On the Modeling of Tip Leakage Flow in Axial Turbine Blade Rows

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reinhard Willinger ◽  
Hermann Haselbacher
Keyword(s):  
Discharge Coefficient ◽  
Velocity Ratio ◽  
Length Ratio ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Vena Contracta ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Discharge Coefficients ◽  
Gap Flow ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Gap Width

The starting point of this paper is an established turbine tip leakage loss model based on energy considerations. The model requires a discharge coefficient as an empirical input. The discharge coefficient is the ratio of the actual to the theoretical tip gap mass flow rate, The nondimensional parameters influencing the discharge coefficient are determined by a dimensional analysis. These parameters are: gap width to length ratio, end wall speed to gap flow velocity ratio and gap Reynolds number. Ranges for these parameters, valid for typical turbine tip gap situations, are presented. The numerical investigation of the turbulent flow in a plane perpendicular to the blade chord line supplies the discharge coefficient versus the nondimensional gap width. Depending on the gap width to length ratio, various degrees of mixing of the flow downstream of the vena contracta can be detected. Based on these observations, a simple tip gap flow model is presented. The discharge coefficients computed by this model are compared with the numerical results as well as with experimental values from the literature. Finally, the model is used to calculate the discharge coefficients of improved tip gap geometries (squealers, winglets).

scholarly journals Discharge Coefficients of Ports with Stepped Inlets

Aerospace ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 97
Author(s):  
Adrian Spencer
Keyword(s):  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Discharge Coefficient ◽  
Cross Flow ◽  
Diameter Ratio ◽  
Empirical Correlations ◽  
Equivalent Radius ◽  
One Dimensional ◽  
Vena Contracta ◽  
Discharge Coefficients ◽  
The Subject

Components of aeronautical gas turbines are increasingly being constructed from two layers, including a pressure containing skin, which is then protected by a thermal tile. Between them, pedestals and/or other heat transfer enhancing features are often employed. This results in air admission ports through the dual skin having a step feature at the inlet. Experimental data have been captured for stepped ports with a cross flow approach, which show a marked increase of 20% to 25% in discharge coefficient due to inlet step sizes typical of combustion chamber configurations. In this respect, the step behaves in a fashion comparable to ports with inlet chamfering or radiusing; the discharge coefficient is increased as a result of a reduction in the size of the vena contracta brought about by changes to the flow at inlet to the port. Radiused and chamfered ports have been the subject of previous studies, and empirical correlations exist to predict their discharge coefficient as used in many one-dimensional flow network tools. A method to predict the discharge coefficient change due to a step is suggested: converting the effect of the step into an equivalent radius to diameter ratio available in existing correlation approaches. An additional factor of eccentricity between the hole in the two skins is also considered. Eccentricity is shown to reduce discharge coefficient by up to 10% for some configurations, which is more pronounced at higher port mass flow ingestion fraction.

scholarly journals The Effect of Blade Tip Geometry on the Tip Leakage Flow in Axial Turbine Cascades

1991 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. J. G. Heyes ◽  
H. P. Hodson ◽  
G. M. Dailey
Keyword(s):  
Discharge Coefficient ◽  
Suction Side ◽  
Generation Process ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Blade Tip ◽  
Overall Performance ◽  
Turbine Cascades ◽  
Made In ◽  
Blade Tip Geometry

The phenomenon of tip leakage has been studied in two linear cascades of turbine blades.The investigation includes an examination of the performance of the cascades with a variety of tip geometries. The effects of using plain tips, suction side squealers and pressure side squealers are reported. Traverses of the exit flow field were made in order to determine the overall performance. A method of calculating the tip discharge coefficients for squealer geometries is put forward. In linking the tip discharge coefficient and cascade losses a procedure for predicting the relative performance of tip geometries is developed. The model is used to examine the results obtained using the different tip treatments and to highlight the important aspects of the loss generation process.

