Automatic Three-Dimensional Optimisation of a Modern Tandem Compressor Vane

Author(s):  
R. C. Schlaps ◽  
S. Shahpar ◽  
V. Gümmer

In order to increase the performance of a modern gas turbine, compressors are required to provide higher pressure ratio and avoid incurring higher losses. The tandem aerofoil has the potential to achieve a higher blade loading in combination with lower losses compared to single vanes. The main reason for this is due to the fact that a new boundary layer is generated on the second blade surface and the turning can be achieved with smaller separation occurring. The lift split between the two vanes with respect to the overall turning is an important design choice. In this paper an automated three-dimensional optimisation of a highly loaded compressor stator is presented. For optimisation a novel methodology based on the Multipoint Approximation Method (MAM) is used. MAM makes use of an automatic design of experiments, response surface modelling and a trust region to represent the design space. The CFD solutions are obtained with the high-fidelity 3D Navier-Stokes solver HYDRA. In order to increase the stage performance the 3D shape of the tandem vane is modified changing both the front and rear aerofoils. Moreover the relative location of the two aerofoils is controlled modifying the axial and tangential relative positions. It is shown that the novel optimisation methodology is able to cope with a large number of design parameters and produce designs which performs better than its single vane counterpart in terms of efficiency and numerical stall margin. One of the key challenges in producing an automatic optimisation process has been the automatic generation of high-fidelity computational meshes. The multi block-structured, high-fidelity meshing tool PADRAM is enhanced to cope with the tandem blade topologies. The wakes of each aerofoil is properly resolved and the interaction and the mixing of the front aerofoil wake and the second tandem vane are adequately resolved.

Author(s):  
Hong Won Kim ◽  
Jae Hoon Chung ◽  
Hyo Seong Lee ◽  
Min Ouk Choi

The primary design goal of a compressor is focused on improving efficiency. Secondary objective is to widen the compressor’s operating range. This paper presents a numerical and experimental investigation of the influence of the bleed slot to enlarge operating range for the 1.2MW class centrifugal compressor installed in a turbocharger. The main design parameters of the bleed slot casing are upstream slot position, inlet pipe slope, downstream slot position and width. The DOE (design of experiment) method was carried out to optimize the casing design. Numerical analyses were done by the commercial code ANSYS-CFX based on the three dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations. From the analysis, as the downstream slot position and width are smaller and upstream position is located away from impeller inlet, efficiency and pressure ratio are increased. Experimental works were done with and without the bleed slot casing. The simulation results were in good agreement with the test data. In case without the bleed slot casing, the surge margin value came out to be only 11.8% but with the optimized bleed slot design, the surge margin reached 23%. Therefore, the surge margin increase of 11.2% was achieved.


2013 ◽  
Vol 284-287 ◽  
pp. 872-877 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dae Woong Kim ◽  
Jin Hyuk Kim ◽  
Kwang Yong Kim

This paper presents a parametric study on aerodynamic performance of a transonic axial compressor combined with a casing groove and tip injection using three-dimensional Reynolds-average Navier-Stokes equations. The front and rear lengths and height of the groove are selected as the geometric parameters to investigate their effects on the stall margin and peak adiabatic efficiency. These parameters are changed with constant injection. The validation of the numerical results is performed in comparison with experimental data for the total pressure ratio and adiabatic efficiency. As the results of the parametric study, the maximum stall margin and peak adiabatic efficiency are obtained in the axial compressor having 70% groove height of the reference groove. The stall margin and peak adiabatic efficiency in other cases are also improved in comparison with the axial compressors with the smooth casing and reference groove. The results show that both the stall margin and the peak adiabatic efficiency are considerably improved by the application of the casing groove combined with tip injection in an axial compressor.


Author(s):  
Sang-Bum Ma ◽  
Kwang-Yong Kim

In this study, aerodynamic performance of the centrifugal compressor was investigated by using a recirculating device called discrete cavities. A parametric study was conducted using six parameters related to the geometry of the discrete cavities, i.e., the inclined angle, the port angle and width, the length of cavity, the axial location of each cavity, and the number of cavities. Three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations with shear stress transport turbulence model were used for aerodynamic analysis of the centrifugal compressor with discrete cavities. The hexahedral grid was used in impeller domain and tetrahedral grid was used in volute and inclined discrete cavities. The numerical results for the adiabatic efficiency and the total pressure ratio (inlet to outlet) showed good agreements with experimental data. It was found that inclination of the discrete cavities further increased the stall margin without loss of efficiency compared to the uninclined discrete cavities.


