Boundary Layer and Loss Analysis in a Film Cooled Vane

Author(s):  
Giovanna Barigozzi ◽  
Giuseppe Benzoni ◽  
Antonio Perdichizzi

The paper reports on boundary layer and wake flow analysis in a fully covered, film cooled vane without trailing edge ejection. The investigation, carried out in a low speed wind tunnel for linear cascades, has been mainly focused on the loss generation process due to coolant injection. The investigated region includes the rear part of pressure and suction side boundary layers and the wake region, up to a chord length downstream of the trailing edge. All measurements have been performed at mid-span, air being used as coolant flow. The same measurements have been also performed on a solid blade cascade, i.e. without cooling holes. Boundary layer profiles, integral parameters together with mean and turbulent quantities are presented. It results that the showerhead promotes transition on the suction side, giving rise to a thicker boundary layer all over the surface. On the pressure side, the boundary layer remains laminar up to the trailing edge, as high acceleration prevents transition. The wake region seems not to be strongly altered by the coolant injection. Boundary layer profiles and downstream 5-hole probe traverses have been used to compute loss coefficient distributions all over the blade surface and in the downstream region. Coolant injection strongly increases the profile losses along the suction side, while a much smaller contribution from the pressure side has been found. These increases are mainly due to coolant injection in the vane front part.

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (02) ◽  
pp. 1850020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seongkyu Lee

This paper investigates the effect of airfoil shape on trailing edge noise. The boundary layer profiles are obtained by XFOIL and the trailing edge noise is predicted by a TNO semi-empirical model. In order to investigate the noise source characteristics, the wall pressure spectrum is decomposed into three components. This decomposition helps in finding the dominant source region and the peak noise frequency for each airfoil. The method is validated for a NACA0012 airfoil, and then five additional wind turbine airfoils are examined: NACA0018, DU96-w-180, S809, S822 and S831. It is found that the dominant source region is around 40% of the boundary layer thickness for both the suction and pressure sides for a NACA0012 airfoil. As airfoil thickness and camber increase, the maximum source region moves slightly upward on the suction side. However, the effect of the airfoil shape on the maximum source region on the pressure side is negligible, except for the S831 airfoil, which exhibits an extension of the noise source region near the wall at high frequencies. As airfoil thickness and camber increase, low frequency noise is increased. However, a higher camber reduces low frequency noise on the pressure side. The maximum camber position is also found to be important and its rear position increases noise levels on the suction side.


2015 ◽  
Vol 780 ◽  
pp. 167-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Pröbsting ◽  
S. Yarusevych

The subject of this experimental study is the feedback effects due to tonal noise emission in a laminar separation bubble (LSB) formed on the suction side of an airfoil in low Reynolds number flows. Experiments were performed on a NACA 0012 airfoil for a range of chord-based Reynolds numbers $0.65\times 10^{5}\leqslant \mathit{Re}_{c}\leqslant 4.5\times 10^{5}$ at angle of attack ${\it\alpha}=2^{\circ }$, where laminar boundary layer separation is encountered on both sides of the airfoil. Simultaneous time-resolved, two-component particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements, unsteady surface pressure and far-field acoustic pressure measurements were employed to characterize flow development and acoustic emissions. Amplification of disturbances in separated shear layers on both the suction and pressure sides of the airfoil leads to shear layer roll-up and shedding of vortices from separation bubbles. When the vortices do not break up upstream of the trailing edge, the passage of these structures over the trailing edge generates tonal noise. Acoustic feedback between the trailing edge noise source and the upstream separation bubble narrows the frequency band of amplified disturbances, effectively locking onto a particular frequency. Acoustic excitation further results in notable changes to the overall separation bubble characteristics. Roll-up vortices forming on the pressure side, where the bubble is located closer to the trailing edge, are shown to define the characteristic frequency of pressure fluctuations, thereby affecting the disturbance spectrum on the suction side. However, when the bubble on the pressure side is suppressed via boundary layer tripping, a weaker feedback effect is also observed on the suction side. The results give a detailed quantitative description of the observed phenomenon and provide a new outlook on the role of coherent structures in separation bubble dynamics and trailing edge noise generation.