Blade Tip Shape Optimization for Enhanced Turbine Aerothermal Performance

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. De Maesschalck ◽  
S. Lavagnoli ◽  
G. Paniagua
Keyword(s):  
Leakage Flow ◽  
Optimization Strategy ◽  
Flow Conditions ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Leakage Flows ◽  
Turbine Efficiency ◽  
Gap Flow ◽  
Blade Tip ◽  
Tip Leakage Flows

In high-speed unshrouded turbines tip leakage flows generate large aerodynamic losses and intense unsteady thermal loads over the rotor blade tip and casing. The stage loading and rotational speeds are steadily increased to achieve higher turbine efficiency, and hence the overtip leakage flow may exceed the transonic regime. However, conventional blade tip geometries are not designed to cope with supersonic tip flow velocities. A great potential lays in the modification and optimization of the blade tip shape as a means to control the tip leakage flow aerodynamics, limit the entropy production in the overtip gap, manage the heat load distribution over the blade tip and improve the turbine efficiency at high stage loading coefficients. The present paper develops an optimization strategy to produce a set of blade tip profiles with enhanced aerothermal performance for a number of tip gap flow conditions. The tip clearance flow was numerically simulated through two-dimensional compressible Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) calculations that reproduce an idealized overtip flow along streamlines. A multi-objective optimization tool, based on differential evolution combined with surrogate models (artificial neural networks), was used to obtain optimized 2D tip profiles with reduced aerodynamic losses and minimum heat transfer variations and mean levels over the blade tip and casing. Optimized tip shapes were obtained for relevant tip gap flow conditions in terms of blade thickness to tip gap height ratios (between 5 and 25), and blade pressure loads (from subsonic to supersonic tip leakage flow regimes) imposing fixed inlet conditions. We demonstrated that tip geometries which perform superior in subsonic conditions are not optimal for supersonic tip gap flows. Prime tip profiles exist depending on the tip flow conditions. The numerical study yielded a deeper insight on the physics of tip leakage flows of unshrouded rotors with arbitrary tip shapes, providing the necessary knowledge to guide the design and optimization strategy of a full blade tip surface in a real 3D turbine environment.

Aerodynamic Investigation of the Tip Leakage Flow for Blades With Different Tip Squealer Geometries at Transonic Conditions

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toma´sˇ Hofer ◽  
Tony Arts
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Mass Flow ◽  
Suction Side ◽  
Loss Coefficient ◽  
Leakage Flow ◽  
Pressure Side ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Gap Flow ◽  
Tip Gap Flow

Modern high pressure turbines operate at high velocity and high temperature conditions. The gap existing above a turbine rotor blade is responsible for an undesirable tip leakage flow. It is a source of high aerodynamic losses and high heat transfer rates. A better understanding of the tip flow behaviour is needed to provide a more efficient cooling design in this region. The objective of this paper is to investigate the tip leakage flow for a blade with two different squealer tips and film-cooling applied on the pressure side and through tip dust holes in a non-rotating, linear cascade arrangement. The experiments were performed in the VKI Light Piston Compression Tube facility, CT-2. The tip gap flow was investigated by oil flow visualisations and by wall static and total pressure measurements. Two geometries were tested — a full squealer and a partial suction side squealer. The measurements were performed in the blade tip region, including the squealer rim and on the corresponding end-wall for engine representative values of outlet Reynolds and Mach numbers. The main flow structures in the cavity were put in evidence. Positive influence of the coolant on the tip gap flow and on the aerodynamic losses was found for the full squealer tip case: increasing the coolant mass-flow increased the tip gap flow resistance. The flow through the clearance therefore slows down, the tip gap mass-flow and the heat transfer respectively decreases. No such effect of cooling was found in the case of the partial suction side squealer geometry. The absence of a pressure side squealer rim resulted in a totally different tip gap flow topology, indifferent to cooling. The influence of cooling on the overall mass-weighted thermodynamic loss coefficient, which takes into account the different energies of the mainstream and coolant flows was found marginal for both geometries. Finally the overall loss coefficient was found to be higher for the partial suction side squealer tip than for the full squealer tip.

