scholarly journals A Navier-Stokes Analysis of the Effect of Tip Clearance on Compressor Stall Margin

Author(s):  
Robert P. Dring ◽  
William D. Sprout ◽  
Harris D. Weingold

A three-dimensional Navier-Stokes calculation was used to analyze the impact of rotor tip clearance on the stall margin of a multi-stage axial compressor. This paper presents a summary of: (1) a study of the sensitivity of the results to grid refinement, (2) an assessment of the calculation’s ability to predict stall margin when the stalling row was the first rotor in a multi-stage rig environment, (3) an analysis of the impact of including the effects of the downstream stator through body force effects on the upstream rotor, and (4) the ability of the calculation to predict the impact of tip clearance on stall margin through a calculation of the rear seven airfoil rows of an eleven stage high pressure compressor rig. The result of these studies was that a practical tool is available which can predict stall margin, and the impact of tip clearance, with reasonable accuracy.

1998 ◽  
Vol 120 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. R. LeJambre ◽  
R. M. Zacharias ◽  
B. P. Biederman ◽  
A. J. Gleixner ◽  
C. J. Yetka

Two versions of a three-dimensional multistage Navier–Stokes code were used to optimize the design of an eleven-stage high-pressure compressor. The first version of the code utilized a “mixing plane” approach to compute the flow through multistage machines. The effects due to tip clearances and flowpath cavities were not modeled. This code was used to minimize the regions of separation on airfoil and endwall surfaces for the compressor. The resulting compressor contained bowed stators and rotor airfoils with contoured endwalls. Experimental data acquired for the HPC showed that it achieved 2 percent higher efficiency than a baseline machine, but it had 14 percent lower stall margin. Increased stall margin of the HPC was achieved by modifying the stator airfoils without compromising the gain in efficiency as demonstrated in subsequent rig and engine tests. The modifications to the stators were defined by using the second version of the multistage Navier–Stokes code, which models the effects of tip clearance and endwall flowpath cavities, as well as the effects of adjacent airfoil rows through the use of “bodyforces” and “deterministic stresses.” The application of the Navier–Stokes code was assessed to yield up to 50 percent reduction in the compressor development time and cost.


Author(s):  
C. R. LeJambre ◽  
R. M. Zacharias ◽  
B. P. Biederman ◽  
A. J. Gleixner ◽  
C. J. Yetka

Two versions of a three dimensional multistage Navier-Stokes code were used to optimize the design of an eleven stage high pressure compressor. The first version of the code utilized a “mixing plane” approach to compute the flow through multistage machines. The effects due to tip clearances and flowpath cavities were not modeled. This code was used to minimize the regions of separation on airfoil and endwall surfaces for the compressor. The resulting compressor contained bowed stators and rotor airfoils with contoured endwalls. Experimental data acquired for the HPC showed that it achieved 2% higher efficiency than a baseline machine, but it had 14% lower stall margin. Increased stall margin of the HPC was achieved by modifying the stator airfoils without compromising the gain in efficiency as demonstrated in subsequent rig and engine tests. The modifications to the stators were defined by using the second version of the multistage Navier-Stokes code, which models the effects of tip clearance and endwall flowpath cavities, as well as the effects of adjacent airfoil rows through the use of “bodyforces” and “deterministic stresses”. The application of the Navier-Stokes code was assessed to yield up to 50% reduction in the compressor development time and cost.


Author(s):  
Nitya Kamdar ◽  
Fangyuan Lou ◽  
Nicole L. Key

Abstract In the first part of the paper, the influence of the hub leakage flow on compressor performance and its interactions with the primary flow were investigated. While the impact of hub leakage flow on the primary passage is readily available in the open literature, details inside the cavity geometry are scarce due to the difficulties in instrumenting that region for an experiment or modeling the full cavity geometry. To shed light on this topic, the flow physics in the stator cavity inlet and outlet wells were investigated in the present part of the paper to understand the flow path of the leakage fluid and windage heating within the cavity using a coupled CFD model with inclusion of the stator cavity wells for the Purdue 3-Stage (P3S) Axial Compressor, which is representative of the rear stages of a high-pressure-compressor in core engines.


