Mixed Flow Fans — Comparative Investigations of Blade Design Methods

Author(s):  
Paul Uwe Thamsen ◽  
Anne Treder ◽  
Steffen Hammer ◽  
Khaled Tunsi

According to the direction of flow, fans can be classified in the following three types: axial, mixed flow and radial fans. If large volume flows are required with a proportionally high pressure increase, mixed flow fans can be used. Similar to axial fans, mixed flow fans provide a large flow rate and because of the radial portion in the flow deflection they increase the pressure ratio. Contrary to axial and radial fans, in technical literature there are only a few recommendations concerning the design method of mixed flow fans available. The present study focuses on the comparative research of four different blade design methods adapted to mixed flow fans. The selected methods created a straight blade, a profiled blade, a foreward curved “Engelberg” blade and a backward curved “Pfleiderer” blade. The contour of the hub and shroud remained unchanged during the entire design process as a fixed parameter. The 4 different blade sets were manufactured and experimentally tested on a suction side chamber test stand according to DIN EN ISO 5801. The measurement results show, for comparison, the characteristic curves relating flow rate and pressure increase and the achieved overall efficiencies. Here, the design method of “Pfleiderer” has proved its worth, both through its precise meeting of the design point as well as by achieving the highest efficiency.

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 2093 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dongbo Shi ◽  
Yonghui Xie

Supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO2) Brayton cycle technology has the advantages of excellent energy density and heat transfer. The compressor is the most critical and complex component of the cycle. Especially, in order to make the system more reliable and economical, the design method of a high efficiency compressor without a high speed requirement is particularly important. In this paper, thermodynamic design software of a S-CO2 centrifugal compressor is developed. It is used to design the 150 kW grade S-CO2 compressor at the speed of 40,000 rpm. The performance of the initial design is carried out by a 3-D aerodynamic analysis. The aerodynamic optimization includes three aspects: numerical calculation, design software and the flow part geometry parameters. The aerodynamic performance and the off-design performance of the optimal design are obtained. The results show that the total static efficiency of the compressor is 79.54%. The total pressure ratio is up to 1.9. The performance is excellent, and it can operate normally within the mass flow rate range of 5.97 kg/s to 11.05 kg/s. This research provides an intelligent and efficient design method for S-CO2 centrifugal compressors with a low flow rate and low speed, but high pressure ratio.


1987 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuan-Gang Gu

A new design method with unequal work along the height of the blade in the axial/mixed-flow compressors, called The Flow-Type Design of Controlled Diffusion Factors (FTDCDF), has been developed in this paper. The idea of the method is to control the distribution of the diffusion factors along the height of the blade in the vaneless space in order to design the blade with good aerodynamic properties. The theoretical basis of FTDCDF and its computational method are studied in detail. The corresponding computer program has been developed and worked out with good results. Comparison between the results of this method and those of other one is made and discussed. It shows that the FTDCDF and program have good accuracy and convergence. On the basis of the author’s recent works, the practical applications of the FTDCDF for blade design and the choosing of distribution of diffusion factors are described in detail and the matching between the distributions of the diffusion factors and C1u(r1) is discussed. A better design result of FTDCDF satisfying various design requirements is presented.


Author(s):  
Ja´nos Vad ◽  
Csaba Horva´th

The paper presents comparative studies on low-speed isolated rotors of free vortex design and controlled vortex design (CVD), in order to survey the impact of the vortex design method on the stall behavior of axial flow turbomachinery. The studies are based on 3D laser Doppler anemometer studies and global performance measurements, supplemented with literature data. CVD bladings are characterized by radially outward flow on the suction side due to spanwise changing circulation, and increased near-tip solidity and/or loading. These features were found to increase the near-tip endwall flow blockage and loss at the design flow rate, and to hasten stall. On this basis, it has been concluded that CVD tends to be disadvantageous from the viewpoint of the stall behavior. It was confirmed that forward blade sweep is a remedial strategy for moderating the stall-hastening effects of CVD, while retaining the favorable features of CVD.


Author(s):  
Massimo Masi ◽  
Andrea Lazzaretto

Abstract This paper presents a simple but complete design method to obtain arbitrary vortex design tube-axial fans starting from fixed size and rotational speed. The method couples the preliminary design method previously suggested by the authors ago with an original revised version of well-known blade design methods taken from the literature. The aim of this work is to verify the effectiveness of the method in obtaining high efficiency industrial fans. To this end, the method has been applied to a 315mm rotor-only tube-axial fan having the same size and rotational speed, and a slightly higher flow rate coefficient, as another prototype previously designed by the authors, which was demonstrated experimentally to noticeably increase the pressure coefficient of an actual 560mm industrial fan. In contrast, no constraints are imposed on the hub-to-tip ratio and pressure coefficient. The new design features a hub-to-tip ratio equal to 0.28 and radially stacked blades with aerodynamic load distribution corresponding to a roughly constant swirl at rotor exit. The ISO-5801 experimental tests showed a fan efficiency equal to 0.68, which is 6% higher than that of the previous prototype. The pressure coefficient is lower, but still 12% higher than that of the benchmark 560mm industrial fan.


Author(s):  
Massimo Masi ◽  
Andrea Lazzaretto

This paper presents a simple but complete design method to obtain arbitrary vortex design tube-axial fans starting from fixed size and rotational speed. The method couples the preliminary design method previously suggested by the authors with an original revised version of well-known blade design methods taken from the literature. The aim of this work is to verify the effectiveness of the method in obtaining high-efficiency industrial fans. To this end, the method has been applied to a 315 mm rotor-only tube-axial fan having the same size and rotational speed, and a slightly higher flow rate coefficient, as another prototype previously designed by the authors, which was demonstrated experimentally to noticeably increase the pressure coefficient of an actual 560 mm industrial fan. In contrast, no constraints are imposed on the hub-to-tip ratio and pressure coefficient. The new design features a hub-to-tip ratio equal to 0.28 and radially stacked blades with aerodynamic load distribution corresponding to a roughly constant swirl at rotor exit. The ISO-5801 experimental tests showed fan efficiency equal to 0.68, which is 6% higher than that of the previous prototype. The pressure coefficient is lower, but still 12% higher than that of the benchmark 560 mm industrial fan.


