Numerical Investigation of Aerodynamic Radial and Axial Impeller Forces in a Turbocharger

Author(s):  
Henning Raetz ◽  
Jasper Kammeyer ◽  
Christoph K. Natkaniec ◽  
Joerg R. Seume

Aerodynamic forces are a major cause of turbocharger bearing friction. Thus, numerical simulations with ANSYS CFX are performed for a turbocharger turbine and compressor in order to determine these forces. Today, in common turbocharger CFD simulations the influence of the impeller backside cavity and blow-by are usually neglected. As a consequence, the axial forces on the impeller cannot be correctly determined. In this study therefore, the impeller backside cavity and blow-by were taken into account. Additionally, the influence of different operating conditions as well as different turbine and compressor blow-by flows were investigated. Finally, the resulting aerodynamic impeller forces of a turbocharger were analysed and visualized. The results show some trends which agree with the impeller forces of larger radial turbines and compressors published in literature. However some turbocharger-specific differences are identified, e.g. the wide operation range of a turbocharger. The influences of blow-by are found to be small but not negligible.

Author(s):  
Emilie Sauret

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations are widely used in mechanical engineering. Although achieving a high level of confidence in numerical modelling is of crucial importance in the field of turbomachinery, verification and validation of CFD simulations are very tricky especially for complex flows encountered in radial turbines. Comprehensive studies of radial machines are available in the literature. Unfortunately, none of them include enough detailed geometric data to be properly reproduced and so cannot be considered for academic research and validation purposes. As a consequence, design improvements of such configurations are difficult. Moreover it seems that well-developed analyses of radial turbines are used in commercial software but are not available in the open literature especially at high pressure ratios. It is the purpose of this paper to provide a fully open set of data to reproduce the exact geometry of the high pressure ratio single stage radial-inflow turbine used in the Sundstrand Power Systems T-100 Multipurpose Small Power Unit. First, preliminary one-dimensional meanline design and analysis are performed using the commercial software RITAL from Concepts-NREC in order to establish a complete reference test case available for turbomachinery code validation. The proposed design of the existing turbine is then carefully and successfully checked against the geometrical and experimental data partially published in the literature. Then, three-dimensional Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes simulations are conducted by means of the Axcent-PushButton CFD® CFD software. The effect of the tip clearance gap is investigated in detail for a wide range of operating conditions. The results confirm that the 3D geometry is correcty reproduced. It also reveals that the turbine is shocked while designed to give a high-subsonic flow and highlight he importance of the diffuser.


Author(s):  
Anthony Couzinet ◽  
Laurent Gros ◽  
Daniel Pierrat

This paper - part2 presents the results of 3D CFD simulations in a centrifugal pump corresponding to the experimental tests presented in Part 1 [1]. Numerical investigations have been carried out to study the behavior of the same centrifugal pump in the range of flow rates corresponding to the saddle-type instability. The numerical results obtained from numerical simulations performed with ANSYS CFX and based on a steady state approach are compared to the experimental data. This study aims to reproduce by numerical simulations the head drop induced by the saddle-type instability starting from industrial approaches using two-equation turbulence modeling. Moreover the analysis of the local flow provides explanations about the physical phenomenon behind this instability. By comparing an approach taking into account the full geometry of the pump and another limited to one blade passage the limits of usual approaches in rotating machinery simulations for the representation of such instabilities are discussed.


Author(s):  
Emilie Sauret ◽  
Yuantong Gu

Optimisation of Organic Rankine Cycles (ORCs) for binary cycle applications could play a major role in determining the competitiveness of low to moderate renewable sources. An important aspect of the optimisation is to maximise the turbine output power for a given resource. This requires careful attention to the turbine design notably through numerical simulations. Challenges in the numerical modelling of radial-inflow turbines using high-density working fluids still need to be addressed in order to improve the turbine design and better optimise ORCs. This paper presents preliminary 3D numerical simulations of a radial-inflow turbine working with high-density fluids in realistic geothermal ORCs. Following extensive investigation of the operating conditions and thermodynamic cycle analysis, the refrigerant R143a is chosen as the high-density working fluid. The 1D design of the candidate radial-inflow turbine is presented in details. Furthermore, commercially-available software Ansys-CFX is used to perform preliminary steady-state 3D CFD simulations of the candidate R143a radial-inflow turbine at the nominal operating condition. The real-gas properties are obtained using the Peng-Robinson equations of state. The thermodynamic ORC cycle is presented. The preliminary design created using dedicated radial-inflow turbine software Concepts-Rital is discussed and the 3D CFD results are presented and compared against the meanline analysis.


