Flow Physics and Vortex Evolution in Annular Turbine Cascades

Author(s):  
M. Treiber ◽  
R. S. Abhari ◽  
M. Sell

The evolution of flow vortices downstream of annular cascades with a specific focus upon the association between vorticity and the mechanisms of aerodynamic loss generation has been experimentally investigated. Spatially-resolved experimental results on an unstructured measurement pattern is used to identify small scale flow structures on the surface of the investigated blades and downstream of two different cascades. The test case comparison is based upon two moderately loaded turbine blade profiles, one stacked prismatically and the other on a bowed stacking line. The design operating conditions for both cascade is at a nominal exit Mach number of 0.5. The measurements were made using an ultra miniature (0.9 mm Dia) 5-hole probe. The measurement were made on 4 planes behind and one plane in front of the trailing and leading edge of the cascade respectively. The experimental results clearly show the influence of the flow structure on the evolution of the stream wise vorticities behind the blading. Detailed measurements are used to compare and evaluate the mixing processes downstream of these two cascades. It is shown that the interaction of the different vortices with the endwall boundary layer has a substantial impact on the overall total pressure loss generation.

Author(s):  
Sakshi Jain ◽  
Arnab Roy ◽  
Wing Ng ◽  
Srinath Ekkad ◽  
Andrew S. Lohaus ◽  
...  

The present article investigates mixed out aerodynamic loss coefficient measurements for a high turning, contoured endwall passage under transonic operating conditions in presence of upstream purge slot and mateface gap. The upstream purge slot represents the gap between stator-rotor interface and the mateface gap simulates the assembly feature between adjacent airfoils in an actual high pressure turbine stage. While the performance of the mateface and upstream slot has been studied for lower Mach number, no studies exist in literature for transonic flow conditions. Experiments were performed at the Virginia Tech’s linear, transonic blow down cascade facility. Measurements were carried out at design conditions (isentropic exit Mach number of 0.88, design incidence) without and with coolant blowing. Upstream leakage flow of 1.0% coolant to mainstream mass flow ratio (MFR) was considered with the presence of mateface gap. There was no coolant blowing through the mateface gap itself. Cascade exit pressure measurements were carried out using a 5-hole probe traverse at a plane 1.0-Cax downstream of the trailing edge. Spanwise measurements were performed to complete the entire 2D loss plane from endwall to midspan, which were used to plot pitchwise averaged losses for different span locations and loss contours for the passage. Results reveal significant reduction in aerodynamic losses using the contoured endwall due to the modification of flow physics compared to a non-contoured planar endwall. The heat transfer experiments, designed to find the heat transfer coefficient and the film cooling effectiveness are described in detail in a separate paper [1].


Author(s):  
Santosh Abraham ◽  
Kapil Panchal ◽  
Srinath V. Ekkad ◽  
Wing Ng ◽  
Andrew S. Lohaus ◽  
...  

The paper presents detailed experimental results of the midspan total pressure losses, secondary flow field, and static pressure measurements on two linear, high-turning turbine cascades at transonic conditions. The airfoils in the two cascades being studied are identical and their aerodynamic loading levels are varied by increasing the pitch of one cascade by 25% with respect to the other. The turbine cascades are referred to as B1-SP and B1-IP. Cascade B1-IP, with its increased pitch, has a Zweifel coefficient increased by 25%. The airfoils have a turning angle of ∼127°. Measurements are made at design and off-design conditions, at exit Mach numbers ranging from 0.71 to 0.95. The exit span of the airfoils are increased relative to the inlet span with the intention of obtaining a ratio of inlet Mach number to exit Mach number that is representative to that encountered in a real engine. This results in one end wall diverging from inlet to exit at a 13 degree angle, which simulates the required leading edge loading as seen in an engine. The objective of this study is to investigate the variation in airfoil loading distribution and the effect it has on aerodynamic performance in terms of pressure losses. Detailed loss measurements, both in the pitchwise as well as spanwise directions, are conducted at 0.1 Cax and 1.0 Cax locations downstream of the trailing edge. Results from 3D viscous numerical simulations have been used to assist the interpretation of experimental results.