The Influence of Suction-Side Winglet on Tip Leakage Flow in Compressor Cascade

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingjun Zhong ◽  
Shaobing Han ◽  
Peng Sun
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Study ◽  
Flow Behavior ◽  
Velocity Ratio ◽  
Suction Side ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Compressor Cascade ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Cascade Flow ◽  
Highly Loaded

The effect of tip winglet on the aerodynamic performance of compressor cascade are mainly determined by the location of the tip winglet, the tip winglet geometry, the size of tip clearance, and the aerodynamic parameters of the cascade. In this paper, an extensive numerical study which includes three aspects has been carried out to investigate the effects of these influencing factors in a highly-loaded compressor cascade in order to give the guidance for the application of tip winglet to control the tip leakage in modern highly-loaded compressor. Firstly, the numerical method is validated by comparing the numerical results with available measured data. Results show that the numerical procedure is valid and accurate. Then, the cascade flow fields are interrogate to identify the physical mechanism of how suction-side winglet improve the cascade flow behavior. It is found that a significant tip leakage mass flow rate and aerodynamic loss reduction is possible by using proper tip winglet located near the suction side corner of the blade tip. Finally, an optimum width of the suction-side tip winglet is obtained by comparing the compressor performance with different clearances and incidences. The use of the suction-side winglet can reduce the pressure difference between the pressure and the suction sides of the blade and tip leakage velocity ratio. And the winglet also can compact the tip leakage vortex structure, which is benefit to decrease the loss of the tip secondary flow mixing with the primary flow.

Axial Turbine Tip-Leakage Losses at Off-Design Incidences

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Willinger ◽  
H. Haselbacher
Keyword(s):  
Load Condition ◽  
Turbine Rotor ◽  
Rotor Blades ◽  
Turbine Cascade ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Turbine Rotor Blade ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Blade Row ◽  
Axial Turbines ◽  
Gap Width

The tip-leakage losses in axial turbines with unshrouded rotor blades can account for as much as one third of the total losses. Various effects are influencing the tip-leakage flow and losses. This paper presents results of an experimental investigation concerning off-design incidences. Off-design incidences occur when the turbine operates at conditions different from the rated load condition. A low speed cascade wind tunnel has been used for the investigation. The geometry of the turbine cascade is an up-scale of the tip section of a low-pressure gas turbine rotor blade row (“Yaras–Sjolander cascade”) with a tip gap width of 2.5% of the chord length. The applied inlet flow angles consist of the design value as well as four off-design incidences in the range ±20°. Total pressures, static pressures and flow angles were obtained by traversing of a pneumatic five-hole probe in a plane about 0.3 axial chord lengths downstream of the turbine cascade. Based on the experimental results, a tip-leakage loss model is presented which can take into account off-design incidences. The model is applied to the present turbine cascade as well as to the turbine cascade of Yamamoto [1]. Due to its underlying concept, the model is able to predict, in addition to the losses, the flow underturning near the endwall caused by the tip-leakage vortex.

Rotor-Tip Leakage: Part I—Basic Methodology

1982 ◽  
Vol 104 (1) ◽  
pp. 154-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. C. Booth ◽  
P. R. Dodge ◽  
H. K. Hepworth
Keyword(s):  
Discharge Coefficient ◽  
Tangential Velocity ◽  
Turbine Rotor ◽  
Normal Velocity ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Leakage Flows ◽  
Component Identification ◽  
Blade Tip ◽  
Tip Leakage Flows

Blade tip losses represent a major efficiency penalty in a turbine rotor. These losses are presently controlled by maintaining close tolerances on tip clearances. This two-part paper outlines a new methodology for predicting and minimizing tip leakage flows. Part I of the paper describes a series of experiments and analyses which indicated a predominantly inviscid nature of tip leakage flow. The experiments were conducted on a series of three water flow rigs in which leakage quantities were measured over simulated blade tips. As a result of the experiments, a simple tip-leakage model is proposed that treats the normal velocity component in terms of discharge coefficient and conserves the tangential velocity (momentum) component. Identification of tip leakage controlled by a normal discharge coefficient suggests an optimum tip-treatment configuration may be designed through discharge testing of candidate configurations. A preliminary design optimization was conducted on the simple discharge rigs, and the results were evaluated on the water table cascade rig and on a turbine stage.

scholarly journals Effect of casing aspiration on the tip leakage flow in the axial flow compressor cascade

2017 ◽  
Vol 232 (3) ◽  
pp. 225-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaochen Mao ◽  
Bo Liu ◽  
Tianquan Tang
Keyword(s):  
Leakage Flow ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Compressor Cascade ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Control Effect ◽  
Tip Leakage Vortex ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Onset Point ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Impact

