The Reduction of Over Tip Leakage Loss in Unshrouded Axial Turbines Using Winglets and Squealers

Author(s):  
Zbigniew Schabowski ◽  
Howard Hodson

The possibilities of reducing the over tip leakage loss of unshrouded rotors have been investigated using a linear cascade of turbine blades and CFD. The large-scale blade profile is the same as that of the tip profile of a low-speed HP research turbine facility. The impact of various combinations of squealer and winglet geometries on the turbine performance has been investigated. The influence of the thickness of the squealers has also been assessed. It was found that a 22% reduction in loss slope was possible, when compared to the flat tip blade, using simple tip modifications. The results obtained with the suction side squealer and cavity tip agreed well with the work of other researchers. Three winglet-based tip geometries were tested. One was a plain winglet, the other two had squealers applied. A significant impact of the squealers and their shape on the tip gap flow pattern and loss generation was found. The physical processes occurring within the tip gap region for the tested geometries are explained using both numerical and experimental results. The impact of the flow pattern within the tip gap on the loss generation is described. Good agreement between the CFD and the experimental data was found. This shows that the CFD can be used with confidence in the design process of shroudless turbines.

2013 ◽  
Vol 136 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zbigniew Schabowski ◽  
Howard Hodson

The possibilities of reducing the over tip leakage loss of unshrouded rotors have been investigated using a linear cascade of turbine blades and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The large-scale blade profile is the same as that of the tip profile of a low-speed high-pressure research turbine facility. The impact of various combinations of squealer and winglet geometries on the turbine performance has been investigated. The influence of the thickness of the squealers has also been assessed. It was found that a 22% reduction in loss slope was possible, when compared to the flat tip blade, using simple tip modifications. The results obtained with the suction side squealer and cavity tip agreed well with the work of other researchers. Three winglet-based tip geometries were tested. One was a plain winglet, the other two had squealers applied. A significant impact of the squealers and their shape on the tip gap flow pattern and loss generation was found. The physical processes occurring within the tip gap region for the tested geometries are explained using both numerical and experimental results. The impact of the flow pattern within the tip gap on the loss generation is described. Good agreement between CFD and the experimental data was found. This shows that CFD can be used with confidence in the design process of shroudless turbines.


Author(s):  
M. I. Yaras ◽  
S. A. Sjolander

The paper presents further results from a continuing study on tip leakage in axial turbines. Rotation has been simulated in a linear cascade test section by using a moving-belt tip wall. Measurements were made inside the tip gap with a three-hole pressure probe for a clearance size of 3.8 percent of the blade chord. Two wall speeds are considered and the results are compared with the case of no rotation. As in other experiments, significant reduction in the gap mass flow rate is observed due to the relative motion. The detailed nature of the measurements allows the dominant physical mechanism by which wall motion affects the tip gap flow to be identified. Based on the experimental observations, an earlier model for predicting the tip gap flow field is extended to the case of relative wall motion. Part II of the paper examines the effect of the relative motion on the downstream flow field and the blade loading.


1992 ◽  
Vol 114 (3) ◽  
pp. 652-659 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. I. Yaras ◽  
S. A. Sjolander

The paper presents further results from a continuing study on tip leakage in axial turbines. Rotation has been simulated in a linear cascade test section by using a moving-belt tip wall. Measurements were made inside the tip gap with a three-hole pressure probe for a clearance size of 3.8 percent of the blade chord. Two wall speeds are considered and the results are compared with the case of no rotation. As in other experiments, significant reduction in the gap mass flow rate is observed due to the relative motion. The detailed nature of the measurements allows the dominant physical mechanism by which wall motion affects the tip gap flow to be identified. Based on the experimental observations, an earlier model for predicting the tip gap flow field is extended to the case of relative wall motion. Part II of the paper examines the effect of the relative motion on the downstream flow field and the blade loading.