Author(s):  
Wei Zhu ◽  
Songtao Wang ◽  
Longxin Zhang ◽  
Jun Ding ◽  
Zhongqi Wang

This study aimed to enhance the understanding of flow phenomena in low-reaction aspirated compressors. Three-dimensional, multi-passage steady and unsteady numerical simulations are performed to investigate the performance sensitivity to tip clearance variation on the first-stage rotor of a multistage low-reaction aspirated compressor. Three kinds of tip clearance sizes including 1.0τ, 2.0τ and 3.0τ are modeled, in which 1.0τ corresponds to the designed tip clearance size of 0.2 mm. The steady numerical simulations show that the overall performance of the rotor moves toward lower mass flow rate when the tip clearance size is increased. Moreover, energy losses, efficiency reduction and stall margin decrease are also observed with increasing tip clearance size. This can be mostly attributed to the damaging impact of intense tip clearance flow. For unsteady simulation, the result shows periodical oscillation of the tip leakage vortex and a “two-passage periodic structure” in the tip region at the near-stall point. The occurrence of the periodical oscillation is due to the severe interaction between the tip clearance flow and the shock wave. However, the rotor operating state is still stable at this working point because a dynamic balance is established between the tip clearance flow and incoming flow.


Author(s):  
M. B. Graf ◽  
E. M. Greitzer ◽  
F. E. Marble ◽  
O. P. Sharma

Effects of stator pressure field on upstream rotor performance in a high pressure compressor stage have been assessed using three-dimensional steady and time-accurate Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes computations. Emphasis was placed on: (1) determining the dominant features of the flow arising from interaction of the rotor with the stator pressure field, and (2) quantifying the overall effects on time averaged loss, blockage, and pressure rise. The time averaged results showed a 20 to 40% increase in overall rotor loss and a 10 to 50% decrease in tip clearance loss compared to an isolated rotor. The differences were dependent on the operating point and increased as the stage pressure rise, and amplitude of the unsteady back pressure variations, was increased. Motions of the tip leakage vortex on the order of the blade pitch were observed at the rotor exit in all the unsteady flow simulations; these were associated with enhanced mixing in the region. The period of the motion scaled with rotor flow-through time rather than stator passing. Three steady flow approximations for the rotor-stator interaction were assessed with reference to the unsteady computations: an axisymmetric representation of the stator pressure field, an inter-blade row averaging plane method, and a technique incorporating deterministic stresses and bodyforces associated with stator flow field. Differences between steady and unsteady predictions of overall rotor loss, tip region loss, and endwall blockage ranged from 5 to 50% of the time average, but the steady flow models gave overall rotor pressure rise and flow capacity within 5% of the time averaged values.


Author(s):  
A. R. Wadia ◽  
P. N. Szucs ◽  
D. W. Crall

The recent trend in using aerodynamic sweep to improve the performance of transonic blading has been one of the more significant technological evolutions for compression components in turbomachinery. This paper reports on the experimental and analytical assessment of the pay-off derived from both aft and forward sweep technology with respect to aerodynamic performance and stability. The single stage experimental investigation includes two aft-swept rotors with varying degree and type of aerodynamic sweep and one swept forward rotor. On a back-to-back test basis, the results are compared with an unswept rotor with excellent performance and adequate stall margin. Although designed to satisfy identical design speed requirements as the unswept rotor, the experimental results reveal significant variations in efficiency and stall margin with the swept rotors. At design speed, all the swept rotors demonstrated a peak stage efficiency level that was equal to that of the unswept rotor. However, the forward-swept rotor achieved the highest rotor-alone peak efficiency. At the same time, the forward-swept rotor demonstrated a significant improvement in stall margin relative to the already satisfactory level achieved by the unswept rotor. Increasing the level of aft sweep adversely affected the stall margin. A three-dimensional viscous flow analysis was used to assist in the interpretation of the data. The reduced shock/boundary layer interaction, resulting from reduced axial flow diffusion and less accumulation of centrifuged blade surface boundary layer at the up, was identified as the prime contributor to the enhanced performance with forward sweep. The impact of tip clearance on the performance and stability for one of the aft-swept rotors was also assessed.


