scholarly journals The Aerodynamic Performance of an Over-the-Rotor Liner With Circumferential Grooves on a High Bypass Ratio Turbofan Rotor

Author(s):  
Rick Bozak ◽  
Christopher Hughes ◽  
James Buckley

While liners have been utilized throughout turbofan ducts to attenuate fan noise, additional attenuation is obtainable by placing an acoustic liner over-the-rotor. Previous experiments have shown significant fan performance losses when acoustic liners are installed over-the-rotor. The fan blades induce an oscillating flow in the acoustic liners which results in a performance loss near the blade tip. An over-the-rotor liner was designed with circumferential grooves between the fan blade tips and the acoustic liner to reduce the oscillating flow in the acoustic liner. An experiment was conducted in the W-8 Single-Stage Axial Compressor Facility at NASA Glenn Research Center on a 1.5 pressure ratio fan to evaluate the impact of this over-the-rotor treatment design on fan aerodynamic performance. The addition of a circumferentially grooved over-the-rotor design between the fan blades and the acoustic liner reduced the performance loss, in terms of fan adiabatic efficiency, to less than 1% which is within the repeatability of this experiment.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashima Malhotra ◽  
Shraman Goswami ◽  
Pradeep A M

Abstract The aerodynamic performance of a compressor rotor is known to deteriorate due to surface roughness. It is important to understand this deterioration as it impacts the overall performance of the engine. This paper, therefore, aims to numerically investigate the impact of roughness on the performance of an axial compressor rotor at different rotational speeds. In this numerical study, the simulations are carried out for NASA Rotor37 at 100%, 80%, and 60% of its design speed. with and without roughness on the blade surface. These speeds are chosen because they represent different flow regimes. The front stages of a multistage compressor usually have a supersonic or transonic regime whereas the middle and aft stages have a subsonic regime. Thus, these performance characteristics can give an estimate of the impact on the performance of a multistage compressor. At 100% speed (design speed), the relative flow is supersonic, at 80% of design speed, the relative flow is transonic and at 60% of design speed, the relative flow is subsonic. Detailed flow field investigations are carried out to understand the underlying flow physics. The results indicate that, for the same amount of roughness, the degradation in the performance is maximum at 100% speed where the rotor is supersonic, while the impact is minimum at 60% speed where the rotor is subsonic. Thus, the rotor shock system plays an important role in determining the performance loss due to roughness. It is also observed that the loss increases with increased span for 100% and 80% speeds, but for 60% speed, the loss is almost constant from the hub to the shroud. This is because, with the increased span, the shock strength increases for 100% and 80% speeds, whereas at 60% speed flow is subsonic.


Author(s):  
Marcus Lejon ◽  
Niklas Andersson ◽  
Lars Ellbrant ◽  
Hans Mårtensson

In this paper, the impact of manufacturing variations on performance of an axial compressor rotor are evaluated at design rotational speed. The geometric variations from the design intent were obtained from an optical coordinate measuring machine and used to evaluate the impact of manufacturing variations on performance and the flow field in the rotor. The complete blisk is simulated using 3D CFD calculations, allowing for a detailed analysis of the impact of geometric variations on the flow. It is shown that the mean shift of the geometry from the design intent is responsible for the majority of the change in performance in terms of mass flow and total pressure ratio for this specific blisk. In terms of polytropic efficiency, the measured geometric scatter is shown to have a higher influence than the geometric mean deviation. The geometric scatter around the mean is shown to impact the pressure distribution along the leading edge and the shock position. Furthermore, a blisk is analyzed with one blade deviating substantially from the design intent, denoted as blade 0. It is shown that the impact of blade 0 on the flow is largely limited to the blade passages that it is directly a part of. The results presented in this paper also show that the impact of this blade on the flow field can be represented by a simulation including 3 blade passages. In terms of loss, using 5 blade passages is shown to give a close estimate for the relative change in loss for blade 0 and neighboring blades.


Author(s):  
Finn Schöning ◽  
Dragan Kozulovic

The Heron Fan is a new concept of a fuel powered jet engine that does not utilize a conventional core engine. The fan, a single axial compressor of high diameter, creates thrust, similar to a turbofan. Its blades are hollow with inner channels to transport the core air from the hub to the tip, inducing radial compression. The combustion chamber is located in the casing region, either integrated in the blades or in an external ring. After burning, the core air is returned to the blades and is blown out through an expansion device with a large component in circumferential direction. This propels the fan in the opposite direction. The expansion device may be realized by nozzles integrated in the blade trailing edge or by turbine stages integrated in the blade tip region. Subsequently, the core air mixes with the bypass air, which passes the fan axially, and ejects through the main nozzle, producing thrust. To achieve higher compression ratios, it is possible to install core air compressor stages ahead of the fan. The main purpose of this concept is to reduce weight and complexity of the engine, leading to lower production and operating costs. This is achieved by simplifying the engine architecture, integrating the functions and shortening some of the components. In particular, the core engine has been rearranged, thus eliminating the second and in some cases the third shaft. Further, the complete expansion and parts of the compression have been integrated in the fan blade. To assess the aero-thermodynamic parameters, a preliminary cycle analysis has been done, where the most influential parameters were varied. The results show, that the above listed benefits can be achieved while maintaining an efficiency comparable to conventional turbofans. Further, a feasibility study in terms of geometry, internal flow, component implementation and installation has been done, in order to qualify the concept and to identify the most critical aspects. To incorporate the corresponding thoughts and results, as well as to find and eliminate conceptual conflicts and opposing trends, a CAD model has been generated. Overall, the results are sound and encouraging, hence justifying future investigations. However, the Heron Fan concept also brings structural, thermal and aerodynamic challenges which are illustrated and briefly discussed, but still need detailed investigation.