Author(s):  
Christophe Duwig ◽  
Laszlo Fuchs ◽  
Arnaud Lacarelle ◽  
Matthias Beutke ◽  
Christian Oliver Paschereit

Modeling and understanding the vortex breakdown is a key issue of modern Lean Premixed Combustors. The main difficulty of the problem is the unsteady behavior of this type of flow: Large structures resulting from vortex breakdown and the swirling shear-layers, affect directly the flame stabilization leading to heat-release fluctuations and combustion instabilities. Consequently, one needs to capture and understand turbulent coherent structures dynamics for designing efficient burners. This task is particularly challenging since it deals with capturing coherent motions within a chaotic system and should be done using state-of-the art numerical and experimental techniques. The present work focuses on the experimental and numerical study of iso-thermal vortex breakdown in a conical swirler. Experimental investigations were performed with 2D Laser Doppler Velocimetry (LDV) and Hotwire Anemometry at the outlet of the combustor model. Averaged velocity fields and RMS values are showing a strong central recirculation zone. In addition, characteristic frequencies of the flow have been exhibited showing the strong influence of large scale turbulent fluctuation on the flow pattern. These measurements showed also the impact of different outlet geometries on the strength and position of the coherent structures of the flow. Further, Large Eddy Simulation (LES) has been used to obtain a 4D description of the flow. Comparison with LDV profiles showed a good agreement, indicating that the LES tool captures accurately the flow. The LES results were then processed for capturing and identifying the coherent structures. Firstly, characteristic frequencies were analyzed. Here also a good agreement with the experimental data was achieved. Secondly the cores of the vortices were visualized providing a good insight into the unsteady flow pattern. Finally, Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) was applied to the 4D field in order to identify the contribution of different large scale fluctuation modes. The presence of the Precessing Vortex Core (PVC) corresponding to a pair of helical structures was captured.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 5087-5139 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Pommrich ◽  
R. Müller ◽  
J.-U. Grooß ◽  
P. Konopka ◽  
F. Ploeger ◽  
...  

Abstract. Variations in the mixing ratio of trace gases of tropospheric origin entering the stratosphere in the tropics are of interest for assessing both troposphere to stratosphere transport fluxes in the tropics and the impact of these transport fluxes on the composition of the tropical lower stratosphere. Anomaly patterns of carbon monoxide (CO) and long-lived tracers in the lower tropical stratosphere allow conclusions about the rate and the variability of tropical upwelling to be drawn. Here, we present a simplified chemistry scheme for the Chemical Lagrangian Model of the Stratosphere (CLaMS) for the simulation, at comparatively low numerical cost, of CO, ozone, and long-lived trace substances (CH4, N2O, CCl3F (CFC-11), CCl2F2 (CFC-12), and CO2) in the lower tropical stratosphere. For the long-lived trace substances, the boundary conditions at the surface are prescribed based on ground-based measurements in the lowest model level. The boundary condition for CO in the free troposphere is deduced from MOPITT measurements (at ≈ 700–200 hPa). Due to the lack of a specific representation of mixing and convective uplift in the troposphere in this model version, enhanced CO values, in particular those resulting from convective outflow are underestimated. However, in the tropical tropopause layer and the lower tropical stratosphere, there is relatively good agreement of simulated CO with in-situ measurements (with the exception of the TROCCINOX campaign, where CO in the simulation is biased low ≈ 10–20 ppbv). Further, the model results are of sufficient quality to describe large scale anomaly patterns of CO in the lower stratosphere. In particular, the zonally averaged tropical CO anomaly patterns (the so called "tape recorder" patterns) simulated by this model version of CLaMS are in good agreement with observations. The simulations show a too rapid upwelling compared to observations as a consequence of the overestimated vertical velocities in the ERA-interim reanalysis data set. Moreover, the simulated tropical anomaly patterns of N2O are in good agreement with observations. In the simulations, anomaly patterns for CH4 and CFC-11 were found to be consistent with those of N2O; for all long-lived tracers, positive anomalies are simulated because of the enhanced tropical upwelling in the easterly phase of the quasi-biennial oscillation.


