Investigation of Blade Tip Interaction With Casing Treatment in a Transonic Compressor—Part II: Numerical Results

2010 ◽  
Vol 133 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Schnell ◽  
M. Voges ◽  
R. Mönig ◽  
M. W. Müller ◽  
C. Zscherp

A single stage transonic axial compressor was equipped with a casing treatment consisting of 3.5 axial slots per rotor pitch in order to investigate its influence on stall margin characteristics, as well as on the rotor near tip flow field, both numerically and experimentally. Contrary to most other studies, a generic casing treatment (CT) was designed to provide optimal optical access in the immediate vicinity of the CT, rather than for maximum benefit in terms of stall margin extension. The second part of this two-part paper deals with the numerical developments and their validation, carried out in order to efficiently perform time-accurate casing treatment simulations. The numerical developments focus on the extension of an existing coupling algorithm in order to carry out unsteady calculations with any exterior geometry coupled to the main flow passage (in this case a single slot), having an arbitrary pitch. This extension is done by incorporating frequency domain, phase-lagged boundary conditions into this coupling procedure. Whereas the phase lag approach itself is well established and validated for standard rotor-stator calculations, its application to casing treatment simulations is new. Its capabilities and validation will be demonstrated on the given compressor configuration, making extensive use of the detailed particle image velocimetry flow field measurements near the rotor tip. Instantaneous data at all measurement planes will be compared for different rotor positions with respect to the stationary slots in order to evaluate the time-dependent interaction between the rotor and the casing treatment.

Author(s):  
R. Schnell ◽  
M. Voges ◽  
R. Mo¨nig ◽  
M. W. Mu¨ller ◽  
C. Zscherp

A single-stage transonic axial compressor was equipped with a casing treatment, consisting of 3.5 axial slots per rotor pitch in order to investigate its influence on stall margin characteristics as well as on the rotor near tip flowfield both numerically and experimentally. Contrary to most other studies a generic Casing Treatment was designed to provide optimal optical access in the immediate vicinity of the CT, rather than for maximum benefit in terms of stall margin extension. The second part of this two-part paper deals with the numerical developments, and their validation, carried out in order to efficiently perform time-accurate casing-treatment simulations. The numerical developments focus on the extension of an existing coupling algorithm in order to carry out unsteady calculations with any exterior geometry coupled to the main flow passage (in this case a single slot) having an arbitrary pitch. This extension is done by incorporating frequency domain, phase-lagged boundary conditions into this coupling procedure. Whereas the phaselag approach itself is well established and validated for standard rotor-stator calculations, its application to casing treatment simulations is new. Its capabilities and validation will be demonstrated on the given compressor configuration, making extensive use of the detailed PIV flowfield measurements near the rotor tip. Instantaneous data at all measurement planes will be compared for different rotor positions with respect to the stationary slots in order to evaluate the time-dependent interaction between the rotor and the casing treatment.


2016 ◽  
Vol 139 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyril Guinet ◽  
André Inzenhofer ◽  
Volker Gümmer

The design space of axial-flow compressors is restricted by stability issues. Different axial-type casing treatments (CTs) have shown their ability to enhance compressor stability and to influence efficiency. Casing treatments have proven to be effective, but there still is need for more detailed investigations and gain of understanding for the underlying flow mechanism. Casing treatments are known to have a multitude of effects on the near-casing 3D flow field. For transonic compressor rotors, these are more complex, as super- and subsonic flow regions alternate while interacting with the casing treatment. To derive design rules, it is important to quantify the influence of the casing treatment on the different tip flow phenomena. Designing a casing treatment in a way that it antagonizes only the deteriorating secondary flow effects can be seen as a method to enhance stability while increasing efficiency. The numerical studies are carried out on a tip-critical rotor of a 1.5-stage transonic axial compressor. The examined recirculating tip blowing casing treatment (TBCT) consists of a recirculating channel with an air off-take above the rotor and an injection nozzle in front of the rotor. The design and functioning of the casing treatment are influenced by various parameters. A variation of the geometry of the tip blowing, more specifically the nozzle aspect ratio, the axial position, or the tangential orientation of the injection port, was carried out to identify key levers. The tip blowing casing treatment is defined as a parameterized geometric model and is automatically meshed. A sensitivity analysis of the respective design parameters of the tip blowing is carried out on a single rotor row. Their impact on overall efficiency and their ability to improve stall margin are evaluated. The study is carried out using unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) simulations.


