Unsteady Vortices and Blade Loading in a High-Pressure Turbine

Author(s):  
Dongil Chang ◽  
Stavros Tavoularis

Unsteady flow in a transonic, single-stage, high-pressure, axial turbine has been investigated numerically by solving the URANS (Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes) equations with the SST (Shear Stress Transport) turbulence model. Interest has focused on the identification and effects of the quasi-stationary vane and blade horseshoe vortices, vane and blade passage vortices, vane and blade trailing edge vortices, and blade tip leakage vortices. Moreover, two types of unsteady vortices, not discussed explicitly in the previous literature, have been identified and termed “axial gap vortices” and “crown vortices”. All vortices have been clearly and distinctly identified using a modified form of the Q criterion, which is less sensitive to the set threshold than the original version. The use of pathlines and iso-contours of static pressure, axial vorticity and entropy has been further exploited to distinguish the different types of vortices from each other and to mark their senses of rotation and strengths. The influence of these vortices on the entropy distribution at the outlet has been investigated. The observed high total pressure losses in the turbine at blade midspan have been connected to the action of passage vortices. The formation and disappearance processes of unsteady vortices located in the spacing between the stator and the rotor have been time-resolved. These vortices are roughly aligned with the leading edges of the rotor blades and their existence depends on the position of the blade with respect to the upstream vanes. In addition, the present study focuses on the unsteady blade loading that influences vibratory stresses. Contours of the time-dependent surface pressure on the rotor blade have demonstrated the presence of large pressure fluctuations near the front of the blade suction sides; these pressure fluctuations have been associated with the periodic passages of shock waves originating at the vane trailing edges.

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-32
Author(s):  
Mykola Karpenko ◽  
Olegas Prentkovskis ◽  
Šarūnas Šukevičius

Reliability and maintenance analysis of transport machines hydraulic drives, basically focused to power units: pumps, cylinders etc., without taking in to account junction elements. Therefore, this paper proposes a research analysis on high-pressure hoses and junctions during technical maintenance. Comparative analysis of fluid behavior and energy efficiency inside non-repaired and repaired high-pressure hoses is presented in this research. Theoretical and experimental research results for hydraulic processes inside high-pressure hose is based on the numerical simulations using Navier–Stokes equations and experimental measurement of fluid flow pressure inside high-pressure hoses. Research of fluid flow dynamics in the hydraulic system was made with main assumptions: system flow rate in the range from 5 to 100 l/min, diameter of the hoses and repairing fitting are 3/8". The pressure drops, power losses, flow coefficients at non-repaired and after maintenance hose was obtained as a result. Simulation results were verified by running physical experiments to measure the pressure losses.


Author(s):  
Andreas Loos ◽  
Tobias Mayenberger ◽  
Florian Danner ◽  
Hans-Peter Kau

The flow field of high pressure compressors is strongly influenced by secondary flow phenomena which lead to performance degradations. A significant fraction of the associated losses arises from tip as well as hub clearance vortices and their interaction with the main flow. In order to decrease the negative effect of clearance vortices, the application of vanelets, winglet-like structures attached to the tips of a cantilevered stator, is studied within the present paper. Different vanelets of generic design are applied to the stator and evaluated with respect to their aerodynamic effect by comparison against a datum configuration. The model comprises the investigated stator enclosed between two rotating blade rows. Detailed insight into the underlying phenomena is provided by numerical investigations with the compressible Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations. The structures led to an increased efficiency at the aerodynamic design point due to the suppression of the clearance mass flow in combination with a reduced vortex cross section. Under strongly throttled conditions a so called vanelet corner stall developed, which induced blockage near hub. Thus the main flow was displaced towards casing enhancing stable operation of the downstream rotor. Surge margin was consequently increased.


