Application of Humpback Whale Flippers in an Annular Compressor Cascade

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tan Zheng ◽  
Xiaoqing Qiang ◽  
Jinfang Teng ◽  
Jinzhang Feng
Keyword(s):  
Leading Edge ◽  
Humpback Whales ◽  
Loss Reduction ◽  
Streamwise Vortices ◽  
Compressor Cascade ◽  
Corner Separation ◽  
Region Flow ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
Flow Visualizations ◽  
Geometry Parameter

Humpback whales possess bumpy tubercles on the leading edge of their flippers. Due to these leading edge tubercles, the whales are able to perform complex underwater maneuvers agilely. Inspired by the flippers, this paper applies sinusoidal-like tubercles to the leading edge of the blade in an annular compressor cascade, and presents a numerical investigation to explore the effects of tubercles with the aim of controlling the corner separation and reducing losses. A preliminary study by steady 3D RANS simulations is performed. The aerodynamic performance and the behavior of the corner separation are investigated in the baseline compressor cascade. Subsequently, cascades with leading edge tubercles are numerically simulated. A crucial geometry parameter of the tubercles, wavelength, is varied to obtain different configurations. The influence of the parameter is concluded from the comparison of the performance attained by these configurations. Also, several configurations, which are typical in loss characteristics, are selected for further DES simulations so as to obtain more flow details, especially at the separation region. Flow visualizations show that leading edge tubercles could induce the formation of counter-rotating streamwise vortices. The interaction between the streamwise vortices and corner separation is emphatically investigated. By analysis of all the results obtained, this paper tries to figure out the mechanism of leading edge tubercles in loss reduction and separation delay in an annular compressor cascade.

Investigation of Leading Edge Tubercles with Different Wavelengths in an Annular Compressor Cascade

2018 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tan Zheng ◽  
Xiaoqing Qiang ◽  
Jinfang Teng ◽  
Jinzhang Feng
Keyword(s):  
Leading Edge ◽  
Humpback Whales ◽  
Wave Number ◽  
Loss Reduction ◽  
Streamwise Vortices ◽  
Compressor Cascade ◽  
Corner Separation ◽  
Stall Angle ◽  
Geometry Parameter ◽  
And Behavior

Abstract Humpback whales possess bumpy tubercles on the leading edge of their flippers. Due to these leading edge tubercles, whales are able to produce high degree of maneuverability. Inspired by the flippers, this paper applies sinusoidal-like tubercles to the leading edge of blades in an annular compressor cascade, and presents a numerical investigation to explore the effects of tubercles with the aim of controlling the corner separation and reducing losses. Steady 3D RANS simulations are performed to investigate the aerodynamic performance and behavior of the corner separation in compressor cascades with and without leading edge tubercles. A crucial geometry parameter of the tubercles, wavelength, is varied to obtain different configurations. Results show that a smaller wavelength (more wave number) corresponds to a larger loss reduction and the maximum loss reduction reaches to 46.0%. Also, it is found that leading edge tubercles result in a stall delay and the maximum stall angle improvement reaches to 28.1%. Flow visualizations show that leading edge tubercles could induce the formation of counter-rotating streamwise vortices. The interaction between the streamwise vortices and corner separation is thought to be the primary flow mechanism generated by leading edge tubercles in an annular compressor cascade.

Influence of Leading Edge Tubercles in an Annular Compressor Cascade With Different Hub-Tip Ratios and Aspect Ratios

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tan Zheng ◽  
Mingmin Zhu ◽  
Xiaoqing Qiang ◽  
Jinfang Teng ◽  
Jinzhang Feng
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Study ◽  
Incidence Angle ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Compressor Cascade ◽  
Corner Separation ◽  
Low Speed ◽  
Passive Flow Control ◽  
Passive Flow ◽  
Aspect Ratios ◽  
Flow Visualizations

Humpback whale flippers’ scalloped tubercles on the leading edge are thought to enhance the whale’s underwater maneuverability. Inspired by the flippers, leading edge tubercles are applied in a low speed annular compressor cascade as a type of passive flow control techniques in this paper. A numerical study is performed to investigate the influence of tubercles on the aerodynamic losses and corner separation in the low speed cascades. Different low speed cascades based on a CDA airfoil profile are built with several hub-tip ratios and aspect ratios. Steady RANS simulations are carried out for these cascades with and without leading edge tubercles. The aerodynamic performance and corner separation features are subsequently investigated in these cascades. The influence of tubercles under the variation of hub-tip ratio and aspect ratio is understood and concluded from the comparison of the performance attained by different cascades. Flow visualizations at a post-stall incidence angle show that the interaction between the tubercle-induced streamwise vortices and corner separation vortices plays a crucial role in attenuating the corner separation and reducing losses. By combining the performance analysis and flow visualizations, this paper discusses the mechanism of leading edge tubercles in a low speed annular compressor cascade with different hub-tip ratios and aspect ratios.