Author(s):  
Richard F. Bozak ◽  
Gary G. Podboy

Abstract NASA is investigating the potential of integrating acoustic liners into fan cases to reduce fan noise, while maintaining the fans aerodynamic performance. An experiment was conducted to quantify the aerodynamic impact of circumferentially grooved fan cases with integrated acoustic liners on a 1.5 pressure ratio turbofan rotor. In order to improve the ability to measure small performance changes, fan performance calculations were updated to include real gas effects including the effect of humidity. For all fan cases tested, the measured difference in fan isentropic efficiency was found to be less than the measurement repeatability for a torque-based efficiency calculation (≈ 0.2%), however, an unintended tip clearance difference between configurations makes it difficult to determine if circumferentially grooved fan cases degraded fan performance. Fan exit turbulence measurements showed a 1.5% reduction in total turbulence intensity between hardwall and circumferentially grooved fan cases in the tip vortex region, which is attributed to a disruption in the formation of the tip leakage vortex. This decrease in fan exit turbulence could potentially lead to a 1–2dB reduction in broadband rotor-stator interaction noise. Reduced aerodynamic performance losses associated with over-the-rotor liners could enable further fan noise reduction.


Author(s):  
P. Sreekumar ◽  
Mahesh K. Varpe

Abstract The aerodynamics design of a steam turbine stage is an agreement between the performance requirements and the mechanical limitations. The design of last stage of the low-pressure steam (LP) turbine is the most complicated because of the blade twist and a tapered blade along with high aspect ratio due to the sharp increase in the specific volume of the steam during its expansion. The choice of higher aspect ratio for increased power generation makes the turbine blade experience the vibration due to lower modal frequencies which depend on the running speed of a turbine. Therefore, the sensitive behavior of these blades is reduced by damping the blade vibrations which comes with the penalty of aerodynamic performance. The investigation reported here discusses the impact of lacing wire and snubber mounted at 70% blade span. Both, the lacing wire and snubber aligned parallel to the rotor axis deteriorates the efficiency by 0.75% and 1.7% respectively. However, the aerodynamically shaped snubber aligned with the streamline direction recovers the efficiency to that of base line. The mechanism of streamwise aligned snubber in containing aerodynamic performance loss is quite interesting and is being discussed.


Author(s):  
M. Eric Lyall ◽  
Fred J. Eisert ◽  
Douglas C. Rabe ◽  
Patrick M. Fleisher

This paper presents a procedure for experimentally optimizing a multistage axial compressor. Due to the usual proprietary nature of such tests, a mean-line model of a nine-stage compressor with three rows of variable geometry is used instead of a real machine as a testbed for explaining the optimization method. The compressor is optimized to achieve design-intent corrected flow and pressure ratio while achieving acceptable efficiency and stage matching. The optimization is performed using a response surface methodology that leverages a full factorial design of experiments approach. The resulting empirical models of compressor performance are of high quality, with coefficients of determination exceeding 0.99. An important finding of the work is that stage interactions are important for modeling both efficiency and stage matching, much more than for corrected flow and pressure ratio. Additionally the empirical equations resulting from the design of experiments analysis provide sensitivities due to changes in the variable geometry. These sensitivities can be applied to understanding the impact of uncertainties related to rigging the variable geometry and for assessing potential new or upgraded compressor designs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiuwan Du ◽  
Di Zhang

The leakage problem of supercritical carbon dioxide (SCO2) axial-inflow turbine brings great challenges to the efficiency and security of the power system. Labyrinth seals are usually utilized to improve the leakage characteristics of the blade tip. In this paper, a 1.5-stage SCO2 axial-inflow turbine is established and labyrinth seals are arranged on the top of the first stage stator and rotor blades. The effects of seal clearance, groove on seal cavity surface and circle groove shape on flow characteristics and aerodynamic performance under different pressure ratio are investigated. Increasing seal clearance can significantly weaken the turbine performance. Arranging rectangle, circle and V-shaped grooves on the seal cavity surface near the outlet of the seal gap can enhance the energy dissipation, reduce the relative leakage and improve the power and efficiency. Increasing the groove width can improve the aerodynamic performance while the effect of the groove depth is weak. The configuration where the circle groove width is 50% of the pitch of seal tooth achieves the best performance with the relative leakage of stator1 and rotor, power and efficiency of 6.04 × 10−3, 8.09 × 10−3, 3.467 MW and 86.86% respectively. With an increase in pressure ratio, the relative leakage increases firstly and then remains almost constant. The power increases while the efficiency increases firstly and then decreases, reaching the peak value under the design condition.


