Stator Wake Research in Axial-Radial Combined Compressor With Inlet Distortion

Author(s):  
Du Li ◽  
Dazhong Lao ◽  
Ben Zhao ◽  
Ce Yang

A combined compressor consisting of an axial rotor, a stator and a centrifugal rotor was used in a vehicle engine turbocharger because of its better performance compared with a single stage compressor under space restrictions. There have been many studies on the inlet distortion effect on multistage axial compressors; however, few studies have been performed for axial-radial combined compressors. To investigate stator wake characteristics, an axial-radial compressor was unsteadily simulated with three-dimensional Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes equations by “domain-scaling” the rotor/stator interface method under uniform, circumferential distorted and combined distorted total pressure inlet conditions. In addition to the axial-radial configuration, the unsteady method of analysis was applied to a stand-alone axial stage by the same unsteady method. A comparison shows that at the vane stator outlet, a radial distortion is formed and different total pressure loss occurs at different spans. The circumferential interfaces between the distorted and non-distorted regions generate different flow characteristics due to different pitchwise pressure gradient directions and the absence of a downstream rotor. The stator wake causes more flow loss in the distorted case but less flow angle fluctuation compared to the uniform inlet condition. The downstream potential effect and inlet distortion creates strong pressure pulsation at the stator blade surface. A stator wake oscillation characteristics study shows disturbing effects on the stator wake from the upstream axial rotor, and the downstream radial rotor acts differently both spanwise and pitchwise.

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peng Sun ◽  
Guotal Feng

A time-accurate three-dimensional Navier-Stokes solver of the unsteady flow field in a transonic fan was carried out using "Fluent-parallel" in a parallel supercomputer. The numerical simulation focused on a transonic fan with inlet square wave total pressure distortion and the analysis of result consisted of three aspects. The first was about inlet parameters redistribution and outlet total temperature distortion induced by inlet total pressure distortion. The pattern and causation of flow loss caused by pressure distortion in rotor were analyzed secondly. It was found that the influence of distortion was different at different radial positions. In hub area, transportation-loss and mixing-loss were the main loss patterns. Distortion not only complicated them but enhanced them. Especially in stator, inlet total pressure distortion induced large-scale vortex, which produced backflow and increased the loss. While in casing area, distortion changed the format of shock wave and increased the shock loss. Finally, the format of shock wave and the hysteresis of rotor to distortion were analyzed in detail.


Author(s):  
Peng Sun ◽  
Jingjun Zhong ◽  
Guotai Feng

The performance and stability of a fan in clean and distorted inlet flow can be improved through the use of bowed stator blades. Measurements between the blade rows in transonic and supersonic flow are too complex to provide any useful insights, so 3D flow simulations are required. In this paper, a time-accurate three-dimensional Navier-Stokes solver of the unsteady flow field in a transonic fan is carried out using “Fluent-parallel” in a parallel supercomputer. Two sets of simulations are performed. The first simulation focuses on a better understanding of inlet total pressure distortion effects on a transonic fan. The second set of numerical simulation aims at studying the improvements of fan performance made by bowed stator blades. Three aspects are contained in this paper. The first is about the distortion effects on characteristics of the fan stage with straight stator. The effects of bowed stator on fan performance with inlet distortion are demonstrated secondly. One hand bowed stator increases the loss in rotor. On the other hand, it reduces the flow loss in stator. Finally, the patterns of flow loss caused by total pressure distortion with straight/bowed stator are compared. The scale of vortex in stator induced by inlet total pressure distortion is weakened by bowed blades, which decreases the stator loss.