Author(s):  
Felix Fischer ◽  
Andreas Rhein ◽  
Katharina Schmitz

Abstract Hydraulic pumps, which reach pressures up to 3000 bar, are often realized as plunger-piston type pumps. In the case of a common-rail pump for diesel injection systems, the plunger is driven by a cam-tappet construction and the contact during suction stroke is maintained by a helical spring. Many hydraulic piston-based high pressure pumps include gap seals, which are formed by small clearances between the two surfaces of the piston and the bushing. Usually the gap height is in the magnitude of several micrometers. Typical radial gaps are between 0.5 and 1 per mil of the nominal diameter. These gap seals are used to allow and maintain pressure build up in the piston chamber. When the gap is pressurized, a special flow regime is reached. For the description of this particular flow the Reynolds equation, which is a simplification of the Navier-Stokes equations, can be used as done in the state of the art. Furthermore, if the pressure in the gap is high enough — 500 bar and above — fluid-structure interactions must be taken into account. Pressure levels above 1500 or 2000 bar indicate the necessity for solving the energy equation of the fluid phase and the rigid bodies surrounding it. In any case, the fluid properties such as density and viscosity, have to be modelled in a pressure dependent manner. This means, a compressible flow is described in the sealing gap. Viscosity changes in magnitudes while density remains in the same magnitude, but nevertheless changes about 30 %. These facts must be taken into account when solving the Reynolds equation. In this paper the authors work out that the Reynolds equation is not suitable for every piston-bushing gap seal in hydraulic applications. It will be shown that remarkable errors are made, when the inertia terms in the Navier-Stokes equations are neglected, especially in high pressure applications. To work out the influence of the inertia terms in these flows, two simulation models are built up and calculated for the physical problem. One calculates the compressible Reynolds equation neglecting the fluid inertia. The other model, taking the fluid inertia into account, calculates the coupled Navier-Stokes equations on the same geometrical boundaries. Here, the so called SIMPLE (Semi-Implicit Method for Pressure Linked Equations) algorithm is used. The discretization is realized with the Finite Volume Method. Afterwards, the solutions of both models are compared to investigate the influence of the inertia terms on the flow in these specific high pressure applications.


Author(s):  
Vaclav Slama ◽  
Bartolomej Rudas ◽  
Ales Macalka ◽  
Jiri Ira ◽  
Antonin Zivny

Abstract An advanced in-house procedure, which is based on a commercial numerical code, to predict a potential danger of unstalled flutter has been developed and validated. This procedure using a one way decoupled method and a full-scale time-marching 3D viscous model in order to obtain the solution of the Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations in the time domain thus calculate an aerodynamic work and a damping ratio is used as an essential tool for developing ultra-long last stage rotor blades in low pressure turbine parts for modern steam turbines with a large operating range and an enhanced efficiency. An example is shown on a development of the last stage blade for high backpressures.


Author(s):  
Nadia A. S. Smith ◽  
Stephen S. L. Peppin ◽  
Ángel M. Ramos

High-pressure freezing processes are a novel emerging technology in food processing, offering significant improvements to the quality of frozen foods. To be able to simulate plateau times and thermal history under different conditions, in this work, we present a generalized enthalpy model of the high-pressure shift freezing process. The model includes the effects of pressure on conservation of enthalpy and incorporates the freezing point depression of non-dilute food samples. In addition, the significant heat-transfer effects of convection in the pressurizing medium are accounted for by solving the two-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations. We run the model for several numerical tests where the food sample is agar gel, and find good agreement with experimental data from the literature.


Author(s):  
Craig I. Smith ◽  
Dongil Chang ◽  
Stavros Tavoularis

The temperature of the flow entering a high-pressure turbine stage is inherently non-uniform, as it is produced by several discrete, azimuthally-distributed combustors. In general, however, industrial simulations assume inlet temperature uniformity to simplify the preparation process and reduce computation time. The effects of a non-uniform inlet field on the performance of a commercial, transonic, single-stage, high-pressure, axial turbine with a curved inlet duct have been investigated numerically by performing URANS (Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations) simulations with the SST (Shear Stress Transport) turbulence model. By adjusting the alignment of the experimentally-based inlet temperature field with respect to the stator vanes, two clocking configurations were generated: an aligned case, in which each hot streak impinged on a vane and a misaligned case, in which each hot streak passed between two vanes. In the aligned configuration, the hot streaks produced higher time-averaged heat load on the vanes and lower heat load on the blades. As the aligned hot streaks impinged on the stator vanes, they also spread spanwise due to the actions of the casing passage vortices and the radial pressure gradient; this resulted in a stream entering the rotor with relatively low temperature variations. The misaligned hot streaks were convected undisturbed past the relatively cool vane section. Relatively high time-averaged enthalpy values were found to occur on the pressure side of the blades in the misaligned configuration. The non-uniformity of the time-averaged enthalpy on the blade surfaces was lower in the aligned configuration. The flow exiting the rotor section was much less non-uniform in the aligned case, but differences in calculated efficiency were not significant.


