Investigation of Blade Tip Interaction With Casing Treatment in a Transonic Compressor: Part 2—Numerical Results

Author(s):  
R. Schnell ◽  
M. Voges ◽  
R. Mo¨nig ◽  
M. W. Mu¨ller ◽  
C. Zscherp

A single-stage transonic axial compressor was equipped with a casing treatment, consisting of 3.5 axial slots per rotor pitch in order to investigate its influence on stall margin characteristics as well as on the rotor near tip flowfield both numerically and experimentally. Contrary to most other studies a generic Casing Treatment was designed to provide optimal optical access in the immediate vicinity of the CT, rather than for maximum benefit in terms of stall margin extension. The second part of this two-part paper deals with the numerical developments, and their validation, carried out in order to efficiently perform time-accurate casing-treatment simulations. The numerical developments focus on the extension of an existing coupling algorithm in order to carry out unsteady calculations with any exterior geometry coupled to the main flow passage (in this case a single slot) having an arbitrary pitch. This extension is done by incorporating frequency domain, phase-lagged boundary conditions into this coupling procedure. Whereas the phaselag approach itself is well established and validated for standard rotor-stator calculations, its application to casing treatment simulations is new. Its capabilities and validation will be demonstrated on the given compressor configuration, making extensive use of the detailed PIV flowfield measurements near the rotor tip. Instantaneous data at all measurement planes will be compared for different rotor positions with respect to the stationary slots in order to evaluate the time-dependent interaction between the rotor and the casing treatment.

2010 ◽  
Vol 133 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Schnell ◽  
M. Voges ◽  
R. Mönig ◽  
M. W. Müller ◽  
C. Zscherp

A single stage transonic axial compressor was equipped with a casing treatment consisting of 3.5 axial slots per rotor pitch in order to investigate its influence on stall margin characteristics, as well as on the rotor near tip flow field, both numerically and experimentally. Contrary to most other studies, a generic casing treatment (CT) was designed to provide optimal optical access in the immediate vicinity of the CT, rather than for maximum benefit in terms of stall margin extension. The second part of this two-part paper deals with the numerical developments and their validation, carried out in order to efficiently perform time-accurate casing treatment simulations. The numerical developments focus on the extension of an existing coupling algorithm in order to carry out unsteady calculations with any exterior geometry coupled to the main flow passage (in this case a single slot), having an arbitrary pitch. This extension is done by incorporating frequency domain, phase-lagged boundary conditions into this coupling procedure. Whereas the phase lag approach itself is well established and validated for standard rotor-stator calculations, its application to casing treatment simulations is new. Its capabilities and validation will be demonstrated on the given compressor configuration, making extensive use of the detailed particle image velocimetry flow field measurements near the rotor tip. Instantaneous data at all measurement planes will be compared for different rotor positions with respect to the stationary slots in order to evaluate the time-dependent interaction between the rotor and the casing treatment.


2016 ◽  
Vol 139 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyril Guinet ◽  
André Inzenhofer ◽  
Volker Gümmer

The design space of axial-flow compressors is restricted by stability issues. Different axial-type casing treatments (CTs) have shown their ability to enhance compressor stability and to influence efficiency. Casing treatments have proven to be effective, but there still is need for more detailed investigations and gain of understanding for the underlying flow mechanism. Casing treatments are known to have a multitude of effects on the near-casing 3D flow field. For transonic compressor rotors, these are more complex, as super- and subsonic flow regions alternate while interacting with the casing treatment. To derive design rules, it is important to quantify the influence of the casing treatment on the different tip flow phenomena. Designing a casing treatment in a way that it antagonizes only the deteriorating secondary flow effects can be seen as a method to enhance stability while increasing efficiency. The numerical studies are carried out on a tip-critical rotor of a 1.5-stage transonic axial compressor. The examined recirculating tip blowing casing treatment (TBCT) consists of a recirculating channel with an air off-take above the rotor and an injection nozzle in front of the rotor. The design and functioning of the casing treatment are influenced by various parameters. A variation of the geometry of the tip blowing, more specifically the nozzle aspect ratio, the axial position, or the tangential orientation of the injection port, was carried out to identify key levers. The tip blowing casing treatment is defined as a parameterized geometric model and is automatically meshed. A sensitivity analysis of the respective design parameters of the tip blowing is carried out on a single rotor row. Their impact on overall efficiency and their ability to improve stall margin are evaluated. The study is carried out using unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) simulations.