Numerical Investigation of Passive Flow Control Using Wavy Blades in a Highly-Loaded Compressor Cascade

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bo Wang ◽  
Yanhui Wu ◽  
Kai Liu
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Investigation ◽  
Flow Structure ◽  
Cross Flow ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Control Flow ◽  
Streamwise Vortices ◽  
Compressor Cascade ◽  
Control Effect ◽  
Suction Surface ◽  
Highly Loaded

Driven by the need to control flow separations in highly loaded compressors, a numerical investigation is carried out to study the control effect of wavy blades in a linear compressor cascade. Two types of wavy blades are studied with wavy blade-A having a sinusoidal leading edge, while wavy blade-B having pitchwise sinusoidal variation in the stacking line. The influence of wavy blades on the cascade performance is evaluated at incidences from −1° to +9°. For the wavy blade-A with suitable waviness parameters, the cascade diffusion capacity is enhanced accompanied by the loss reduction under high incidence conditions where 2D separation is the dominant flow structure on the suction surface of the unmodified blade. For well-designed wavy blade-B, the improvement of cascade performance is achieved under low incidence conditions where 3D corner separation is the dominant flow structure on the suction surface of the baseline blade. The influence of waviness parameters on the control effect is also discussed by comparing the performance of cascades with different wavy blade configurations. Detailed analysis of the predicted flow field shows that both the wavy blade-A and wavy blade-B have capacity to control flow separation in the cascade but their control mechanism are different. For wavy blade-A, the wavy leading edge results in the formation of counter-rotating streamwise vortices downstream of trough. These streamwise vortices can not only enhance momentum exchange between the outer flow and blade boundary layer, but also act as the suction surface fence to hamper the upwash of low momentum fluid driven by cross flow. For wavy blade-B, the wavy surface on the blade leads to a reduction of the cross flow upwash by influencing the spanwise distribution of the suction surface static pressure and guiding the upwash flow.

Numerical Investigation of Intermittent Corner Separation in a Linear Compressor Cascade

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Ma ◽  
Feng Gao ◽  
Xavier Ottavy ◽  
Lipeng Lu ◽  
A. J. Wang
Keyword(s):  
Flow Field ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Suction Side ◽  
Detached Eddy Simulation ◽  
Compressor Cascade ◽  
Linear Compressor ◽  
Corner Separation ◽  
Eddy Simulation ◽  
Linear Compressor Cascade

Recently bimodal phenomenon in corner separation has been found by Ma et al. (Experiments in Fluids, 2013, doi:10.1007/s00348-013-1546-y). Through detailed and accurate experimental results of the velocity flow field in a linear compressor cascade, they discovered two aperiodic modes exist in the corner separation of the compressor cascade. This phenomenon reflects the flow in corner separation is high intermittent, and large-scale coherent structures corresponding to two modes exist in the flow field of corner separation. However the generation mechanism of the bimodal phenomenon in corner separation is still unclear and thus needs to be studied further. In order to obtain instantaneous flow field with different unsteadiness and thus to analyse the mechanisms of bimodal phenomenon in corner separation, in this paper detached-eddy simulation (DES) is used to simulate the flow field in the linear compressor cascade where bimodal phenomenon has been found in previous experiment. DES in this paper successfully captures the bimodal phenomenon in the linear compressor cascade found in experiment, including the locations of bimodal points and the development of bimodal points along a line that normal to the blade suction side. We infer that the bimodal phenomenon in the corner separation is induced by the strong interaction between the following two facts. The first is the unsteady upstream flow nearby the leading edge whose angle and magnitude fluctuate simultaneously and significantly. The second is the high unsteady separation in the corner region.