2011 ◽  
Vol 133 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao Zhou ◽  
Howard Hodson

Experimental, analytical, and numerical methods have been employed to study the aerodynamic performance of four different cooled tips with coolant mass ratios between 0% and 1.2% at three tip gaps of 1%, 1.6%, and 2.2% of the chord. The four cooled tips are two flat tips with different coolant holes, a cooled suction side squealer tip and a cooled cavity tip. Each tip has ten coolant holes with the same diameter. The uncooled cavity tip produces the smallest loss among all uncooled tips. On the cooled flat tip, the coolant is injected normally into the tip gap and mixes directly with flow inside the tip gap. The momentum exchange between the coolant and the flow that enters the tip gap creates significant blockage. As the coolant mass flow ratio increases, the tip leakage loss of the cooled flat tip first decreases and then increases. For the cooled cavity tip, the blockage effect of the coolant is not as big as that on the cooled flat tip. This is because after the coolant exits the coolant holes, it mixes with flow in the cavity first and then mixes with tip flow in the tip gap. The tip leakage loss of the cooled cavity tip increases as the coolant mass flow ratio increase. As a result, at a tip gap of 1.6% of the chord, the cooled cavity tip gives the lowest loss. At the smallest tip gap of 1% of the chord, the cooled flat tip produces less loss than the cooled cavity tip when the coolant mass flow ratios larger than 0.23%. This is because with the same coolant mass flow ratio, a proportionally larger blockage is created at the smallest tip gap. At the largest tip gap of 2.2% of the chord, the cavity tip achieves the best aerodynamic performance. This is because the effect of the coolant is reduced and the benefits of the cavity tip geometry dominate. At a coolant mass flow ratio of 0.55%, the cooled flat tips produce a lower loss than the cavity tip at tip gaps less than 1.3% of the chord. The cooled cavity tip produces the least loss for tip gaps larger than 1.3% of the chord. The cooled suction side squealer has the worst aerodynamic performance for all tip gaps studied.


2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 717-737 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Johnson ◽  
Ahmed Abdelrahman ◽  
Drew Gertz

The performance of a three bladed 3.3 m diameter turbine was measured unobtrusively in a large scale, controlled wind, open jet facility. Due to the scale of the facility blockage was very low in comparison to previous studies. The turbine blades utilized NREL S83X airfoils appropriate for the flow conditions and Reynolds number present in the facility. Airfoils were blended along the radial direction in a varying chord, varying twist blade design with a design coefficient of power ( Cp) peak at λ = 5.4. Simultaneous three component velocity measurements were obtained using a purpose built traverse at specific radial locations (segments) upstream and immediately downstream of the rotor plane. These velocities were utilized to determine blade element momentum (BEM) parameters and to predict the performance of the rotor. Comparisons are made to the limited number of experimental studies reported in the literature and with parameters derived from CFD numerical simulations. Measured radial velocities upstream of the rotor were near zero and uniform in the radial direction and were uniform and slightly larger downstream of the rotor indicating the BEM assumption of limited radial interaction between segments was acceptable and that the wake was expanding. Axial induction was most uniform in the radial direction at the design and peak Cp condition and area averaged values approached 1/3 but did not exceed this value. Tangential measured velocities, tangential induction and circulation show the impact of the nacelle and blade root location and the tip. An evaluation of the local angle of attack and two dimensional airfoil data at one radial location gave a reasonable comparison with other measured torque values. Rotor performance determined with this method was compared with electrical power measurements and previous BEM model predictions. The power derived from the BEM method outlined here closely followed electrical turbine power measurements although the method overpredicted the power likely due to the segment discretization in the tip region. The detail of these results should be useful to further understand the flow immediately downstream of a rotor in controlled conditions and provide detailed data for BEM model enhancement and future model development.