2011 ◽  
Vol 115 (1165) ◽  
pp. 147-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. S. Johnson ◽  
G. N. Barakos

AbstractThis work presents a computational framework for the optimisation of various aspects of rotor blades. The proposed method employs CFD combined with artificial neural networks, employed as metamodels, and optimisation methods based on genetic algorithms. To demonstrate this approach, two examples have been used, one is the optimal selection of 4- and 5-digit NACA aerofoils for rotor sections and the other is the optimisation of linear blade twist for rotors in hover. For each case, an objective function was created and the meta-model was subsequently used to evaluate this objective function during the optimisation process. The obtained results agree with real world design examples and theoretical predictions. For the selected cases, the artificial neural network was found to perform adequately though the results required a substantial amount of data for training. The genetic algorithm was found to be very effective in identifying a set of near-optimal parameters. The main CPU cost was associated with the population of the database necessary for the meta-models and this task required CFD computations based on the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations. The framework is general enough to allow for several design or optimisation tasks to be carried out and it is based on open-source code made available by the authors.


Author(s):  
Jens S. Müller ◽  
Finn Lückoff ◽  
Thomas Ludwig Kaiser ◽  
Christian Oliver Paschereit ◽  
Kilian Oberleithner

Abstract In order to determine the flame transfer function of a combustion system, different mechanisms have been identified that need to be modeled. This study focuses on the generation and propagation of one of these mechanisms, namely the swirl fluctuations downstream of a radial swirl combustor under isothermal conditions. Swirl fluctuations are generated experimentally by imposing acoustic perturbations. Time-resolved longitudinal and crosswise PIV measurements are conducted inside the mixing tube and combustion chamber to quantify the evolution of the swirl fluctuations. The measured flow response is decomposed using spectral proper orthogonal decomposition to unravel the contributions of different dynamical modes. In addition a resolvent analysis is conducted based on the linearized Navier-Stokes equations to reveal the intrinsically most amplified flow structures. Both, the data-driven and analytic approach, show that inertial waves are indeed present in the flow response and an inherent flow instability downstream of the swirler, which confirms recent theoretical works on inertial waves. However, the contribution of the identified inertial waves to the total swirl fluctuations turns out to be very small. This is suggested to be due to the very structured forcing at the swirler and the additional amplification of shear-driven modes. Overall, this work confirms the presence of inertial waves in highly turbulent swirl combustors and evaluates its relevance for industry-related configurations. It further outlines a methodology to analyze and predict their characteristics based on mean fields only, which is applicable for complex geometries of industrial relevance.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Aziz ◽  
Farouk M. Owis ◽  
M. M. Abdelrahman

The design of a transonic-fan rotor is optimized using numerical computations of the full three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations. The CFDRC-ACE multiphysics module, which is a pressure-based solver, is used for the numerical simulation. The code is coupled with simplex optimization algorithm. The optimization process is started from a suitable design point obtained using low fidelity analytical methods that is based on experimental correlations for the pressure losses and blade deviation angle. The fan blade shape is defined by its stacking line and airfoil shape which are considered the optimization parameters. The stacking line is defined by lean, sweep, and skews, while blade airfoil shape is modified considering the thickness and camber distributions. The optimization has been performed to maximize the rotor total pressure ratio while keeping the rotor efficiency and surge margin above certain required values. The results obtained are verified with the experimental data of Rotor 67. In addition, the results of the optimized fan indicate that the optimum design is found to be leaned in the direction of rotation and has a forward sweep from the hub to mean section and backward sweep to the tip. The pressure ratio increases from 1.427 to 1.627 at the design speed and mass flow rate.


Author(s):  
P. Adami ◽  
A. Milli ◽  
F. Martelli ◽  
S. Cecchi

The objective of this work is to analyze the end wall leakage interaction in shrouded high pressure turbines to provide useful indications about the flow pattern and its impact on performances. The prediction of flow through the seal and the understanding of the leakage jet interaction with the main flow in turbine end wall regions is nowadays possible using 3D CFD approaches. Modern solvers allow the coupling of the labyrinth and the main vane flows accounting for most of the geometric and aerodynamic features characterizing this phenomenon. Two similar shroud configurations are here analysed for two high pressure turbine configurations. Each configuration refers to a different blade technology commonly used by ANSALDO ENERGIA. The computational algorithm is based on a numerical solver developed and applied for the simulation of compressible Navier-Stokes equations in a multi rows unsteady environment. In order to reproduce the basic physic of the leakages, the problem has been investigated modelling the unsteady 1 1/2 stage interaction together with the complete geometry of the labyrinth seals. The CFD results are commented addressing the potential source of losses to help the development of solutions for reducing the leakage losses.


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