Author(s):  
Hailiang Jin ◽  
Donghai Jin ◽  
Fang Zhu ◽  
Ke Wan ◽  
Xingmin Gui

This paper presents the design of a highly loaded transonic two-stage fan using several advanced three-dimensional blading techniques including forward sweep and “hub bending” in rotors and several bowed configurations in stators. The effects of these blading techniques on the performance of the highly loaded transonic two-stage fan were investigated on the basis of three-dimensional Navier-Stokes predictions. The results indicate that forward sweep has insignificant impact on the total pressure ratio and adiabatic efficiency of the fan. The throttling range of the fan is found to be improved by forward sweep because the shock in the forward swept rotor is expelled later upstream to the leading edge than that in the unswept one. Hub bending design technique increases the efficiency in the hub region of R1 due to the reduction of the low momentum zone in the hub region near the trailing edge. The stator vane design has a pronounced impact on the performance of the fan. The total pressure ratio, adiabatic efficiency, and stall margin of the schemes with the bowed vanes are increased significantly compared to the scheme with the straight vanes. The large corner stall in the straight S1 vane is reduced effectively by the bowed S1 vanes. Moreover, the strong corner stall in the straight S2 vane is fully eliminated by the bowed S2 vanes. Among the bowed vane schemes, the scheme with positive bowed (P. B.) hub and negative bowed (N. B.) tip vanes has the best efficiency and stall margin performances thanks to the superiority of the performance over the midspan regions of the bowed vanes.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 2346
Author(s):  
Tien-Dung Vuong ◽  
Kwang-Yong Kim

A casing treatment using inclined oblique slots (INOS) is proposed to improve the stability of the single-stage transonic axial compressor, NASA Stage 37, during operation. The slots are installed on the casing of the rotor blades. The aerodynamic performance was estimated using three-dimensional steady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes analysis. The results showed that the slots effectively increased the stall margin of the compressor with slight reductions in the pressure ratio and adiabatic efficiency. Three geometric parameters were tested in a parametric study. A single-objective optimization to maximize the stall margin was carried out using a Genetic Algorithm coupled with a surrogate model created by a radial basis neural network. The optimized design increased the stall margin by 37.1% compared to that of the smooth casing with little impacts on the efficiency and pressure ratio.


Author(s):  
Tao Ning ◽  
Chun-wei Gu ◽  
Xiao-tang Li ◽  
Tai-qiu Liu

An optimization method combined of a genetic algorithm, an artificial neural network, a CFD solver and a blade generator, is developed in this research and applied in the three-dimensional blading design of a newly designed highly-loaded 5-stage axial compressor. The adaptive probabilities of crossover and mutation, non-uniform mutation operator and elitism operator are employed to improve the convergence of the genetic algorithm. Considering both the optimization efficiency and effectiveness, a mixture of high-fidelity multistage CFD method and approximate surrogate model of the feed-forward ANN is used to evaluate the fitness. In particular, the database is updated dynamically and used to re-train the surrogate model of ANN for improving the accuracy for predicting. The last stator of the compressor is optimized at the near stall operating point. The tip bow with relative bow height Hb and bow angle αb are treated as design parameters. The adiabatic efficiency as well as the penalty of mass flow and total pressure ratio constitute the objective functions to be maximized. The optimum (Hb = 0.881, αb = 14.7°) obtains 0.4% adiabatic efficiency increase for the whole compressor at the optimized operating point. The detailed aerodynamic is compared between the baseline and optimized stator, and the mechanism is analyzed. The optimized version obtains 5.1% increase in stall margin and maintains the efficiency at the design point.


Author(s):  
Ioannis Templalexis ◽  
Alexios Alexiou ◽  
Vassilios Pachidis ◽  
Ioannis Roumeliotis ◽  
Nikolaos Aretakis

Coupling of high fidelity component calculations with overall engine performance simulations (zooming) can provide more accurate physics and geometry based estimates of component performance. Such a simulation strategy offers the ability to study complex phenomena and their effects on engine performance and enables component design changes to be studied at engine system level. Additionally, component interaction effects can be better captured. Overall, this approach can reduce the need for testing and the engine development time and cost. Different coupling methods and tools have been proposed and developed over the years ranging from integrating the results of the high fidelity code through conventional performance component maps to fully-integrated three-dimensional CFD models. The present paper deals with the direct integration of an in-house two-dimensional (through flow) streamline curvature code (SOCRATES) in a commercial engine performance simulation environment (PROOSIS) with the aim to establish the necessary coupling methodology that will allow future advanced studies to be performed (e.g. engine condition diagnosis, design optimization, mission analysis, distorted flow). A notional two-shaft turbofan model typical for light business jets and trainer aircraft is initially created using components with conventional map-defined performance. Next, a derivative model is produced where the fan component is replaced with one that integrates the high fidelity code. For both cases, an operating line is simulated at sea-level static take-off conditions and their performances are compared. Finally, the versatility of the approach is further demonstrated through a parametric study of various fan design parameters for a better thermodynamic matching with the driving turbine at design point operation.


