Axial-Slot Casing Treatments Improve the Efficiency of Axial Flow Compressors: Aerodynamic Effects of a Rotor Redesign

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Anton Streit ◽  
Frank Heinichen ◽  
Hans-Peter Kau
Keyword(s):  
Axial Flow ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Stall Margin ◽  
Casing Treatment ◽  
Transonic Compressor ◽  
Compressor Rotor ◽  
Flow Phenomena ◽  
Casing Treatments

A state-of-the-art transonic compressor rotor has a distinct potential for increased efficiency if modified for improved interaction with an axial-slot type casing treatment. Reducing the number of blades and thus the surface lowers friction losses but increases tip clearance effects and deteriorates the stall margin due to the higher aerodynamic blade loading. The latter two negative effects can be compensated for by the casing treatment, thus restoring the required stall margin and gaining an overall reduction of losses. For the specific compressor rotor under investigation, the potential in polytropic efficiency is as high as 0.7%. The present study was performed using time-accurate CFD (URANS) simulations. Both the reference rotor as well as the modified design are analyzed regarding their interaction with the casing treatment. The traceability of the conclusions is assured by interpreting the detailed flow phenomena. The newly designed rotor is found to be favorably influenced by the casing treatment at design operating conditions whilst the reference only benefits at throttled operating points. Casing treatments are commonly used to broaden the operating range of existing compressors without changing the design of the compressor rotor itself. This study aims to show the possible transformation of this potential in the stall margin into efficiency at design operating conditions by implementing an appropriate rotor design.

Influencing Parameters of a Tip Blowing Interacting With Rotor Tip Flow

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyril Guinet ◽  
André Inzenhofer ◽  
Volker Gümmer
Keyword(s):  
Geometric Model ◽  
Axial Compressor ◽  
Axial Flow ◽  
Axial Position ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Stall Margin ◽  
Casing Treatment ◽  
Transonic Compressor ◽  
Flow Phenomena ◽  
Casing Treatments

The design space of axial-flow compressors is restricted by stability issues. Different axial-type casing treatments 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, which 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 is 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 is evaluated. The study is carried out using URANS simulations.

Influencing Parameters of Tip Blowing Interacting With Rotor Tip Flow

2016 ◽  
Vol 139 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyril Guinet ◽  
André Inzenhofer ◽  
Volker Gümmer
Keyword(s):  
Geometric Model ◽  
Axial Compressor ◽  
Axial Flow ◽  
Navier Stokes ◽  
Axial Position ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Stall Margin ◽  
Casing Treatment ◽  
Transonic Compressor ◽  
Casing Treatments

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.

Numerical Investigations of the Coupled Flow Through a Subsonic Compressor Rotor and Axial Skewed Slot

2008 ◽  
Vol 131 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xingen Lu ◽  
Wuli Chu ◽  
Junqiang Zhu ◽  
Yangfeng Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Axial Flow ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Stall Margin ◽  
Tip Clearance Flow ◽  
Casing Treatment ◽  
Axial Flow Compressor ◽  
Compressor Rotor ◽  
Clearance Flow ◽  
Flow Through ◽  
Flow Compressor

In order to advance the understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of axial skewed slot casing treatment and their effects on the subsonic axial-flow compressor flow field, the coupled unsteady flow through a subsonic compressor rotor and the axial skewed slot was simulated with a state-of-the-art multiblock flow solver. The computational results were first compared with available measured data, that showed the numerical procedure calculates the overall effect of the axial skewed slot correctly. Then, the numerically obtained flow fields were interrogated to identify the physical mechanism responsible for improvement in stall margin of a modern subsonic axial-flow compressor rotor due to the discrete skewed slots. It was found that the axial skewed slot casing treatment can increase the stall margin of subsonic compressor by repositioning of the tip clearance flow trajectory further toward the trailing of the blade passage and retarding the movement of the incoming∕tip clearance flow interface toward the rotor leading edge plane.

Numerical Investigation of Casing Treatment Mechanisms With a Conservative Mixed-Cell Approach

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Yang ◽  
D. Nuernberger ◽  
E. Nicke ◽  
A. Weber
Keyword(s):  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Coupled Flow ◽  
Mixed Cell ◽  
Stall Margin ◽  
Casing Treatment ◽  
Transonic Compressor ◽  
Compressor Rotor ◽  
Grid Topology ◽  
The Face ◽  
Overall Efficiency

A conservative mixed-cell approach of second-order accuracy is presented and applied to investigate the mechanisms of a self-recirculating casing treatment coupled with a transonic compressor rotor. The mixed cell is a computational cell that may show up at the zonal interface boundary, the face of which is partially solid and partially fluid, if the azimuthal open area of casing treatment does not fully contact with the whole annulus of blade passage. The mixed-cell approach is essentially an extension of the conservative zonal approach by incorporating special mixed-cell handling at the zonal interface and it allows a great flexibility to the grid generation for the patched zones with the best grid topology. The mixed-cell approach is extremely useful for solving the unsteady interaction problems within turbomachinery and its application for simulating the coupled flow through the rotor and the casing treatment is reported. The calculated results and analysis reveal an effective stall margin extension of the casing treatment herein by weakening or even destroying the tip leakage vortex, and expose the different tip flow topologies between the cases with the casing treatment and with the untreated smooth wall. It is found that the casing treatment only slightly decreases the overall efficiency at the design point, but it is beneficial to the overall efficiency at the off-design operating conditions and it can improve the inflow conditions to the downstream stator blade row as well.