Unsteady Pressure Investigations of Corner Separated Flow in a Linear Compressor Cascade

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gherardo Zambonini ◽  
Xavier Ottavy
Keyword(s):  
Transfer Functions ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Positive Pressure ◽  
Compressor Cascade ◽  
Suction Surface ◽  
Linear Compressor ◽  
Corner Separation ◽  
Unsteady Pressure ◽  
Linear Compressor Cascade ◽  
End Wall

The aim of this work is to present detailed unsteady pressure measurements of three-dimensional flow field in a NACA 65 linear compressor cascade. Chord-based Reynolds number of 382000 and incidence angle of 4 degrees were chosen as target configuration of the rig, which clearly presents the corner separation phenomenon at the juncture of the blade suction side and the end-wall. Concerning the experiments, a characterization of the mean and fluctuating component of wall static pressure on the surface of a specially developed blade is achieved at first. This fluctuating component is investigated utilizing nineteen high sensitivity condenser microphones plugged into blade cavities which have been carefully calibrated. Transfer functions obtained by calibration are exploited to reconstruct the time-dependent pressure signal and finally statistics, conditional ensemble averages, coherence and spectra analyses of fluctuations are presented in order to investigate the unsteady characteristics of the corner separation. High values of root mean square are individuated near the leading edge and in the separation region on the suction surface of the blade. Skewness and kurtosis show an intermittent behavior of the separation onset, which moves upstream and downstream on the suction surface. This intermittency of the separation line is probably linked with the existence of a bimodal behavior of the size of the corner separation. The analyses of coherence and conditional ensemble average between the signals at the leading edge and at the onset of the separation suggest a critical influence of angle and velocity of the incoming end-wall boundary layer on the positive pressure signatures of the shear layer, which characterize the inception of the separation.

Large-Eddy Simulation of Corner Separation in a Compressor Cascade

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Byung-Young Min ◽  
Jongwook Joo ◽  
Jomar Mendoza ◽  
Jin Lee ◽  
Guoping Xia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Flat Plate ◽  
Boundary Layers ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Plate Boundary ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Horseshoe Vortex ◽  
Compressor Cascade ◽  
Corner Separation ◽  
Institute Of Technology

In this paper, wall-resolved LES computations for a compressor cascade from Ecole Centrale de Lyon [1] are presented. A computational grid containing about 600 million computational cells was used in these simulations. This grid resolves the details of tripping strips used in the experiments, located near the leading edge of the blade on both suction and pressure sides. Endwall turbulent boundary layer at cascade inlet was measured to be at a momentum thickness based Reynolds number of about 7000 to 8000, with quite a bit of variation in the pitchwise direction. In order to avoid the cost of simulating the entire duct upstream of the cascade, and any auxiliary flat plate boundary layer simulations, the inlet fluctuations for LES computations were generated using digital filtering method for synthetic turbulence generation [27]. Turbulence statistics from a database of high fidelity eddy simulations of flat plate boundary layers (at similar Reynolds numbers) from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm [28] were used to fully define the properties of the cascade inlet boundary layer. In this paper, time-averaged results from three LES computations for this configuration are presented — one with no inlet fluctuations at the cascade endwall at the domain inlet, and then two computations with inlet fluctuations and boundary layers at Reθ of 7000 and 8183. These provide a sensitivity of LES predictions of corner separation in the cascade to the boundary layer thickness at cascade inlet. A comparison of these simulations with prior DDES (and RANS) simulations from UTRC [26], as well as existing LES results from Ecole Centrale de Lyon [12], allows to further the understanding of critical elements of the endwall flow physics. More specifically, it provides more insight into which phenomena need to be sufficiently resolved (e.g. horseshoe vortex) in order to capture both the average behavior of the corner separation, as well as its unsteady dynamics. In addition, it provides new information which will help define best practice guidelines for the use of eddy simulations to resolve endwall features in compressors at off-design conditions.

