Mechanism and Flow Control on the Mismatching of Impeller and Vaned Diffuser Caused by Inlet Prewhirl for Centrifugal Compressors

Author(s):  
Qiangqiang Huang ◽  
Xinqian Zheng ◽  
Aolin Wang

Air often flows into compressors with inlet prewhirl, because it will obtain a circumferential component of velocity via inlet distortion or swirl generators such as inlet guide vanes. A lot of research has shown that inlet prewhirl does influence the characteristics of components, but the change of the matching relation between the components caused by inlet prewhirl is still unclear. This paper investigates the influence of inlet prewhirl on the matching of the impeller and the diffuser and proposes a flow control method to cure mismatching. The approach combines steady three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations with theoretical analysis and modeling. The result shows that a compressor whose impeller and diffuser match well at zero prewhirl will go to mismatching at non-zero prewhirl. The diffuser throat gets too large to match the impeller at positive prewhirl and gets too small for matching at negative prewhirl. The choking mass flow of the impeller is more sensitive to inlet prewhirl than that of the diffuser, which is the main reason for the mismatching. To cure the mismatching via adjusting the diffuser vanes stagger angle, a one-dimensional method based on incidence matching has been proposed to yield a control schedule for adjusting the diffuser. The optimal stagger angle predicted by analytical method has good agreement with that predicted by computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The compressor is able to operate efficiently in a much broader flow range with the control schedule. The flow range, where the efficiency is above 80%, of the datum compressor and the compressor only employing inlet prewhirl and no control are just 25.3% and 31.8%, respectively. For the compressor following the control schedule, the flow range is improved up to 46.5%. This paper also provides the perspective of components matching to think about inlet distortion.

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (03) ◽  
pp. 1750021 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Niktash ◽  
B. P. Huynh

A windcatcher is a structure for providing natural ventilation using wind power; it is usually fitted on the roof of a building to exhaust the inside stale air to the outside and supplies the outside fresh air into the building interior space working by pressure difference between outside and inside of the building. In this paper, the behavior of free wind flow through a three-dimensional room fitted with a centered position two-canal bottom shape windcatcher model is investigated numerically, using a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software package and LES (Large Eddy Simulation) CFD method. The results have been compared with the obtained results for the same model but using RANS (Reynolds Averaged Navier–Stokes) CFD method. The model with its surrounded space has been considered in both method. It is found that the achieved results for the model from LES method are in good agreement with RANS method’s results for the same model.


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.


1996 ◽  
Vol 118 (3) ◽  
pp. 529-535 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. W. Giel ◽  
J. R. Sirbaugh ◽  
I. Lopez ◽  
G. J. Van Fossen

Experimental measurements in the inlet of a transonic turbine blade cascade showed unacceptable pitchwise flow nonuniformity. A three-dimensional, Navier–Stokes computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis of the imbedded bellmouth inlet in the facility was performed to identify and eliminate the source of the flow nonuniformity. The blockage and acceleration effects of the blades were accounted for by specifying a periodic static pressure exit condition interpolated from a separate three-dimensional Navier–Stokes CFD solution of flow around a single blade in an infinite cascade. Calculations of the original inlet geometry showed total pressure loss regions consistent in strength and location to experimental measurements. The results indicate that the distortions were caused by a pair of streamwise vortices that originated as a result of the interaction of the flow with the imbedded bellmouth. Computations were performed for an inlet geometry that eliminated the imbedded bellmouth by bridging the region between it and the upstream wall. This analysis indicated that eliminating the imbedded bellmouth nozzle also eliminates the pair of vortices, resulting in a flow with much greater pitchwise uniformity. Measurements taken with an installed redesigned inlet verify that the flow nonuniformity has indeed been eliminated.


Author(s):  
Anil K. Tolpadi ◽  
James A. Tallman ◽  
Lamyaa El-Gabry

Conventional heat transfer design methods for turbine airfoils use 2-D boundary layer codes (BLC) combined with empiricism. While such methods may be applicable in the mid span of an airfoil, they would not be very accurate near the end-walls and airfoil tip where the flow is very three-dimensional (3-D) and complex. In order to obtain accurate heat transfer predictions along the entire span of a turbine airfoil, 3-D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) must be used. This paper describes the development of a CFD based design system to make heat transfer predictions. A 3-D, compressible, Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes CFD solver with k-ω turbulence modeling was used. A wall integration approach was used for boundary layer prediction. First, the numerical approach was validated against a series of fundamental airfoil cases with available data. The comparisons were very favorable. Subsequently, it was applied to a real engine airfoil at typical design conditions. A discussion of the features of the airfoil heat transfer distribution is included.


2014 ◽  
Vol 694 ◽  
pp. 187-192
Author(s):  
Jin Xiang Wu ◽  
Jian Sun ◽  
Xiang Gou ◽  
Lian Sheng Liu

The three-dimensional coupled explicit Reynolds Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations and the two equation shear-stress transport k-w (SST k-w) model has been employed to numerically simulate the cold flow field in a special-shaped cavity-based supersonic combustor. In a cross-section shaped rectangular, hypersonic inlet with airflow at Mach 2.0 chamber, shock structures and flow characteristics of a herringbone-shaped boss and a herringbone-shaped cavity models were discussed, respectively. The results indicate: Firstly, according to the similarities of bevel-cutting shock characteristics between the boss case and the cavity case, the boss structure can serve as an ideal alternative model for shear-layer. Secondly, the eddies within cavity are composed of herringbone-spanwise vortexes, columnar vortices in the front and main-spanwise vortexes in the rear, featuring tilting, twisting and stretching. Thirdly, the simulated bottom-flow of cavity is in good agreement with experimental result, while the reverse flow-entrainment resulting from herringbone geometry and pressure gradient. However, the herringbone-shaped cavity has a better performance in fuel-mixing.