2002 ◽  
Vol 124 (4) ◽  
pp. 827-834 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. O. Baun ◽  
E. H. Maslen ◽  
C. R. Knospe ◽  
R. D. Flack

Inherent in the construction of many experimental apparatus designed to measure the hydro/aerodynamic forces of rotating machinery are features that contribute undesirable parasitic forces to the measured or test forces. Typically, these parasitic forces are due to seals, drive couplings, and hydraulic and/or inertial unbalance. To obtain accurate and sensitive measurement of the hydro/aerodynamic forces in these situations, it is necessary to subtract the parasitic forces from the test forces. In general, both the test forces and the parasitic forces will be dependent on the system operating conditions including the specific motion of the rotor. Therefore, to properly remove the parasitic forces the vibration orbits and operating conditions must be the same in tests for determining the hydro/aerodynamic forces and tests for determining the parasitic forces. This, in turn, necessitates a means by which the test rotor’s motion can be accurately controlled to an arbitrarily defined trajectory. Here in, an interrupt-driven multiple harmonic open-loop controller was developed and implemented on a laboratory centrifugal pump rotor supported in magnetic bearings (active load cells) for this purpose. This allowed the simultaneous control of subharmonic, synchronous, and superharmonic rotor vibration frequencies with each frequency independently forced to some user defined orbital path. The open-loop controller was implemented on a standard PC using commercially available analog input and output cards. All analog input and output functions, transformation of the position signals from the time domain to the frequency domain, and transformation of the open-loop control signals from the frequency domain to the time domain were performed in an interrupt service routine. Rotor vibration was attenuated to the noise floor, vibration amplitude ≈0.2 μm, or forced to a user specified orbital trajectory. Between the whirl frequencies of 14 and 2 times running speed, the orbit semi-major and semi-minor axis magnitudes were controlled to within 0.5% of the requested axis magnitudes. The ellipse angles and amplitude phase angles of the imposed orbits were within 0.3 deg and 1.0 deg, respectively, of their requested counterparts.


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.


Author(s):  
John J. Adamczyk

This paper summarizes the state of 3D CFD based models of the time average flow field within axial flow multistage turbomachines. Emphasis is placed on models which are compatible with the industrial design environment and those models which offer the potential of providing credible results at both design and off-design operating conditions. The need to develop models which are free of aerodynamic input from semi-empirical design systems is stressed. The accuracy of such models is shown to be dependent upon their ability to account for the unsteady flow environment in multistage turbomachinery. The relevant flow physics associated with some of the unsteady flow processes present in axial flow multistage machinery are presented along with procedures which can be used to account for them in 3D CFD simulations. Sample results are presented for both axial flow compressors and axial flow turbines which help to illustrate the enhanced predictive capabilities afforded by including these procedures in 3D CFD simulations. Finally, suggestions are given for future work on the development of time average flow models.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Domenico Tommasino ◽  
Matteo Bottin ◽  
Giulio Cipriani ◽  
Alberto Doria ◽  
Giulio Rosati

Abstract In robotics the risk of collisions is present both in industrial applications and in remote handling. If a collision occurs, the impact may damage both the robot and external equipment, which may result in successive imprecise robot tasks or line stops, reducing robot efficiency. As a result, appropriate collision avoidance algorithms should be used or, if it is not possible, the robot must be able to react to impacts reducing the contact forces. For this purpose, this paper focuses on the development of a special end-effector that can withstand impacts and is able to protect the robot from impulsive forces. The novel end-effector is based on a bi-stable mechanism that decouples the dynamics of the end-effector from the dynamics of the robot. The intrinsically non-linear behavior of the end-effector is investigated with the aid of numerical simulations. The effect of design parameters and the operating conditions are analyzed and the interaction between the functioning of the bi-stable mechanism and the control system is studied. In particular, the effect of the mechanism in different scenarios characterized by different robot velocities is shown. Results of numerical simulations assess the validity of the proposed end-effector, which can lead to large reductions in impact forces.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Alvarez-Regueiro ◽  
Esperanza Barrera-Medrano ◽  
Ricardo Martinez-Botas ◽  
Srithar Rajoo