Influence of endwall slotted injection on performance and flow physics in a compressor cascade

2020 ◽  
pp. 095765092094653
Author(s):  
Zhiyuan Cao ◽  
Cheng Song ◽  
Bo Liu ◽  
Limin Gao
Keyword(s):  
Flow Control ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Loss Coefficient ◽  
Control Methods ◽  
Compressor Cascade ◽  
Control Effect ◽  
Suction Surface ◽  
Trailing Edge ◽  
Corner Separation ◽  
Axial Location

Air injection is an effectively methodology to suppress flow separation and to improve blade loading of airfoils and compressors. In order to remove corner separations in a cascade, investigation of endwall slotted injection was carried out numerically in this study. Based on endwall slot schemes of other flow control methods, six different endwall slots were designed, aiming at revealing the axial location effect and pitchwise location effect. For each endwall slot, numerical simulations were performed with six different injection directions to uncover the injection direction effect. Results showed that endwall slotted injection can effectively remove the corner separation. The overall loss coefficient and endwall loss coefficient of the cascade were reduced by 10.3% and 36.8% at most, respectively. Injection from leading edge and mid-chord can reduce endwall loss; however, the optimal axial location of endwall slot is near the trailing edge, where the corner separation is located. Different with other flow control methods, in general, the optimal pitchwise location of endwall slot is not close to suction surface but 0.16 pitch away from it. Injection near the suction surface is more sensitive to injection direction compared with injection at 0.16 pitch away from suction surface. Injection with velocity components both downstream and toward suction surface promises optimal control effect on corner separation. However, at mid-span, trailing edge separation is deteriorated and the flow turning angle is reduced, the flow mechanism being that the low-momentum fluid migrates along spanwise.

Hydrofoils with Differing Leading-Edge Protuberances: CFD and Experimental Investigations

2021 ◽  
Vol 163 (A3) ◽  
Author(s):  
R Kant ◽  
A Bhattacharyya
Keyword(s):  
Reynolds Number ◽  
Flow Characteristics ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Humpback Whales ◽  
Experimental Investigations ◽  
Streamwise Vortices ◽  
Cfd Analyses ◽  
Lift And Drag ◽  
High Angles Of Attack ◽  
Base Design

Leading-edge protuberances on the pectoral fin of humpback whales have been widely adopted to the designs of foils to provide superior lifting characteristics in the post-stall regimes. The present work investigates the lift, drag and flow characteristics of finite-span rectangular hydrofoils having different configurations of two protuberances over the leading edge with NACA 634-021 as the base design section. The results obtained from CFD analyses are validated using lift and drag measurements from experiments. The influence of using a transition-sensitive turbulence model on the results is investigated. It is observed that, in general, a foil with smaller separation between protuberances has better post-stall lift characteristics whereas that with protuberances at larger separation have better pre-stall characteristics. Depending on the separation between them, streamwise vortices are generated from the leading-edge protuberances. The two protuberances can restrict the zone of separation between them at high angles of attack. The influence of Reynolds number on the lifting performance is also investigated.

Effect of undulating blades on highly loaded compressor cascade performance

2020 ◽  
pp. 095765092090782
Author(s):  
Lirong Su ◽  
Xiaoqing Qiang ◽  
Tan Zheng ◽  
Jinfang Teng
Keyword(s):  
Incidence Angle ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Control Technique ◽  
Maximum Magnitude ◽  
Streamwise Vortices ◽  
Compressor Cascade ◽  
Pressure Loss Coefficient ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Highly Loaded

Humpback whale’s flipper with leading-edge tubercles has been attracting aerodynamic and hydrodynamic researchers’ attentions by its stall-delayed characteristics. Inspired by this, the undulating configuration is used in a highly loaded compressor cascade as a new type of passive flow control technique. A new model of undulating compressor blade is studied in this paper. To investigate the effect of the undulating configuration on cascade performance without the impact of endwall, steady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes simulations of infinite-span cascades are carried out with and without undulations at an inlet Mach number of 0.5. A parametric study is performed to conclude that, with a suitable wavelength, the undulating blade could achieve a rise in diffusion capacity, accompanied by 12.9% reduction in total pressure loss coefficient at a post-stall incidence angle of 8°, whereas it produces negligible impact in cascade performance at 0° incidence angle. Flow visualization further reveals that wavelength is a crucial parameter, determining the spanwise space for the formation of streamwise vortices. Undulating blades could produce positive effects with maximum magnitude when the counter-rotating streamwise vortices take dominant position along span with an appropriate size.

scholarly journals Study on the behavior of streamwise vortices formed between leading edge tubercles in a compressor cascade

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 617-629
Author(s):  
Tan Zheng ◽  
Xiao-Qing Qiang ◽  
Jin-Fang Teng ◽  
Jin-Zhang Feng
Keyword(s):  
Leading Edge ◽  
Streamwise Vortices ◽  
Compressor Cascade
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