Author(s):  
Marion Mack ◽  
Roland Brachmanski ◽  
Reinhard Niehuis

The performance of the low pressure turbine (LPT) can vary appreciably, because this component operates under a wide range of Reynolds numbers. At higher Reynolds numbers, mid and aft loaded profiles have the advantage that transition of suction side boundary layer happens further downstream than at front loaded profiles, resulting in lower profile loss. At lower Reynolds numbers, aft loading of the blade can mean that if a suction side separation exists, it may remain open up to the trailing edge. This is especially the case when blade lift is increased via increased pitch to chord ratio. There is a trend in research towards exploring the effect of coupling boundary layer control with highly loaded turbine blades, in order to maximize performance over the full relevant Reynolds number range. In an earlier work, pulsed blowing with fluidic oscillators was shown to be effective in reducing the extent of the separated flow region and to significantly decrease the profile losses caused by separation over a wide range of Reynolds numbers. These experiments were carried out in the High-Speed Cascade Wind Tunnel of the German Federal Armed Forces University Munich, Germany, which allows to capture the effects of pulsed blowing at engine relevant conditions. The assumed control mechanism was the triggering of boundary layer transition by excitation of the Tollmien-Schlichting waves. The current work aims to gain further insight into the effects of pulsed blowing. It investigates the effect of a highly efficient configuration of pulsed blowing at a frequency of 9.5 kHz on the boundary layer at a Reynolds number of 70000 and exit Mach number of 0.6. The boundary layer profiles were measured at five positions between peak Mach number and the trailing edge with hot wire anemometry and pneumatic probes. Experiments were conducted with and without actuation under steady as well as periodically unsteady inflow conditions. The results show the development of the boundary layer and its interaction with incoming wakes. It is shown that pulsed blowing accelerates transition over the separation bubble and drastically reduces the boundary layer thickness.


2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans-Ju¨rgen Rehder

As part of a European research project, the aerodynamic and thermodynamic performance of a high pressure turbine cascade with different trailing edge cooling configurations was investigated in the wind tunnel for linear cascades at DLR in Go¨ttingen. A transonic rotor profile with a relative thick trailing edge was chosen for the experiments. Three trailing edge cooling configurations were applied, first central trailing edge ejection, second a trailing edge shape with a pressure side cut-back and slot equipped with a diffuser rib array, and third pressure side film cooling through a row of cylindrical holes. For comparison, aerodynamic investigations on a reference cascade with solid blades (no cooling holes or slots) were performed. The experiments covered the subsonic, transonic and supersonic exit Mach number range of the cascade while varying cooling mass flow ratios up to 2 %. This paper analyzes the effect of coolant ejection on the airfoil losses. Emphasis was given on separating the different loss contributions due to shocks, pressure, and suction side boundary layer, trailing edge, and mixing of the coolant flow. Employed measurement techniques are schlieren visualization, blade surface pressure measurements, and traverses by pneumatic probes in the cascade exit flow field and around the trailing edge. The results show that central trailing edge ejection significantly reduces the mixing losses and therefore decreases the overall loss. Higher loss levels are obtained when applying the configurations with pressure side blowing. In particular, the cut-back geometry reveals strong mixing losses due to the low momentum coolant fluid, which is decelerated by the diffuser rib array inside the slot. The influence of coolant flow rate on the trailing edge loss is tremendous, too. Shock and boundary layer losses are major contributions to the overall loss but are less affected by the coolant. Finally a parameter variation changing the temperature ratio of coolant to main flow was performed, resulting in increasing losses with decreasing coolant temperature.