Experimental Investigation of Stepped Tip Gap Effects on the Performance of a Transonic Axial-Flow Compressor Rotor

1998 ◽  
Vol 120 (3) ◽  
pp. 477-486 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. W. Thompson ◽  
P. I. King ◽  
D. C. Rabe
Keyword(s):  
Mass Flow ◽  
Pressure Ratio ◽  
Axial Flow ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Axial Flow Compressor ◽  
Transonic Compressor ◽  
Compressor Rotor ◽  
Percent Improvement ◽  
Flow Compressor

The effects of stepped-tip gaps and clearance levels on the performance of a transonic axial-flow compressor rotor were experimentally determined. A two-stage compressor with no inlet guide vanes was tested in a modern transonic compressor research facility. The first-stage rotor was unswept and was tested for an optimum tip clearance with variations in stepped gaps machined into the casing near the aft tip region of the rotor. Nine causing geometries were investigated consisting of three step profiles at each of three clearance levels. For small and intermediate clearances, stepped tip gaps were found to improve pressure ratio, efficiency, and flow range for most operating conditions. At 100 percent design rotor speed, stepped tip gaps produced a doubling of mass flow range with as much as a 2.0 percent increase in mass flow and a 1.5 percent improvement in efficiency. This study provides guidelines for engineers to improve compressor performance for an existing design by applying an optimum casing profile.

Experimental Investigation of Stepped Tip Gap Effects on the Performance of a Transonic Axial-Flow Compressor Rotor

1997 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald W. Thompson ◽  
Paul I. King ◽  
Douglas C. Rabe
Keyword(s):  
Mass Flow ◽  
Pressure Ratio ◽  
Axial Flow ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Axial Flow Compressor ◽  
Transonic Compressor ◽  
Compressor Rotor ◽  
Compressor Performance ◽  
Flow Compressor

The effects of stepped tip gaps and clearance levels on the performance of a transonic axial-flow compressor rotor were experimentally determined. A two-stage compressor with no inlet guide vanes was tested in a modern transonic compressor research facility. The first-stage rotor was unswept and was tested for an optimum tip clearance with variations in stepped gaps machined into the casing near the aft tip region of the rotor. Nine casing geometries were investigated consisting of three step profiles at each of three clearance levels. For small and intermediate clearances, stepped tip gaps were found to improve pressure ratio, efficiency, and flow range for most operating conditions. At 100% design rotor speed, stepped tip gaps produced a doubling of mass flow range with as much as a 2.0% increase in mass flow and a 1.5% improvement in efficiency. This study provides guidelines for engineers to improve compressor performance for an existing design by applying an optimum casing profile.

Investigation of Blade Tip Interaction With Casing Treatment in a Transonic Compressor: Part 1—Particle Image Velocimetry

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Voges ◽  
R. Schnell ◽  
C. Willert ◽  
R. Mo¨nig ◽  
M. W. Mu¨ller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Particle Image Velocimetry ◽  
Particle Image ◽  
Light Sheet ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Stall Margin ◽  
Casing Treatment ◽  
Transonic Compressor ◽  
Image Velocimetry ◽  
Flow Phenomena ◽  
Blade Tip

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.

Stall Margin Improvement by Use of Casing Treatments

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian T. Pixberg ◽  
Heinz-Peter Schiffer ◽  
M. H. Ross ◽  
J. D. Cameron ◽  
S. C. Morris
Keyword(s):  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Stall Margin ◽  
Tip Clearance Flow ◽  
Casing Treatment ◽  
Transonic Compressor ◽  
Clearance Flow ◽  
Beneficial Impact ◽  
Stall Margin Improvement ◽  
Blade Tip ◽  
Casing Treatments

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.

Three Dimensional Design and Optimization of a Transonic Rotor in Axial Flow Compressors

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hidetaka Okui ◽  
Tom Verstraete ◽  
R. A. Van den Braembussche ◽  
Zuheyr Alsalihi
Keyword(s):  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Axial Flow ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Stall Margin ◽  
Design And Optimization ◽  
Transonic Compressor ◽  
Compressor Rotor ◽  
Differential Evolutionary Algorithm ◽  
The Impact

This paper presents a 3-D optimization of a moderately loaded transonic compressor rotor by means of a multi-objective optimization system. The latter makes use of a Differential Evolutionary Algorithm in combination with an Artificial Neural Network and a 3D Navier-Stokes solver. Operating it on a cluster of 30 processors enabled the optimization of a large design space composed of the tip camber line and spanwise distribution of sweep and chord length. Objectives were an increase of efficiency at unchanged stall margin by controlling the shock waves and off-design performance curve. First, tests on a single blade row allowed a better understanding of the impact of the different design parameters. Forward sweep with unchanged camber improved the peak efficiency by only 0.3% with a small increase of the stall margin. Backward sweep with an optimized S shaped camber line improved the efficiency by 0.6% with unchanged stall margin. It is explained how the camber line control could introduce the forward sweep effect and compensate the negative effects of the backward sweep. The best results (0.7% increase in efficiency and unchanged stall margin) have been obtained by a stage optimization that also considered the spanwise redistribution of the rotor flow and loading to reduce the Mach number at the stator hub.

Investigation of Blade Tip Interaction With Casing Treatment in a Transonic Compressor—Part I: Particle Image Velocimetry

2010 ◽  
Vol 133 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Voges ◽  
R. Schnell ◽  
C. Willert ◽  
R. Mönig ◽  
M. W. Müller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Particle Image Velocimetry ◽  
Particle Image ◽  
Light Sheet ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Stall Margin ◽  
Casing Treatment ◽  
Transonic Compressor ◽  
Image Velocimetry ◽  
Flow Phenomena ◽  
Blade Tip

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.

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