Author(s):  
Yiming Zhong ◽  
WuLi Chu ◽  
HaoGuang Zhang

Abstract Compared to the traditional casing treatment, the self-recirculating casing treatment (SCT) can improve or not decrease the compressor efficiency while achieving the stall margin improvement. For the bleed port, the main design indicator is to reduce the flow loss caused by suction, while providing sufficient jet flow and jet pressure to the injector. In order to gain a better study of the bleed port stabilization mechanisms, the bleed configuration was parameterized with the bleed port inlet width and the bleed port axial position. Five kinds of recirculating casing treatments were applied to a 1.5-stage transonic axial compressor with the method of three-dimensional unsteady numerical simulation. Fifteen identical self-recirculating devices are uniformly mounted around the annulus. The numerical results show that the SCT can improve compressor total pressure ratio and stability, shift the stall margin towards lower mass flows. Furthermore, it has no impact on compressor efficiency. The optimal case presents that stability margin is improved by 6.7% employing 3.1% of the annulus mass flow. Expanding bleed port inlet width to an intermediate level can further enhance compressor stability, but excessive bleed port inlet width will reduce the stabilization effect. The optimal bleed port position is located in the blocked area of the low energy group at the top of the rotor. In the case of solid casing, stall inception was the tip blockage, which was mainly triggered by the interaction of the tip leakage vortex and passage shock. From radial distribution, the casing treatment predominantly affects the above 70% span. The reduction of tip reflux region by suction effect is the main reason for the extension of stable operation range. The SCT also has an obvious stability improvement in tip blockage stall, while delaying the occurrence of compressor stall.


Author(s):  
Ramjan R. Pathan ◽  
Quamber H. Nagpurwala ◽  
Ananthesha Bhat

Casing Treatment (CT) is one of the passive methods to increase the stability margin of the compress and hence that of the aircraft jet engines. In this paper, a novel J-shaped axial CT slot geometry is designed and numerically analysed for its effect on the performance of a single stage NACA transonic compressor. The predicted performance of the isolated rotor was validated by comparing with the published experimental results. The predicted efficiency of the baseline transonic rotor agreed well with experimental data, but the total pressure ratio was under predicted over the entire operating range. The J-shaped CT slots, with 100% axial coverage over the rotor tip chord, were able to extend the stall mass flow rate by almost 19.45% compared to the baseline rotor, accompanied with a slight reduction in rotor efficiency by 1.42%. The high pressure air entered the slots at rotor exit and flowed back through the slots and the plenum, and ejected at the rotor inlet to energise the low momentum end wall flow. The interaction of main inlet flow and the ejected flow having large tangential component of velocity, had favourable effect on the rotor incidence angle, and hence on rotor stall margin.


Author(s):  
André Inzenhofer ◽  
Cyril Guinet ◽  
Andreas Hupfer ◽  
Bernd Becker ◽  
Patrick Grothe ◽  
...  

Tip blowing and axial slot casing treatments have shown their ability to enhance the stability of a transonic axial compressor with different effects on efficiency. For an effective application of these casing treatments, a good knowledge of the influence of the casing treatment on the rotor flow field is important. There is still a need for more detailed investigations, in order to understand the interaction between the treatment and the near casing 3D flow field. For transonic compressor rotors this interaction is more complex, as super- and subsonic flow regions alternate while interacting with the casing treatment. In the present study, an axial slot and a tip blowing casing treatment, which have been developed and optimized for the same tip critical transonic axial compressor rotor (reference rotor) by Streit et al. [1] and Guinet et al. [2], are subject of the investigation. Both casing treatment types showed their capabilities to enhance the compressor stability without losing by means of CFD simulations. Since the higher compressor stability allows a higher blade loading, Streit et al. reduced the blade number of the rotor. Thus, the efficiency was increased due to the reduction of friction losses. However, applying the tip blowing casing treatment to the reduced rotor shows a negative effect on the efficiency. Both casing treatment types recirculate flow from a downstream to an upstream location of the rotor and reinject it to enhance the near casing flow field. Although the working principle of the two casing treatment types are similar, the transfer of the casing treatments from the reference to the reduced rotor show different trends in efficiency. Therefore, the effect of recirculation cannot explain the difference in efficiency. Hence, applying axial slots must include additional flow features, compared to recirculation channels. Compensating effects as in circumferential groove casing treatments and other flow interactions between the near casing flow field and the slot flow are considered. These additional mechanisms of the axial slot casing treatment will be identified and isolated by comparing the two different casing treatment types. The numerical simulations are carried out on a 1.5 stage transonic axial compressor using URANS simulations.