Author(s):  
Michele Marconcini ◽  
Filippo Rubechini ◽  
Andrea Arnone ◽  
Alberto Scotti Del Greco ◽  
Roberto Biagi

The design of radial-inflow turbines usually relies on one-dimensional or mean-line methods. While these approaches have so far proven to be quite effective, they can not assist the designer in coping with some important issues, such as mechanical integrity and complex flow features. Turbo-expanders are in general characterized by fully three-dimensional flow fields, strongly influenced by viscous effects and passage curvature. In particular, for high pressure ratio applications, such as in organic Rankine cycles, supersonic flow conditions are likely to be reached, thus involving the formation of a shock pattern which governs the interaction between nozzle and wheel components. The nozzle shock waves are periodically chopped by the impeller leading edge, and the resulting unsteady interaction is of primary concern for both mechanical integrity and aerodynamic performance. This work is focused on the aerodynamic issues and addresses some key aspects of the CFD modelling in the numerical analysis of turbo-expanders. Calculations were carried out by adopting models with increasing level of complexity, from the classical steady-state approach to the full-stage, time-accurate one. Results are compared in details and the impact of the computational model on the aerodynamic performance estimation is discussed.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 159
Author(s):  
Tien-Dung Vuong ◽  
Kwang-Yong Kim

The present work performed a comprehensive investigation to find the effects of a dual-bleeding port recirculation channel on the aerodynamic performance of a single-stage transonic axial compressor, NASA Stage 37, and optimized the channel’s configuration to enhance the operating stability of the compressor. The compressor’s performance was examined using three parameters: The stall margin, adiabatic efficiency, and pressure ratio. Steady-state three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes analyses were performed to find the flow field and aerodynamic performance. The results showed that the addition of a bleeding channel increased the recirculation channel’s stabilizing effect compared to the single-bleeding channel. Three design variables were selected for optimization through a parametric study, which was carried out to examine the influences of six geometric parameters on the channel’s effectiveness. Surrogate-based design optimization was performed using the particle swarm optimization algorithm coupled with a surrogate model based on the radial basis neural network. The optimal design was found to increase the stall margin by 51.36% compared to the case without the recirculation channel with only 0.55% and 0.28% reductions in the peak adiabatic efficiency and maximum pressure ratio, respectively.


Author(s):  
Qi Wang ◽  
Lanxue Ren ◽  
Zhou Zhang ◽  
Ting Wang ◽  
Mingcong Luo

Abstract This paper presents a numerical model based on the mass flow rate of seal leakage. This numerical model is considered as a correct method for 3-D numerical simulation. It can be used to simulate the effect of seal leakage at the stator root of a multistage axial compressor. Implementation of the correct method is using a numerical model based on the flux conservation which can control the mass flow rate of seal leakage accurately at the seal cavity of compressor. The mass flow rate of seal leakage is chosen as the key research parameter on the aerodynamic performance effect of the seal engineering application in a multistage axial compressor. Combined with the 3-D numerical simulation methods, an engineering numerical approach is set up in this study. A nine-stage axial compressor is taken as the research object in this paper and its aerodynamic performance is tested for proving the applicability of the numerical model for seal leakage. In the cases of several operating rotation speeds, numerical results of the nine-stage axial compressor performance characteristic curves are in good agreement with the experimental data. It is considered that the numerical approach based on the simplified numerical model in this paper can predict the performance of multistage axial compressor accurately. Then, comparisons are made against different cases of seal leakage mass flow rate for analyzing the impact of seal leakage increasing on the aerodynamic performance of the nine-stage axial compressor. The main point of comparisons is focused on the changes of the overall performance and the flow distribution in the compressor with the seal leakage changing. The results indicate that performance of multistage axial compressor is degenerated faster and faster with seal leakage increasing in all operating working points. An overall decline is appeared in the flow capacity, working capacity, efficiency and surge margin of the compressor. For the impact investigation on the changes of flow distribution, the total pressure loss coefficient, the relative Mach number contours and the movement of streamlines are studied in different seal leakage cases under several operating working points. The result also shows that stators located in front stages of multistage axial compressor are affected more seriously with the increasing mass flow rate of seal leakage. Under the influence of seal leakage, degradation of flow condition in stators located in front stages is more severely than that in back stages, the total pressure loss coefficient and entropy are increased, and the flow separations at the root of stators in front stages are developed faster with seal leakage increasing. So it can be confirmed that relatively larger flow losses in front stages bring significant impact on the decay of aerodynamic performance for a multistage axial compressor.


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