Author(s):  
Yiming Zhong ◽  
WuLi Chu ◽  
HaoGuang Zhang

Abstract Compared to the traditional casing treatment, the self-recirculating casing treatment (SCT) can improve or not decrease the compressor efficiency while achieving the stall margin improvement. For the bleed port, the main design indicator is to reduce the flow loss caused by suction, while providing sufficient jet flow and jet pressure to the injector. In order to gain a better study of the bleed port stabilization mechanisms, the bleed configuration was parameterized with the bleed port inlet width and the bleed port axial position. Five kinds of recirculating casing treatments were applied to a 1.5-stage transonic axial compressor with the method of three-dimensional unsteady numerical simulation. Fifteen identical self-recirculating devices are uniformly mounted around the annulus. The numerical results show that the SCT can improve compressor total pressure ratio and stability, shift the stall margin towards lower mass flows. Furthermore, it has no impact on compressor efficiency. The optimal case presents that stability margin is improved by 6.7% employing 3.1% of the annulus mass flow. Expanding bleed port inlet width to an intermediate level can further enhance compressor stability, but excessive bleed port inlet width will reduce the stabilization effect. The optimal bleed port position is located in the blocked area of the low energy group at the top of the rotor. In the case of solid casing, stall inception was the tip blockage, which was mainly triggered by the interaction of the tip leakage vortex and passage shock. From radial distribution, the casing treatment predominantly affects the above 70% span. The reduction of tip reflux region by suction effect is the main reason for the extension of stable operation range. The SCT also has an obvious stability improvement in tip blockage stall, while delaying the occurrence of compressor stall.


Author(s):  
HaoGuang Zhang ◽  
Feng Tan ◽  
YanHui Wu ◽  
WuLi Chu ◽  
Wei Wang ◽  
...  

For compressor blade tip stall, one effective way of extending stable operating range is with the application of circumferential grooved casing treatment and its validity was proved by a lot of experimental and numerical investigations. The emphases of most circumferential grooved investigations are focused on the influence of groove depth and groove number on compressor stability, and there is few investigations dealt with the center offset degree of circumferential grooves casing treatment. Hence, an axial compressor rotor with casing treatment (CT) was investigated with experimental and numerical methods to explore the effect of center offset degree on compressor stability and performance. In the work reported here, The center offset degree is defined as the ratio of the central difference between rotor tip axial chord and CT to the axial chord length of rotor tip. When the center of CT is located within the upstream direction of the center of rotor tip axial chord, the value of center offset degree is positive. The experimental and numerical results show that stall margin improvement gained with CT is reduced as the value of center offset degree varies from 0 to 0.33 or −0.33, and the CT with −0.33 center offset degree achieves the lowest value of stall margin improvement at 53% and 73% design rotational speed. The detailed analysis of the flow-field in compressor tip indicates that there is not positive effect made by grooves on leading edge of rotor blade tip when the value of center offset degree is −0.33. As the mass flow of compressor reduces further, tip clearance leakage flow results in the outlet blockage due to the absence of the positive action of grooves near blade tip tail when the value of center offset degree is 0.33. Blockage does not appear in rotor tip passage owing to utilizing the function of all grooves with CT of 0 center offset degree.


2017 ◽  
Vol 140 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Möller ◽  
Maximilian Jüngst ◽  
Heinz-Peter Schiffer ◽  
Thomas Giersch ◽  
Frank Heinichen

Rotor blade vibrations observed in the Darmstadt transonic compressor rig are investigated in this paper. The vibrations are nonsynchronous and occur in the near stall (NS) operating region. Rotor tip flow fluctuations traveling near the leading edge (LE) against the direction of rotation (in the rotor relative frame of reference) with about 50% blade tip speed are found to be the reason for the occurrence of the vibrations. The investigations show that the blockage at the rotor tip is an important factor for the aeroelastic stability of the compressor in the NS region. It is found that by application of a recirculating tip injection (TI) casing treatment, the aeroelastic stability increases as a result of reduced blockage in the rotor tip region.


Author(s):  
M. Voges ◽  
R. Schnell ◽  
C. Willert ◽  
R. Mo¨nig ◽  
M. W. Mu¨ller ◽  
...  

A single-stage transonic axial compressor was equipped with a casing treatment (CT), consisting of 3.5 axial slots per rotor pitch in order to investigate the predicted extension of the stall margin characteristics both numerically and experimentally. Contrary to most other studies the CT was designed especially accounting for an optimized optical access in the immediate vicinity of the CT, rather than giving maximum benefit in terms of stall margin extension. Part 1 of this two-part contribution describes the experimental investigation of the blade tip interaction with casing treatment using Particle image velocimetry (PIV). The nearly rectangular geometry of the CT cavities allowed a portion of it to be made of quartz glass with curvatures matching the casing. Thus the flow phenomena could be observed with essentially no disturbance caused by the optical access. Two periscope light sheet probes were specifically designed for this application to allow for precise alignment of the laser light sheet at three different radial positions in the rotor passage (87.5%, 95% and 99%). For the outermost radial position the light sheet probe was placed behind the rotor and aligned to pass the light sheet through the blade tip clearance. It was demonstrated that the PIV technique is capable of providing velocity information of high quality even in the tip clearance region of the rotor blades. The chosen type of smoke-based seeding with very small particles (about 0.5 μm in diameter) supported data evaluation with high spatial resolution, resulting in a final grid size of 0.5 × 0.5 mm. The PIV data base established in this project forms the basis for further detailed evaluations of the flow phenomena present in the transonic compressor stage with CT and allows validation of accompanying CFD calculations using the TRACE code. Based on the combined results of PIV measurements and CFD calculations of the same compressor and CT geometry a better understanding of the complex flow characteristics can be achieved, as detailed in Part 2 of this paper.