Author(s):  
Yousef Kanani ◽  
Sumanta Acharya ◽  
Forrest Ames

Abstract Turbine passage secondary flows are studied for a large rounded leading edge airfoil geometry considered in the experimental investigation of Varty et al. (J. Turbomach. 140(2):021010) using high resolution Large Eddy Simulation (LES). The complex nature of secondary flow formation and evolution are affected by the approach boundary layer characteristics, components of pressure gradients tangent and normal to the passage flow, surface curvature, and inflow turbulence. This paper presents a detailed description of the secondary flows and heat transfer in a linear vane cascade at exit chord Reynolds number of 5 × 105 at low and high inflow turbulence. Initial flow turning at the leading edge of the inlet boundary layer leads to a pair of counter-rotating flow circulation in each half of the cross-plane that drive the evolution of the pressure-side and suction side of the near-wall vortices such as the horseshoe and leading edge corner vortex. The passage vortex for the current large leading-edge vane is formed by the amplification of the initially formed circulation closer to the pressure side (PPC) which strengthens and merges with other vortex systems while moving toward the suction side. The predicted suction surface heat transfer shows good agreement with the measurements and properly captures the augmented heat transfer due to the formation and lateral spreading of the secondary flows towards the vane midspan downstream of the vane passage. Effects of various components of the secondary flows on the endwall and vane heat transfer are discussed in detail.


2019 ◽  
Vol 105 (5) ◽  
pp. 814-826 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuejun Shi ◽  
Seongkyu Lee

This paper presents a new idea of reducing airfoil trailing edge noise using a small bump in the turbulent boundary layer. First, we develop and validate a new computational approach to predict airfoil trailing edge noise using steady RANS CFD, an empirical wall pressure spectrum model, and Howe's diff raction theory. This numerical approach enables fast and accurate predictions of trailing edge noise, which is used to study the noise reduction from the bump for various airfoil geometries and flow conditions at high Reynolds numbers. Three types of bumps, the suction-side bump, pressure-side bump, and both-side bumps, are studied. The results show that all types of bumps are able to reduce far-field noise up to 10 dB compared to clean airfoils, but their impacts are diff erent in terms of the eff ective frequency range. Also, bumps with four diff erent heights are compared with each other to investigate the eff ect of the height of bumps on noise reduction. It is demonstrated that a bump causes velocity deficit within the boundary layer near the wall. This velocity deficit results in reduced turbulence kinetic energy near the wall, which is responsible for trailing edge noise reduction. Overall, this paper demonstrates the potential of a boundary-layer bump in trailing edge noise reduction and sheds light on the physical mechanism of noise reduction with boundary-layer bumps.


Author(s):  
Kai U. Ziegler ◽  
Heinz E. Gallus ◽  
Reinhard Niehuis

The interaction between impeller and diffuser is considered to have strong influence on the flow in highly loaded centrifugal compressors. However, the knowledge about this influence is still not satisfying. This two-part paper presents an experimental investigation of the effect of impeller-diffuser interaction on the unsteady and the time averaged flow configuration in impeller and diffuser and the performance of these components. The flat wedge vaned diffuser of the investigated stage allows an independent adjustment of diffuser vane angle and radial gap between impeller exit and diffuser vane inlet. Attention is mainly directed to the radial gap, as it determines the intensity of the impeller-diffuser interaction. In part I it was shown that smaller radial gaps improve diffuser pressure recovery, whereas impeller efficiency is hardly affected. Part II focuses on the reasons for these effects. Measurements with a laser-2-focus velocimeter in the highly unsteady flow field between the impeller exit region and diffuser throat were performed at three different diffuser geometries allowing a detailed flow analysis. Especially the unsteady results show that for a smaller radial gap more impeller wake fluid is conveyed towards the highly loaded diffuser vane pressure side reducing its loading and leading to a better diffusion in the diffuser channel. Concerning the impeller flow, it was found that a smaller radial gap is leading to a noticeable reduction of the wake region at impeller exit. The experimental results are intended to be published as an open CFD testcase under the name “Radiver”.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 1031-1046 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Memmolo ◽  
Matteo Bernardini ◽  
Sergio Pirozzoli