2008 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 380-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jody M. Klymak ◽  
Robert Pinkel ◽  
Luc Rainville

Abstract Barotropic to baroclinic conversion and attendant phenomena were recently examined at the Kaena Ridge as an aspect of the Hawaii Ocean Mixing Experiment. Two distinct mixing processes appear to be at work in the waters above the 1100-m-deep ridge crest. At middepths, above 400 m, mixing events resemble their open-ocean counterparts. There is no apparent modulation of mixing rates with the fortnightly cycle, and they are well modeled by standard open-ocean parameterizations. Nearer to the topography, there is quasi-deterministic breaking associated with each baroclinic crest passage. Large-amplitude, small-scale internal waves are triggered by tidal forcing, consistent with lee-wave formation at the ridge break. These waves have vertical wavelengths on the order of 400 m. During spring tides, the waves are nonlinear and exhibit convective instabilities on their leading edge. Dissipation rates exceed those predicted by the open-ocean parameterizations by up to a factor of 100, with the disparity increasing as the seafloor is approached. These observations are based on a set of repeated CTD and microconductivity profiles obtained from the research platform (R/P) Floating Instrument Platform (FLIP), which was trimoored over the southern edge of the ridge crest. Ocean velocity and shear were resolved to a 4-m vertical scale by a suspended Doppler sonar. Dissipation was estimated both by measuring overturn displacements and from microconductivity wavenumber spectra. The methods agreed in water deeper than 200 m, where sensor resolution limitations do not limit the turbulence estimates. At intense mixing sites new phenomena await discovery, and existing parameterizations cannot be expected to apply.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Z. Hao ◽  
X. Yang ◽  
Z. Feng

Abstract Particulate deposits in aero-engine turbines change the profile of blades, increase the blade surface roughness and block internal cooling channels and film cooling holes, which generally leads to the degradation of aerodynamic and cooling performance. To reveal particle deposition effects in the turbine, unsteady simulations were performed by investigating the migration patterns and deposition characteristics of the particle contaminant in a one-stage, high-pressure turbine of an aero-engine. Two typical operating conditions of the aero-engine, i.e. high-temperature take-off and economic cruise, were discussed, and the effects of particle size on the migration and deposition of fly-ash particles were demonstrated. A critical velocity model was applied to predict particle deposition. Comparisons between the stator and rotor were made by presenting the concentration and trajectory of the particles and the resulting deposition patterns on the aerofoil surfaces. Results show that the migration and deposition of the particles in the stator passage is dominated by the flow characteristics of fluid and the property of particles. In the subsequential rotor passage, in addition to these factors, particles are also affected by the stator–rotor interaction and the interference between rotors. With higher inlet temperature and larger diameter of the particle, the quantity of deposits increases and the deposition is distributed mainly on the Pressure Side (PS) and the Leading Edge (LE) of the aerofoil.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 853
Author(s):  
Mohsen Soltani ◽  
Julian Koch ◽  
Simon Stisen

This study aims to improve the standard water balance evapotranspiration (WB ET) estimate, which is typically used as benchmark data for catchment-scale ET estimation, by accounting for net intercatchment groundwater flow in the ET calculation. Using the modified WB ET approach, we examine errors and shortcomings associated with the long-term annual mean (2002–2014) spatial patterns of three remote-sensing (RS) MODIS-based ET products from MODIS16, PML_V2, and TSEB algorithms at 1 km spatial resolution over Denmark, as a test case for small-scale, energy-limited regions. Our results indicate that the novel approach of adding groundwater net in water balance ET calculation results in a more trustworthy ET spatial pattern. This is especially relevant for smaller catchments where groundwater net can be a significant component of the catchment water balance. Nevertheless, large discrepancies are observed both amongst RS ET datasets and compared to modified water balance ET spatial pattern at the national scale; however, catchment-scale analysis highlights that difference in RS ET and WB ET decreases with increasing catchment size and that 90%, 87%, and 93% of all catchments have ∆ET < ±150 mm/year for MODIS16, PML_V2, and TSEB, respectively. In addition, Copula approach captures a nonlinear structure of the joint relationship with multiple densities amongst the RS/WB ET products, showing a complex dependence structure (correlation); however, among the three RS ET datasets, MODIS16 ET shows a closer spatial pattern to the modified WB ET, as identified by a principal component analysis also. This study will help improve the water balance approach by the addition of groundwater net in the ET estimation and contribute to better understand the true correlations amongst RS/WB ET products especially over energy-limited environments.


Author(s):  
Yiqi Cheng ◽  
Xinhua Wang ◽  
Waheed Ur Rehman ◽  
Tao Sun ◽  
Hasan Shahzad ◽  
...  