Author(s):  
Christian T. Pixberg ◽  
Heinz-Peter Schiffer ◽  
M. H. Ross ◽  
J. D. Cameron ◽  
S. C. Morris

The beneficial impact of casing treatments on the stall margin of tip-critical compressors has been proven many times. However, there is still no simple and general method to predict their actual effectiveness. The present work considers the axial velocity deficit that is generally observed at the blade tip. This so called tip-blockage is caused by the tip clearance flow. That is investigated for different configurations of the transonic compressor test facilities in Darmstadt and Notre Dame and the results are presented in this paper. Similar circumferential groove casing treatments were applied to different single-stage and 1.5-stage compressors. They all had a tip critical behavior in common, but exhibited different design philosophies. The effectiveness of similar casing treatments on different stages was observed. A new method for calculating tip-blockage is introduced based on compressor performance and the results of a through-flow tool. A direct link between blockage growth and stall margin improvement was found for circumferential grooves casing treatments. Additionally, the results of an axial slot casing treatment are taken into account.


Author(s):  
Ramjan R. Pathan ◽  
Quamber H. Nagpurwala ◽  
Ananthesha Bhat

Casing Treatment (CT) is one of the passive methods to increase the stability margin of the compress and hence that of the aircraft jet engines. In this paper, a novel J-shaped axial CT slot geometry is designed and numerically analysed for its effect on the performance of a single stage NACA transonic compressor. The predicted performance of the isolated rotor was validated by comparing with the published experimental results. The predicted efficiency of the baseline transonic rotor agreed well with experimental data, but the total pressure ratio was under predicted over the entire operating range. The J-shaped CT slots, with 100% axial coverage over the rotor tip chord, were able to extend the stall mass flow rate by almost 19.45% compared to the baseline rotor, accompanied with a slight reduction in rotor efficiency by 1.42%. The high pressure air entered the slots at rotor exit and flowed back through the slots and the plenum, and ejected at the rotor inlet to energise the low momentum end wall flow. The interaction of main inlet flow and the ejected flow having large tangential component of velocity, had favourable effect on the rotor incidence angle, and hence on rotor stall margin.


2010 ◽  
Vol 133 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Voges ◽  
R. Schnell ◽  
C. Willert ◽  
R. Mönig ◽  
M. W. Müller ◽  
...  

A single-stage transonic axial compressor was equipped with a casing treatment (CT), consisting of 3.5 axial slots per rotor pitch in order to investigate the predicted extension of the stall margin characteristics both numerically and experimentally. Contrary to most other studies, the CT was designed especially accounting for an optimized optical access in the immediate vicinity of the CT, rather than giving maximum benefit in terms of stall margin extension. Part I of this two-part contribution describes the experimental investigation of the blade tip interaction with casing treatment using particle image velocimetry (PIV). The nearly rectangular geometry of the CT cavities allowed a portion of it to be made of quartz glass with curvatures matching the casing. Thus, the flow phenomena could be observed with essentially no disturbance caused by the optical access. Two periscope light sheet probes were specifically designed for this application to allow for precise alignment of the laser light sheet at three different radial positions in the rotor passage (87.5%, 95%, and 99%). For the outermost radial position, the light sheet probe was placed behind the rotor and aligned to pass the light sheet through the blade tip clearance. It was demonstrated that the PIV technique is capable of providing velocity information of high quality even in the tip clearance region of the rotor blades. The chosen type of smoke-based seeding with very small particles (about 0.5 μm in diameter) supported data evaluation with high spatial resolution, resulting in a final grid size of 0.5×0.5 mm2. The PIV database established in this project forms the basis for further detailed evaluations of the flow phenomena present in the transonic compressor stage with CT and allows validation of accompanying computational fluid dynamics (CFD) calculations using the TRACE code. Based on the combined results of PIV measurements and CFD calculations of the same compressor and CT geometry, a better understanding of the complex flow characteristics can be achieved, as detailed in Part II of this paper.


Author(s):  
B. H. Beheshti ◽  
B Farhanieh ◽  
K Ghorbanian ◽  
J. A. Teixeira ◽  
P. C. Ivey

The casing treatment and flow injection upstream of the rotor tip are two effective approaches in suppressing instabilities or recovering from a fully developed stall. This paper presents numerical simulations for a high-speed transonic compressor rotor, NASA Rotor 37, applying a state-of-the-art design for the blade tip injection. This is characterized by introducing a jet flow directly into the casing treatment machined into the shroud. The casing treatment is positioned over the blade tip region and exceeds the impeller axially by ∼30 per cent of the tip chord both in the upstream and in the downstream directions. To numerically solve the governing equations, the three-dimensional finite element based finite volume method CFD solver CFX-TASCflow (version 2.12.1) is employed. For a compressible flow with varying density, Reynolds-averaging leads to appearance of complicated correlations. To avoid this, the mass-weighted or Favre-averaging is applied. Using an injected mass flow of 2.4 per cent of the annulus flow, the present design can improve stall margin by up to 7 per cent when compared with a smooth casing compressor without tip injection. This research can lead to an optimum design of recirculating casing treatments or other mechanisms for performance enhancement applying tip flow injection.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document