Purpose This paper aims to show results of numerical simulations of transonic flow around a supercritical airfoil at chord Reynolds number Rec = 3 × 106, with the aim of elucidating the mechanisms responsible for large-scale shock oscillations, namely, transonic buffet. Design/methodology/approach Unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes simulations and detached-eddy simulations provide a preliminary buffet map, while a high fidelity implicit large-eddy simulation with an upstream laminar boundary layer is used to ascertain the physical feasibility of the various buffet mechanisms. Numerical experiments with unsteady RANS highlight the role of waves travelling on pressure side in the buffet mechanism. Estimates of the propagation velocities of coherent disturbances and of acoustic waves are obtained, to check the validity of popular mechanisms based on acoustic feedback from the trailing edge. Findings Unsteady RANS numerical experiments demonstrate that the pressure side of the airfoil plays a marginal role in the buffet mechanism. Implicit LES data show that the only plausible self-sustaining mechanism involves waves scattered from the trailing edge and penetrating the sonic region from above the suction side shock. An interesting side result of this study is that buffet appears to be more intense in the case that the boundary layer state upstream of the shock is turbulent, rather than laminar. Originality/value The results of the study will be of interest to any researcher involved with transonic buffet.


Author(s):  
Sarwesh Parbat ◽  
Li Yang ◽  
Minking Chyu ◽  
Sin Chien Siw ◽  
Ching-Pang Lee

Abstract The strive to achieve increasingly higher efficiencies in gas turbine power generation has led to a continued rise in the turbine inlet temperature. As a result, novel cooling approaches for gas turbine blades are necessary to maintain them within the material’s thermal mechanical performance envelope. Various internal and external cooling technologies are used in different parts of the blade airfoil to provide the desired levels of cooling. Among the different regions of the blade profile, the trailing edge (TE) presents additional cooling challenges due to the thin cross section and high thermal loads. In this study, a new wavy geometry for the TE has been proposed and analyzed using steady state numerical simulations. The wavy TE structure resembled a sinusoidal wave running along the span of the blade. The troughs on both pressure side and suction side contained the coolant exit slots. As a result, consecutive coolant exit slots provided an alternating discharge between the suction side and the pressure side of the blade. Steady state conjugate heat transfer simulations were carried out using CFX solver for four coolant to mainstream mass flow ratios of 0.45%, 1%, 1.5% and 3%. The temperature distribution and film cooling effectiveness in the TE region were compared to two conventional geometries, pressure side cutback and centerline ejection which are widely used in vanes and blades for both land-based and aviation gas turbine engines. Unstructured mesh was generated for both fluid and solid domains and interfaces were defined between the two domains. For turbulence closer, SST-kω model was used. The wall y+ was maintained < 1 by using inflation layers at all the solid fluid interfaces. The numerical results depicted that the alternating discharge from the wavy TE was able to form protective film coverage on both the pressure and suction side of the blade. As a result, significant reduction in the TE metal was observed which was up to 14% lower in volume averaged temperature in the TE region when compared to the two baseline conventional configurations.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Yousef Kanani ◽  
Sumanta Acharya ◽  
Forrest Ames

Abstract Turbine passage secondary flows are studied for a large rounded leading edge airfoil geometry considered in the experimental investigation of Varty et al. (J. Turbomach. 140(2):021010) using high resolution Large Eddy Simulation. The complex nature of secondary flow formation and evolution are affected by the approach boundary layer characteristics, components of pressure gradients tangent and normal to the passage flow, surface curvature, and inflow turbulence. This paper presents a detailed description of the secondary flows and heat transfer in a linear vane cascade at exit chord Reynolds number of 500,000 at low and high inflow turbulence. Initial flow turning at the leading edge of the inlet boundary layer leads to a pair of counter-rotating flow circulation in each half of the cross-plane that drive the evolution of the pressure-side and suction side of the near-wall vortices such as the horseshoe and leading edge corner vortex. The passage vortex for the current large leading-edge vane is formed by the amplification of the initially formed circulation closer to the pressure side which strengthens and merges with other vortex systems while moving toward the suction side. The predicted suction surface heat transfer shows good agreement with the measurements and properly captures the augmented heat transfer due to the formation and lateral spreading of the secondary flows towards the vane midspan downstream of the vane passage. Effects of various components of the secondary flows on the endwall and vane heat transfer are discussed in detail.


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