2004 ◽  
Vol 126 (4) ◽  
pp. 445-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Scott McNulty ◽  
John J. Decker ◽  
Brent F. Beacher ◽  
S. Arif Khalid

This paper presents an experimental and analytical study of the impact of forward swept rotors on tip-limited, low-speed, multistage axial compressors. Two different configurations were examined, one with strong tip-clearance flows and the other with more moderate levels. Evaluations were done at multiple rotor tip clearances to assess differences in clearance sensitivity. Compared to conventionally stacked radial rotors, the forward swept blades demonstrated improvements in stall margin, efficiency and clearance sensitivity. The benefits were more pronounced for the configuration with stronger tip-clearance flows. Detailed flow measurements and three-dimensional viscous CFD analyses were used to investigate the responsible flow mechanisms. Forward sweep causes a spanwise redistribution of flow toward the blade tip and reduces the tip loading in terms of static pressure coefficient. This results in reduced tip-clearance flow blockage, a shallower (more axial) vortex trajectory and a smaller region of reversed flow in the clearance gap.


1997 ◽  
Vol 119 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. A. Long ◽  
A. P. Morse ◽  
P. G. Tucker

This paper makes comparisons between CFD computations and experimental measurements of heat transfer for the axial throughflow of cooling air in a high-pressure compressor spool rig and a plane cavity rig. The heat transfer measurements are produced using fluxmeters and by the conduction solution method from surface temperature measurements. Numerical predictions are made by solving the Navier–Stokes equations in a full three-dimensional, time-dependent form using the finite-volume method. Convergence is accelerated using a multigrid algorithm and turbulence modeled using a simple mixing length formulation. Notwithstanding systematic differences between the measurements and the computations, the level of agreement can be regarded as promising in view of the acknowledged uncertainties in the experimental data, the limitations of the turbulence model and, perhaps more importantly, the modest grid densities used for the computations.


Author(s):  
Swati Saxena ◽  
Giridhar Jothiprasad ◽  
Corey Bourassa ◽  
Byron Pritchard

Aircraft engines ingest airborne particulate matter, such as sand, dirt, and volcanic ash, into their core. The ingested particulate is transported by the secondary flow circuits via compressor bleeds to the high pressure turbine and may deposit resulting in turbine fouling and loss of cooling effectiveness. Prior publications focused on particulate deposition and sand erosion patterns in a single stage of a compressor or turbine. The current work addresses the migration of ingested particulate through the high pressure compressor and bleed systems. This paper describes a 3D CFD methodology for tracking particles along a multi-stage axial compressor and presents particulate ingestion analysis for a high pressure compressor section. The commercial CFD multi-phase solver ANSYS CFX R has been used for flow and particulate simulations. Particle diameters of 20, 40, and 60 microns are analyzed. Particle trajectories and radial particulate profiles are compared for these particle diameters. The analysis demonstrates how the compressor centrifuges the particles radially towards the compressor case as they travel through the compressor; the larger diameter particles being more significantly affected. Non-spherical particles experience more drag as compared to spherical particles and hence a qualitative comparison between spherical and non-spherical particles is shown.


2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dae-Woong Kim ◽  
Jin-Hyuk Kim ◽  
Kwang-Yong Kim

Aerodynamic performance of a transonic axial compressor with a casing groove combined with injection has been investigated in this work. Three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations with k-ε turbulence model are discretized by finite volume approximations and solved on hexahedral grids for the flow analyses. For parametric study, the front and rear lengths and height of the casing groove are selected as the geometric parameters and are changed with constant injection to investigate their effects on the stall margin and peak adiabatic efficiency. As a result of the parametric study, the maximum stall margin and peak adiabatic efficiency are found to be obtained in the axial compressor having 70% height of the reference groove. The results show that the application of the casing groove combined with injection to an axial compressor is effective for the simultaneous improvement of both the stall margin and peak adiabatic efficiency of the compressor.


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