2019 ◽  
Vol 627 ◽  
pp. A131 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Cousin ◽  
P. Guillard ◽  
M. D. Lehnert

Context. Star formation in galaxies is inefficient, and understanding how star formation is regulated in galaxies is one of the most fundamental challenges of contemporary astrophysics. Radiative cooling, feedback from supernovae and active galactic nuclei (AGN), and large-scale dynamics and dissipation of turbulent energy act over various time and spatial scales and all regulate star formation in a complex gas cycle. Aims. This paper presents the physics implemented in a new semi-analytical model of galaxy formation and evolution called the Galaxy Assembler from dark-matter Simulation (G.A.S.). Methods. The fundamental underpinning of our new model is the development of a multiphase interstellar medium (ISM) in which energy produced by supernovae and AGN maintains an equilibrium between a diffuse, hot, and stable gas and a cooler, clumpy, and low-volume filling factor gas. The hot gas is susceptible to thermal and dynamical instabilities. We include a description of how turbulence leads to the formation of giant molecular clouds through an inertial turbulent energy cascade, assuming a constant kinetic energy transfer per unit volume. We explicitly modelled the evolution of the velocity dispersion at different scales of the cascade and accounted for thermal instabilities in the hot halo gas. Thermal instabilities effectively reduce the impact of radiative cooling and moderates accretion rates onto galaxies, and in particular, for those residing in massive haloes. Results. We show that rapid and multiple exchanges between diffuse and unstable gas phases strongly regulates star formation rates in galaxies because only a small fraction of the unstable gas is forming stars. We checked that the characteristic timescales describing the gas cycle, gas depletion timescale, and star-forming laws at different scales are in good agreement with observations. For high-mass haloes and galaxies, cooling is naturally regulated by the growth of thermal instabilities, so we do not need to implement strong AGN feedback in this model. Our results are also in good agreement with the observed stellar mass function from z ≃ 6.0 to z ≃ 0.5. Conclusion. Our model offers the flexibility to test the impact of various physical processes on the regulation of star formation on a representative population of galaxies across cosmic times. Thermal instabilities and the cascade of turbulent energy in the dense gas phase introduce a delay between gas accretion and star formation, which keeps galaxy growth inefficient in the early Universe. The main results presented in this paper, such as stellar mass functions, are available in the GALAKSIENN library.


Author(s):  
S. A. Sjolander ◽  
D. Cao

To gain further insights into the details of the tip-gap flow in axial turbines, a test section has been constructed with a single, idealized, large-scale tip gap. The single “blade” forms a circular arc with 90 degrees of turning and has a constant thickness of 78 mm. For a plain, flat tip four clearances have been examined, varying from 0.292 to 0.667 of the blade thickness (corresponding to physical gap heights of 22.8 to 52.1 mm). The large proportions made it possible to obtain very detailed measurements inside the gap. The paper discusses the structure of the gap flow in some detail. One new feature, involving multiple vortices on the tip, probably helps to explain the “burnout” which sometimes occurs on turbine tips near the pressure side. Quantitative results are presented for the static pressures, total pressures and velocity vectors through the gap. In addition, contraction coefficients for the flow at the separation bubble, discharge coefficients for the gap, and the gap losses have been extracted for comparison with the assumptions made in recent gap-flow models.


Author(s):  
A. A. Ameri ◽  
E. Steinthorsson ◽  
David L. Rigby

Calculations were performed to assess the effect of the tip leakage flow on the rate of heat transfer to blade, blade tip and casing. The effect on exit angle and efficiency was also examined. Passage geometries with and without casing recess were considered. The geometry and the flow conditions of the GE-E3 first stage turbine, which represents a modern gas turbine blade were used for the analysis. Clearance heights of 0%, 1%, 1.5% and 3% of the passage height were considered. For the two largest clearance heights considered, different recess depths were studied. There was an increase in the thermal load on all the heat transfer surfaces considered due to enlargement of the clearance gap. Introduction of recessed casing resulted in a drop in the rate of heat transfer on the pressure side but the picture on the suction side was found to be more complex for the smaller tip clearance height considered. For the larger tip clearance height the effect of casing recess was an orderly reduction in the suction side heat transfer as the casing recess height was increased. There was a marked reduction of heat load and peak values on the blade tip upon introduction of casing recess, however only a small reduction was observed on the casing itself. It was reconfirmed that there is a linear relationship between the efficiency and the tip gap height. It was also observed that the recess casing has a small effect on the efficiency but can have a moderating effect on the flow underturning at smaller tip clearances.


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