2000 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. R. B. Olsen ◽  
D. K. Lysne

A three-dimensional numerical model was used to model water circulation and spatial variation of temperature in Lake Sperillen in Norway. A winter situation was simulated, with thermal stratification and ice cover. The numerical model solved the Navier-Stokes equations on a 3D unstructured non-orthogonal grid with hexahedral cells. The SIMPLE method was used for the pressure coupling and the k-ε model was used to model turbulence, with a modification for density stratification due to the vertical temperature profile. The results were compared with field measurements of the temperature in the lake, indicating the location of the water current. Reasonably good agreement was found.


Author(s):  
Ghislaine Ngo Boum ◽  
Rodolfo Bontempo ◽  
Isabelle Trébinjac

High accuracy simulation of compressor surge origin and growth is an important challenge for designers of systems using compressors likely to develop that severe instability. Indeed, understanding its driving phenomena, which can be system dependent, is necessary to build an adequate strategy to avoid or control surge emergence. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, commonly used to explore flow in the compressor, need then to be extended beyond the compressor as surge is a system scale instability. To get an insight on the path to surge and through surge cycles, a reliable alternative to full three-dimensional (3D) system modeling is used for a turbocharger compressor inserted in an experimental test rig. The air flow in the whole circuit, is modeled with a one-dimensional (1D) Navier Stokes approach which is coupled with a 3D unsteady RANS modeling of the 360 deg air flow in the centrifugal compressor including the volute. Starting from an initial stable flow solution in the system, the back-pressure valve is progressively closed to reduce the massflow and trigger the instability. An entire deep surge loop is simulated and compared with good agreement with the experimental data. The existence of a system-induced convective wave is revealed, and its major role on surge inception at diffuser inlet demonstrated.


Author(s):  
Zhang Lisheng ◽  
Jiang Jin ◽  
Xiao Zhihuai ◽  
Li Yanhui

In this paper numerical simulations were conducted to analyze the effects of design parameters and distribution of balancing-hole on the axial-force of a partial emission pump. The studied pump is a single stage pump with a Barske style impeller. Based on the original impeller, we designed 7 pumps with different balancing-hole diameters and the partial emission pump equipped with different impellers were simulated employing the commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software Fluent 12.1 to solve the Navier-Stokes equations for three-dimensional steady flow. A sensitivity analysis of the numerical model was performed with the purpose of balancing the contradiction of numerical accuracy and the cost of calculation. The results showed that, with increasing of the capacity, the axial force varies little. The diameter of the inner balancing-hole plays a dominant role of reducing axial-force of partial emission pump, the axial-force decreases with increasing of inner balancing-hole diameter on the whole range of operation, the axial-force of impeller without inner balancing-hole is approximately 3 times larger than that of impeller with inner balancing-hole. While the diameter of outer balancing-hole has a reverse effects compared with that of inner balancing-hole. With increasing of outer balancing-hole, the axial force increases accordingly.


Energies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 3350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guoping Huang ◽  
Xin Xiang ◽  
Chen Xia ◽  
Weiyu Lu ◽  
Lei Li

The reduction in specific fuel consumption (SFC) is crucial for small/mid-size cost-controllable aircraft, which is very conducive to reducing cost and carbon dioxide emissions. To decrease the SFC, increasing the bypass ratio (BPR) is an important way. Conventional high-BPR engines have several limitations, especially the conflicting spool-speed requirements of a fan and a low-pressure turbine. This research proposes an air-driven fan with a tip turbine (ADFTT) as a potential device for a high-bypass propulsion system. Moreover, a possible application of this ADFTT is introduced. Thermodynamic analysis results show that an ADFTT can improve thrust from a prototype turbofan. As a demonstration, we selected a typical small-thrust turbofan as the prototype and applied the ADFTT concept to improve this model. Three-dimensional flow fields were numerically simulated through a Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS)-based computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method. The performance of this ADFTT has the possibility of amplifying the BPR more than four times and increasing the thrust by approximately 84% in comparison with the prototype turbofan.


Author(s):  
W. N. Dawes

The aim of this paper is to help advance our understanding of the complex, three-dimensional, unsteady flow associated with the interaction of a splattered centrifugal impeller and its vaned diffuser. A time-resolved simulation is presented of the Krain stage performed using a time-accurate, 3D, unstructured mesh, solution-adaptive Navier-Stokes solver. The predicted flowfield, compared with experiment where available, displays a complex, unsteady interaction especially in the neighbourhood of the diffuser entry zone which experiences large periodic flow unsteadiness. Downstream of the throat, although the magnitude of this unsteadiness diminishes rapidly, the flow has a highly distorted three-dimensional character. The loss levels in the diffuser are then investigated to try and determine how time-mean loss levels compare with the levels expected from “equivalent” steady flow analysis performed by using the circumferentially averaged exit flow from the impeller as inlet to the diffuser. It is concluded that little loss could be attributed directly to unsteady effects but rather that the principle cause of the rather high loss levels observed in the diffuser is the strong spanwise distortion in swirl angle at inlet which initiates a strong hub/comer stall.


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