Abstract This paper presents a CFD-based numerical analysis on the potential benefits of non-radial blading turbine for low speed-low pressure applications. Electric turbocompounding is a waste heat recovery technology consisting of a turbine coupled to a generator that transforms the energy left over in the engine exhaust gases, which is typically found at low pressure, into electricity. Turbines designed to operate at low specific speed are ideal for these applications since the peak efficiency occurs at lower pressure ratios than conventional high speed turbines. The baseline design consisted of a vaneless radial fibre turbine, operating at 1.2 pressure ratio and 28,000rpm. Experimental low temperature tests were carried out with the baseline radial blading turbine at nominal, lower and higher pressure ratio operating conditions to validate numerical simulations. The baseline turbine incidence angle effect was studied and positive inlet blade angle impact was assessed in the current paper. Four different turbine rotor designs of 20, 30, 40 and 50° of positive inlet blade angle are presented, with the aim to reduce the losses associated to positive incidence, specially at midspan. The volute domain was included in all CFD calculations to take into account the volute-rotor interactions. The results obtained from numerical simulations of the modified designs were compared with those from the baseline turbine rotor at design and off-design conditions. Total-to-static efficiency improved in all the non-radial blading designs at all operating points considered, by maximum of 1.5% at design conditions and 5% at off-design conditions, particularly at low pressure ratio. As non-radial fibre blading may be susceptible to high centrifugal and thermal stresses, a structural analysis was performed to assess the feasibility of each design. Most of non-radial blading designs showed acceptable levels of stress and deformation.


2004 ◽  
Vol 126 (3) ◽  
pp. 473-481 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Jacod ◽  
C. H. Venner ◽  
P. M. Lugt

The effect of longitudinal roughness on the friction in EHL contacts is investigated by means of numerical simulations. In the theoretical model the Eyring equation is used to describe the rheological behavior of the lubricant. First the relative friction variation caused by a single harmonic roughness component is computed as a function of the amplitude and wavelength for a wide range of operating conditions. From the results a curve fit formula is derived for the relative friction variation as a function of the out-of-contact geometry of the waviness and a newly derived parameter characterizing the response of the lubricant to pressure variations. Subsequently, the case of a superposition of two harmonic components is considered. It is shown that for the effect on friction such a combined pattern can be represented by a single equivalent wave. The amplitude and the wavelength of the equivalent wave can be determined from a nonlinear relation in terms of the amplitudes and wavelengths of the individual harmonic components. Finally the approach is applied to the prediction of the effect of a real roughness profile (many components) on the friction. From a comparison of the results with full numerical simulations it appears that the simplified approach is quite accurate.


Author(s):  
Elizaveta Ivanova ◽  
Berthold Noll ◽  
Peter Griebel ◽  
Manfred Aigner ◽  
Khawar Syed

Turbulent mixing and autoignition of H2-rich fuels at relevant reheat combustor operating conditions are investigated in the present numerical study. The flow configuration under consideration is a fuel jet perpendicularly injected into a crossflow of hot flue gas (T > 1000K, p = 15bar). Based on the results of the experimental study for the same flow configuration and operating conditions two different fuel blends are chosen for the numerical simulations. The first fuel blend is a H2/natural gas/N2 mixture at which no autoignition events were observed in the experiments. The second fuel blend is a H2/N2 mixture at which autoignition in the mixing section occurred. First, the non-reacting flow simulations are performed for the H2/natural gas/N2 mixture in order to compare the accuracy of different turbulence modeling methods. Here the steady-state Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) as well as the unsteady scale-adaptive simulation (SAS) turbulence modeling methods are applied. The velocity fields obtained in both simulations are directly validated against experimental data. The SAS method shows better agreement with the experimental results. In the second part of the present work the autoignition of the H2/N2 mixture is numerically studied using the 9-species 21-steps reaction mechanism of O’Conaire et al. [1]. As in the reference experiments, autoignition can be observed in the simulations. Influences of the turbulence modeling as well as of the hot flue gas temperature are investigated. The onset and the propagation of the ignition kernels are studied based on the SAS modeling results. The obtained numerical results are discussed and compared with data from experimental autoignition studies.


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