Author(s):  
Tom I-P. Shih ◽  
Yu-Liang Lin ◽  
Andrew J. Flores ◽  
Mark A. Stephens ◽  
Mark J. Rimlinger ◽  
...  

Abstract A pre-processor was developed to assist CFD experts and non-experts in performing steady, three-dimensional Navier-Stokes analysis of a class of inlet-bleed problems involving oblique shock-wave/ boundary-layer interactions on a flat plate with bleed into a plenum through rows of circular holes. With this pre-processor, once geometry (e.g., hole dimensions and arrangement) and flow conditions (e.g., Mach number, boundary-layer thickness, incident shock location) are inputted, it will automatically generate every file needed to perform a CFD analysis from the grid system to initial and boundary conditions. This is accomplished by accessing a knowledge base established by experts who understand both CFD and the class of problems being analyzed. For experts in CFD, this tool greatly reduces the amount of time and effort needed to setup a problem for CFD analysis. It also provides experts with knobs to make changes to the setup if desired. For non-experts in CFD, this tool enables reliable and correct usage of CFD. A typical session on a workstation from data input to the generation of all files needed to perform a CFD analysis involves less than ten minutes. This pre-processor, referred to as AUTOMAT-V2, is an improved version of a code called AUTOMAT. Improvements made include: (1) multi-block structured grids can be patched in addition to being overlapped; (2) embedded grids can be introduced near bleed holes to reduce the number of grid points/cells needed by a factor of up to four; (3) grid systems generated allow up to three levels of multigrid; (4) CFL3D is supported in addition to OVERFLOW, two well-known and highly regarded Navier-Stokes solvers developed at NASA’s Langley and Ames Research Centers; (5) all files needed to run RONNIE for patched grids and MAGGIE for overlapped grids are also generated; and (6) more design parameters can be investigated including the study of micro bleed and effects of flow/hole misalignments.


1998 ◽  
Vol 120 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. M. Rhie ◽  
A. J. Gleixner ◽  
D. A. Spear ◽  
C. J. Fischberg ◽  
R. M. Zacharias

A multistage compressor performance analysis method based on the three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations is presented in this paper. This method is an average passage approach where deterministic stresses are used to ensure continuous physical properties across interface planes. The average unsteady effects due to neighboring blades and/or vanes are approximated using deterministic stresses along with the application of bodyforces. Bodyforces are used to account for the “potential” interaction between closely coupled (staged) rows. Deterministic stresses account for the “average” wake blockage and mixing effects both axially and radially. The attempt here is to implement an approximate technique for incorporating periodic unsteady flow physics that provides for a robust multistage design procedure incorporating reasonable computational efficiency. The present paper gives the theoretical development of the stress/bodyforce models incorporated in the code, and demonstrates the usefulness of these models in practical compressor applications. Compressor performance prediction capability is then established through a rigorous code/model validation effort using the power of networked workstations. The numerical results are compared with experimental data in terms of one-dimensional performance parameters such as total pressure ratio and circumferentially averaged radial profiles deemed critical to compressor design. This methodology allows the designer to design from hub to tip with a high level of confidence in the procedure.


Energies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 2401
Author(s):  
Weimin Song ◽  
Yufei Zhang ◽  
Haixin Chen

This paper focuses on the design and optimization of the axial distribution of the circumferential groove casing treatment (CGCT). Effects of the axial location of multiple casing grooves on the flow structures are numerically studied. Sweep and lean variations are then introduced to the blade tip, and their influences on the grooves are discussed. The results show that the ability of the CGCT to relieve the blockage varies with the distribution of grooves, and the three-dimensional blading affects the performance of both the blade and the CGCT. Accordingly, a multi-objective optimization combining the CGCT design with the sweep and lean design is conducted. Objectives, including the total pressure ratio and the adiabatic efficiency, are set at the design point; meanwhile, the choking mass flow and the near-stall performance are constrained. The coupling between the CGCT and the blade is improved, which contributes to an optimal design point performance and a sufficient stall margin. The sweep and lean in the tip redistribute the spanwise and chordwise loading, which enhances the ability of the CGCT to improve the blade’s performance. This work shows that the present CGCT-blade integrated optimization is a practical engineering strategy to develop the working capacity and efficiency of a compressor blade while achieving the stall margin extension.


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