This study presents a novel cylindrical vane pump based on the traditional working principle. The efficiency of the cylindrical vane pump was verified by experimental validation and numerical analysis. Numerical analysis, such as kinematics analysis, was performed in Pro/Mechanism and unsteady flow-field analysis was performed using ANSYS FLUENT. The stator surface equations were derived using the geometric theory of the applied spatial triangulation function. A three-dimensional model of the cylindrical vane pump was established with the help of MATLAB and Pro/E. The kinematic analysis helped in developing kinematic equations for cylindrical vane pumps and proved the effectiveness of the structural design. The maximum inaccuracy error of the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was 5.7% compared with the experimental results, and the CFD results show that the structure of the pump was reasonable. An experimental test bench was developed, and the results were in excellent agreement with the numerical results of CFD. The experimental results show that the cylindrical vane pump satisfied the three-element design of a positive-displacement pump and the trend of changes in efficiency was the same for all types of efficiency under different operating conditions. Furthermore, the volumetric efficiency presented a nonlinear positive correlation with increased rotational velocity, the mechanical efficiency showed a nonlinear negative correlation, and the total efficiency first increased and then decreased. When the rotational velocity was 1.33[Formula: see text] and the discharge pressure was 0.68[Formula: see text], the total efficiency reached its maximum value.


Author(s):  
Segen F. Estefen ◽  
Paulo Roberto da Costa ◽  
Eliab Ricarte ◽  
Marcelo M. Pinheiro

Wave energy is a renewable and non-polluting source and its use is being studied in different countries. The paper presents an overview on the harnessing of energy from waves and the activities associated with setting up a plant for extracting energy from waves in Port of Pecem, on the coast of Ceara State, Brazil. The technology employed is based on storing water under pressure in a hyperbaric chamber, from which a controlled jet of water drives a standard turbine. The wave resource at the proposed location is presented in terms of statistics data obtained from previous monitoring. The device components are described and small scale model tested under regular waves representatives of the installation region. Based on the experimental results values of prescribed pressures are identified in order to optimize the power generation.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phil Ligrani

The influences of a variety of different physical phenomena are described as they affect the aerodynamic performance of turbine airfoils in compressible, high-speed flows with either subsonic or transonic Mach number distributions. The presented experimental and numerically predicted results are from a series of investigations which have taken place over the past 32 years. Considered are (i) symmetric airfoils with no film cooling, (ii) symmetric airfoils with film cooling, (iii) cambered vanes with no film cooling, and (iv) cambered vanes with film cooling. When no film cooling is employed on the symmetric airfoils and cambered vanes, experimentally measured and numerically predicted variations of freestream turbulence intensity, surface roughness, exit Mach number, and airfoil camber are considered as they influence local and integrated total pressure losses, deficits of local kinetic energy, Mach number deficits, area-averaged loss coefficients, mass-averaged total pressure loss coefficients, omega loss coefficients, second law loss parameters, and distributions of integrated aerodynamic loss. Similar quantities are measured, and similar parameters are considered when film-cooling is employed on airfoil suction surfaces, along with film cooling density ratio, blowing ratio, Mach number ratio, hole orientation, hole shape, and number of rows of holes.


Author(s):  
J. Sans ◽  
M. Resmini ◽  
J.-F. Brouckaert ◽  
S. Hiernaux

Solidity in compressors is defined as the ratio of the aerodynamic chord over the peripheral distance between two adjacent blades, the pitch. This parameter is simply the inverse of the pitch-to-chord ratio generally used in turbines. Solidity must be selected at the earliest design phase, i.e. at the level of the meridional design and represents a crucial step in the whole design process. Most of the existing studies on this topic rely on low-speed compressor cascade correlations from Carter or Lieblein. The aim of this work is to update those correlations for state-of-the-art controlled diffusion blades, and extend their application to high Mach number flow regimes more typical of modern compressors. Another objective is also to improve the physical understanding of the solidity effect on compressor performance and stability. A numerical investigation has been performed using the commercial software FINE/Turbo. Two different blade profiles were selected and investigated in the compressible flow regime as an extension to the low-speed data on which the correlations are based. The first cascade uses a standard double circular arc profile, extensively referenced in the literature, while the second configuration uses a state-of-the-art CDB, representative of low pressure compressor stator mid-span profile. Both profiles have been designed with the same inlet and outlet metal angles and the same maximum thickness but the camber and thickness distributions, the stagger angle and the leading edge geometry of the CDB have been optimized. The determination of minimum loss, optimum incidence and deviation is addressed and compared with existing correlations for both configurations and various Mach numbers that have been selected in order to match typical booster stall and choke operating conditions. The emphasis is set on the minimum loss performance at mid-span. The impact of the solidity on the operating range and the stability of the cascade are also studied.


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