Tip leakage flow is usually responsible for the deterioration of compressor performance and stability. The current paper conducts numerical simulations on the impact of casing aspiration on the axial compressor cascade performance. Three aspiration schemes with different chordwise coverage are studied and analyzed. It is found that the cascade performance can be effectively improved by the appropriate casing aspiration, and the optimum aspiration scheme should cover the area including the onset point of tip leakage vortex and its vicinity. The control mechanisms are different for the aspiration schemes located at different blade chord ranges. For the aspiration scheme covering the onset point of tip leakage vortex, the improvement of the cascade performance is mainly due to that the starting point of the tip leakage vortex is shifted downstream. The original tip leakage vortex structure is divided into two parts if the aspiration scheme is located behind the onset point of tip leakage vortex and the final control effect is the combination of the influence from the two different parts of tip leakage vortex. Additionally, the casing aspiration redistributes the blade loading along the chord near blade tip. The results of these investigations may offer guidance for the appropriate design of aspiration scheme in the future updated compressors and the overall total pressure loss coefficient caused by aspiration slot should be considered in the design process.

Effect of Tandem Blading in Contra-Rotating Axial Flow Fans

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manas Madasseri Payyappalli ◽  
A. M. Pradeep
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Efficiency ◽  
Axial Flow ◽  
Pressure Rise ◽  
Stability Margin ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Tandem Configuration ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Gap Flow ◽  
Increasing Demand ◽  
The Stability

With the ever-increasing demand for improved fuel efficiency and lower emissions, there is a significant emphasis on finding innovative design solutions that can replace or significantly improve the present-day turbomachinery designs. The concepts of contra-rotation and tandem blade configuration are two different methods of achieving better performance. Though several independent studies have been carried out on the concepts of contrarotation and tandem blade configuration, a combination of both these techniques to achieve better performance is a thought unexplored. Therefore, the present work explores the applicability of tandem blading in a low-speed contra-rotating fan. The idea is to replace the front rotor of the contra-rotating fan stage with tandem blades. Several combinations of percent pitch for the tandem arrangement are analyzed to obtain the best configuration suitable for the case. The performance of the baseline contra-rotating fan is established numerically. A detailed numerical investigation of the flow physics associated with the contrarotating stage reveals some interesting phenomena affecting its performance. A comparison of the performance of tandem configuration with that of the baseline is carried out. The interaction of gap flow and the wake of the front blade with the tip-leakage flow of the rear blade of the tandem configuration is analyzed in detail. The performance of the stage is evaluated through stage loading or pressure rise and the stability margin.

Numerical Investigations of an Axial Exhaust Diffuser Coupling the Last Stage of a Generic Gas Turbine

2018 ◽  
Vol 141 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marius Mihailowitsch ◽  
Markus Schatz ◽  
Damian M. Vogt
Keyword(s):  
Gas Turbine ◽  
Dynamic Pressure ◽  
Coupled System ◽  
Operating Point ◽  
Leakage Flow ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Last Stage ◽  
Inlet Conditions ◽  
Gap Width

It is well known that the last stage of a turbine and the subsequent diffuser should be viewed at and designed as a coupled system rather than as single standalone components. The turbine outlet flow imposes the inlet conditions to the diffuser, whereas the recovered dynamic pressure in the diffuser directly controls the turbine back pressure. With changing operating point, the turbine outflow can vary significantly. This results consequently in large variations of the diffuser performance. A major role in the coupled system of turbine and diffuser can be attributed to the tip leakage flow. While it is desirable to minimize the tip leakage with regard to the turbine, a higher leakage mass flow can often be beneficial for the diffuser performance. As there is currently a trend toward aggressive and hence shorter diffusers which are particularly prone to separation, the question arises where the optimum for this tradeoff problem lies. To investigate the performance in the coupled turbine/diffuser system, a generic last stage with shrouded rotor and axial exhaust diffuser has been designed. The components are representative for heavy duty stationary gas turbine applications. Results are presented for three different operating points representing part-load (PL), design-load (DL), and over-load (OL) condition. Three different seal gap widths are taken into account to control the leakage flow. The results indicate that an operating point-dependent optimum gap width can be found for the coupled system efficiency, whereas the maximum turbine performance is always achieved with a minimum gap width.

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