Author(s):  
Cyril Guinet ◽  
André Inzenhofer ◽  
Volker Gümmer

The design space of axial-flow compressors is restricted by stability issues. Different axial-type casing treatments have shown their ability to enhance compressor stability and to influence efficiency. Casing treatments have proven to be effective, but there still is need for more detailed investigations and gain of understanding for the underlying flow mechanism. Casing treatments are known to have a multitude of effects on the near-casing 3D flow field. For transonic compressor rotors these are more complex, as super- and subsonic flow regions alternate while interacting with the casing treatment. To derive design rules it is important to quantify the influence of the casing treatment on the different tip flow phenomena. Designing a casing treatment in a way that it antagonizes only the deteriorating secondary flow effects can be seen as a method to enhance stability while increasing efficiency. The numerical studies are carried out on a tip-critical rotor of a 1.5 stage transonic axial compressor. The examined recirculating tip blowing casing treatment, which consists of a recirculating channel with an air off-take above the rotor and an injection nozzle in front of the rotor. The design and functioning of the casing treatment is influenced by various parameters. A variation of the geometry of the tip blowing, more specifically the nozzle aspect ratio, the axial position or the tangential orientation of the injection port, was carried out to identify key levers. The tip blowing casing treatment is defined as a parameterized geometric model and is automatically meshed. A sensitivity analysis of the respective design parameters of the tip blowing is carried out on a single rotor row. Their impact on overall efficiency and their ability to improve stall margin is evaluated. The study is carried out using URANS simulations.


Author(s):  
D. C. Rabe ◽  
C. Hah

Experimental and numerical investigations were conducted to study the fundamental flow mechanisms of circumferential grooves in the casing of a transonic compressor and their influence on compressor stall margin. Three different groove configurations were tested in a highly loaded transonic compressor. Experimental results show that circumferential grooves increase the stall margin of the compressor at the tested operating condition. Grooves with a much smaller depth than conventional designs are shown to be similarly effective in increasing the stall margin. Steady-state Navier-Stokes analyses were performed to study flow structures associated with each casing treatment. The numerical procedure calculates the overall effects of the circumferential grooves correctly. Detailed investigation of calculated flow fields indicates that losses are generated by interaction between the main passage flow and flow exiting the grooves. The grooves increase the stall margin by reducing the flow incidence angle on the pressure side of the leading edge, despite an overall increase in the endwall boundary layer thickness. This is due to complex interaction of the main passage flow with the additional radial and tangential flows created by the grooves.


2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Krug ◽  
Peter Busse ◽  
Konrad Vogeler

An important aspect of the aerodynamic flow field in the tip region of axial compressor rotors is the unsteady interaction between the tip clearance vortex (TCV) and the incoming stator wakes. In order to gain an improved understanding of the mechanics involved, systematic studies need to be performed. As a first step toward the characterization of the dynamic effects caused by the relative movement of the blade rows, the impact of a stationary wake-induced inlet disturbance on a linear compressor cascade with tip clearance will be analyzed. The wakes were generated by a fixed grid of cylindrical bars with variable pitch being placed at discrete pitchwise positions. This paper focuses on experimental studies conducted at the newly designed low-speed cascade wind tunnel in Dresden. The general tunnel configuration and details on the specific cascade setup will be presented. Steady state flow field measurements were carried out using five-hole probe traverses up- and downstream of the cascade and accompanied by static wall pressure readings. 2D-particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements complemented these results by visualizing the blade-to-blade flow field. Hence, the structure of the evolving secondary flow system is evaluated and compared for all tested configurations.


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):  
Chengwu Yang ◽  
Xingen Lu ◽  
Yanfeng Zhang ◽  
Shengfeng Zhao ◽  
Junqiang Zhu

The clearance size of cantilevered stators affects the performance and stability of axial compressors significantly. Numerical calculations were carried out using the commercial software FINE/Turbo for a 2.5-stage highly loaded transonic axial compressor, which is of cantilevered stator for the first stage, at varying hub clearance sizes. The aim of this work is to improve understanding of the impact mechanism of hub clearance on the performance and the flow field in high flow turning conditions. The performance of the front stage and the compressor with different hub clearance sizes of the first stator has been analyzed firstly. Results show that the efficiency decreases as clearance size varies from 0 to 3% of hub chordlength, but the operating range has been extended. For the first stage, the efficiency decreases about 0.5% and the stall margin is extended. The following analysis of detailed flow field in the first stator shows that the clearance leakage flow and elimination of hub corner separation is responsible for the increasing loss and stall margin extending respectively. The effects of hub clearance on the downstream rotor have been discussed lastly. It indicates that the loss of the rotor increases and the flow deteriorates due to increasing of clearance size and hence the leakage mass flow rate, which mainly results from the interaction of upstream leakage flow with the passage flow near pressure surface. The affected region of rotor passage flow field expands in spanwise and streamwise direction as clearance size grows. The hub clearance leakage flow moves upward in span as it flows toward downstream.


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