Author(s):  
Z. Liu ◽  
J. Braun ◽  
G. Paniagua

Rotating detonation combustors (RDCs) offer theoretically a significant total pressure increase, which may result in enhanced cycle efficiency. The fluctuating exhaust of RDC, however, induces low supersonic flow and large flow angle fluctuations at several kHz, which affects the performance of the downstream turbine. In this paper, a numerical methodology is proposed to characterize a supersonic turbine exposed to fluctuations from RDC without any dilution. The inlet conditions of the turbine were extracted from a three-dimensional (3D) unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes simulation of a nozzle attached to a rotating detonation combustor, optimized for minimum flow fluctuations and a mass-flow averaged Mach number of 2 at the nozzle outlet. In a first step, a supersonic turbine able to handle steady Mach 2 inflow was designed based on a method of characteristics solver and total pressure loss was assessed. Afterward, unsteady simulations of eight stator passages exposed to periodic oblique shocks were performed. Total pressure loss was evaluated for several oblique shock frequencies and amplitudes. The unsteady stator outlet profile was extracted and used as inlet condition for the unsteady rotor simulations. Finally, a full stage unsteady simulation was performed to characterize the flow field across the entire turbine stage. Power extraction, airfoil base pressure, and total pressure losses were assessed, which enabled the estimation of the loss mechanisms in supersonic turbine exposed to large unsteady inlet conditions.


Author(s):  
Chunill Hah ◽  
Douglas C. Rabe ◽  
Thomas J. Sullivan ◽  
Aspi R. Wadia

The effects of circumferential distortions in inlet total pressure on the flow field in a low-aspect-ratio, high-speed, high-pressure-ratio, transonic compressor rotor are investigated in this paper. The flow field was studied experimentally and numerically with and without inlet total pressure distortion. Total pressure distortion was created by screens mounted upstream from the rotor inlet. Circumferential distortions of 8 periods per revolution were investigated at two different rotor speeds. The unsteady blade surface pressures were measured with miniature pressure transducers mounted in the blade. The flow fields with and without inlet total pressure distortion were analyzed numerically by solving steady and unsteady forms of the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations. Steady three-dimensional viscous flow calculations were performed for the flow without inlet distortion while unsteady three-dimensional viscous flow calculations were used for the flow with inlet distortion. For the time-accurate calculation, circumferential and radial variations of the inlet total pressure were used as a time-dependent inflow boundary condition. A second-order implicit scheme was used for the time integration. The experimental measurements and the numerical analysis are highly complementary for this study because of the extreme complexity of the flow field. The current investigation shows that inlet flow distortions travel through the rotor blade passage and are convected into the following stator. At a high rotor speed where the flow is transonic, the passage shock was found to oscillate by as much as 20% of the blade chord, and very strong interactions between the unsteady passage shock and the blade boundary layer were observed. This interaction increases the effective blockage of the passage, resulting in an increased aerodynamic loss and a reduced stall margin. The strong interaction between the passage shock and the blade boundary layer increases the peak aerodynamic loss by about one percent.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hesham M. El-Batsh

This paper introduces an investigation of the effect of radial pressure gradient on the secondary flow generated in turbine cascades. Laboratory measurements were performed using an annular sector cascade which allowed the investigation using relatively small number of blades. The flow was measured upstream and downstream of the cascade using a calibrated five-hole pressure probe. The three-dimensional Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes equations were solved to understand flow physics. Turbulence was modeled using eddy-viscosity assumption and the two-equation Shear Stress Transport (SST)k-ωmodel. The results obtained through this study showed that the secondary flow is significantly affected by the pressure gradient along blade span. The experimental measurements and the numerical calculations predicted passage vortex near blade hub which had larger and stronger values than that predicted near blade tip. The loss distribution revealed that secondary flow loss was concentrated near blade hub. It is recommended that attempts of reducing secondary flow in annular cascade should put emphasis on the passage vortex near the hub.


Author(s):  
Md. Readul Mahmud

The fluids inside passive micromixers are laminar in nature and mixing depends primarily on diffusion. Hence mixing efficiency is generally low, and requires a long channel length and longtime compare to active mixers. Various designs of complex channel structures with/without obstacles and three-dimensional geometries have been investigated in the past to obtain an efficient mixing in passive mixers. This work presents a design of a modified T mixer. To enhance the mixing performance, circular and hexagonal obstacles are introduced inside the modified T mixer. Numerical investigation on mixing and flow characteristics in microchannels is carried out using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software ANSYS 15. Mixing in the channels has been analyzed by using Navier–Stokes equations with water-water for a wide range of the Reynolds numbers from 1 to 500. The results show that the modified T mixer with circular obstacles has far better mixing performance than the modified T mixer without obstacles. The reason is that fluids' path length becomes longer due to the presence of obstacles which gives fluids more time to diffuse. For all cases, the modified T mixer with circular obstacle yields the best mixing efficiency (more than 60%) at all examined Reynolds numbers. It is also clear that efficiency increase with axial length. Efficiency can be simply improved by adding extra mixing units to provide adequate mixing. The value of the pressure drop is the lowest for the modified T mixer because there is no obstacle inside the channel. Modified T mixer and modified T mixer with circular obstacle have the lowest and highest mixing cost, respectively. Therefore, the current design of modified T with circular obstacles can act as an effective and simple passive mixing device for various micromixing applications.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 3977-3980

