The experimental configuration consists of a backswept impeller followed by a vaneless diffuser. Measurements of the three-dimensional velocity field were acquired at several measurement planes through the compressor. The measurements describe both the throughflow and secondary velocity field along each measurement plane. In several cases the measurements provide details of the flow within the blade boundary layers. Insight into the complex flow physics within centrifugal compressors is provided by the computational analysis, and assessment of the CFD predictions is provided by comparison with the measurements. Five-hole probe and hot-wire surveys at the inlet and exit to the rotor as well as surface flow visualization along the impeller blade surfaces provide independent confirmation of the laser measurement technique. The results clearly document the development of the throughflow velocity wake, which is characteristic of unshrouded centrifugal compressors.


Author(s):  
M. D. Hathaway ◽  
R. M. Chriss ◽  
J. R. Wood ◽  
A. J. Strazisar

An experimental and computational investigation of the NASA Low-Speed Centrifugal Compressor (LSCC) flow field has been conducted using laser anemometry and Dawes’ 3D viscous code. The experimental configuration consists of a backswept impeller followed by a vaneless diffuser. Measurements of the three–dimensional velocity field were acquired at several measurement planes through the compressor. The measurements describe both the throughflow and secondary velocity field along each measurement plane. In several cases the measurements provide details of the flow within the blade boundary layers. Insight into the complex flow physics within centrifugal compressors is provided by the computational analysis, and assessment of the CFD predictions is provided by comparison with the measurements. Five-hole probe and hot-wire surveys at the inlet and exit to the rotor as well as surface flow visualization along the impeller blade surfaces provide independent confirmation of the laser measurement technique.


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