Author(s):  
Warren Brown

This paper details further progress made in the PVRC project “Development of Improved Flange Design Method for the ASME VIII, Div.2 Rewrite Project” presented during the panel session on flange design at the 2006 PVP conference in Vancouver. The major areas of flange design improvement indicated by that project are examined and the suggested solutions for implementing the improved methods into the Code are discussed. Further analysis on aspects such as gasket creep and the use of leakage-based design has been conducted. Shortcomings in the proposed ASME flange design method (ASME BFJ) and current CEN flange design methods (EN-1591) are highlighted and methods for resolution of these issues are suggested.


Aerospace ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Marco Porro ◽  
Richard Jefferson-Loveday ◽  
Ernesto Benini

This work focuses its attention on possibilities to enhance the stability of an axial compressor using a casing treatment technique. Circumferential grooves machined into the case are considered and their performances evaluated using three-dimensional steady state computational simulations. The effects of rectangular and new T-shape grooves on NASA Rotor 37 performances are investigated, resolving in detail the flow field near the blade tip in order to understand the stall inception delay mechanism produced by the casing treatment. First, a validation of the computational model was carried out analysing a smooth wall case without grooves. The comparisons of the total pressure ratio, total temperature ratio and adiabatic efficiency profiles with experimental data highlighted the accuracy and validity of the model. Then, the results for a rectangular groove chosen as the baseline case demonstrated that the groove interacts with the tip leakage flow, weakening the vortex breakdown and reducing the separation at the blade suction side. These effects delay stall inception, improving compressor stability. New T-shape grooves were designed keeping the volume as a constant parameter and their performances were evaluated in terms of stall margin improvement and efficiency variation. All the configurations showed a common efficiency loss near the peak condition and some of them revealed a stall margin improvement with respect to the baseline. Due to their reduced depth, these new configurations are interesting because they enable the use of a thinner light-weight compressor case as is desirable in aerospace applications.


Author(s):  
Lingjiu Zhou ◽  
Zhengwei Wang ◽  
Yongyao Luo ◽  
Guangjie Peng

The 3-D unsteady Reynolds averaged Navier-tokes equations based on the pseudo-homogeneous flow theory and a vapor fraction transport-equation that accounts for non-condensable gas are solved to simulate cavitating flow in a Francis turbine. The calculation results agreed with experiment data reasonably. With the decrease of the Thoma number, the cavity first appears near the centre of the hub. At this stage the flow rate and the efficiency change little. Then the cavity near the centre of the hub grows thick and the cavities also appear on the blade suction side near outlet. With further reduce of the Thoma number the cavitation extends to the whole flow path, which causes flow rate and efficiency decrease rapidly.


Author(s):  
Jan Schumann ◽  
Ulrich Harbecke ◽  
Daniel Sahnen ◽  
Thomas Polklas ◽  
Peter Jeschke ◽  
...  

The subject of the presented paper is the validation of a design method for HP and IP steam turbine stages. Common design processes have been operating with simplified design methods in order to quickly obtain feasible stage designs. Therefore, inaccuracies due to assumptions in the underlying methods have to be accepted. The focus of this work is to quantify the inaccuracy of a simplified design method compared to 3D Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. Short computing time is very convenient in preliminary design; therefore, common design methods work with a large degree of simplification. The origin of the presented analysis is a mean line design process, dealing with repeating stage conditions. Two features of the preliminary design are the stage efficiency, based on loss correlations, and the mechanical strength, obtained by using the beam theory. Due to these simplifications, only a few input parameters are necessary to define the primal stage geometry and hence, the optimal design can easily be found. In addition, by using an implemented law to take the radial equilibrium into account, the appropriate twist of the blading can be defined. However, in comparison to the real radial distribution of flow angles, this method implies inaccuracies, especially in regions of secondary flow. In these regions, twisted blades, developed by using the simplified radial equilibrium, will be exposed to a three-dimensional flow, which is not considered in the design process. The analyzed design cases show that discrepancies at the hub and shroud section do exist, but have minor effects. Even the shroud section, with its thinner leading-edge, is not vulnerable to these unanticipated flow angles.


2015 ◽  
Vol 809-810 ◽  
pp. 859-864
Author(s):  
Dănuţ Zahariea

In this paper, the finite element analysis for stress/deformation/modes of vibration for the centrifugal fan impeller with constant thickness backward-curved blades using CATIA software will be presented. The principal steps of the finite element analysis procedure using CATIA/Generative Structural Analysis environment will be presented: creating the 3D model; configuring the mesh; applying the restraints; applying the loads; running the numerical static analysis and the numerical frequency analysis; interpreting the results and observing the modes of vibration correlating with the impeller mode shape. This procedure will be used for 4 different centrifugal fan impellers according with the 4 blade design methods and the results will be comparatively analyzed. For each design method, two materials will be used: steel with density of 7860 kg/m3 and aluminium with density of 2710 kg/m3. Two important results have been obtained after the structural analysis: under the working conditions considered for the analysis, all 4 blade design methods leads to impellers with very good mechanical behaviour; any frequency of the main modes of vibrations for all blade design methods and for both materials is not in phase with the impeller speed, thus the possibility of resonance being eliminated.


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