A numerical analysis is carried out to understand the flow characteristics for different impeller configurations of a single stage centrifugal blower. The volute design is based on constant velocity method. Four different impeller configurations are selected for the analysis. Impeller blade geometry is created with point by point method. Numerical simulation is carried out by CFD software GAMBIT 2.4.6 and FLUENT 6.3.26. GAMBIT work includes geometry definition and grid generation of computational domain. This process includes selection of grid types, grid refinements and defining correct boundary conditions. Processing work is carried out in FLUENT. The viscous Navier-Stokes equations are solved with control volume approach and the k-ε turbulence model. In this three dimensional numerical analysis is carried out with steady flow approach. The rotor and stator interaction is solved by mixing plane approach. Results of simulation are presented in terms of flow parameters, at impeller outlet and various angular positions inside the volute. Also, the contours of flow properties are presented at the outlet plane of fluid domain. Results suggest that for the same configurations of centrifugal blower, as we change geometrical parameter of impeller the flow inside the blower get affected.


Author(s):  
D. Sun ◽  
R. S. Amano

Two and three-dimensional steady flowfields generated by transverse secondary injection into a supersonic flow, was simulated by solving the Favre-averaged Navier-Stokes equations using the weighted essentially nonoscillatory (WENO) schemes. Both the two-dimensional and three-dimensional results are given. Some parameters affecting the penetration height and separation length of the interactive flowfield, including the total pressure ratio of the jet to the freestream, the boundary layer thickness, slot width, the Mach number of the freestream and injection, the jet angle, and the shape of the injection orifice in the 3D flowfield, were calculated in more detail.


2011 ◽  
Vol 673 ◽  
pp. 406-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
YANNICK HALLEZ ◽  
DOMINIQUE LEGENDRE

The three-dimensional flow around two spherical bubbles moving in a viscous fluid is studied numerically by solving the full Navier–Stokes equations. The study considers the interaction between two bubbles for moderate Reynolds numbers (50 ≤ Re ≤ 500, Re being based on the bubble diameter) and for positions described by the separation S (2.5 ≤ S ≤ 10, S being the distance between the bubble centres normalised by the bubble radius) and the angle θ (0° ≤ θ ≤ 90°) formed between the centreline and the direction perpendicular to the direction of the motion. We provide a general description of the interaction extending the results obtained for two bubbles moving side by side (θ = 0°) by Legendre, Magnaudet & Mougin (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 497, 2003, p. 133) and for two bubbles moving in line (θ = 90°) by Yuan & Prosperetti J. Fluid Mech., vol. 278, 1994, p. 325). Simple models based on physical arguments are given for the drag and lift forces experienced by each bubble. The interaction is the combination of three effects: a potential effect, a viscous correction (Moore's correction) and a significant wake effect observed on both the drag and the transverse forces of the second bubble when located in the wake of the first one.


Author(s):  
J.-H. Jeon ◽  
S.-S. Byeon ◽  
Y.-J. Kim

The Francis turbine is a kind of reaction turbines, which means that the potential energy of water converted to rotational kinetic energy. In this study, the flow characteristics have been investigated numerically in a Francis turbine on the 15 MW hydropower generation with various blade profiles (NACA 65 and NACA 16 series) and discharge angles (14°, 15°, 17°, and 18°), using the commercial code, ANSYS CFX. The k-ω SST turbulence model is employed in the Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations. The computing domain includes the spiral casing, guide vanes, and draft tube, which are discretized with a full three-dimensional mesh system of unstructured tetrahedral shapes. The results showed that the change of blade profiles and discharge angles significantly influenced the performance of the Francis turbine.


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