Active Flow Control on a Highly Loaded Compressor Stator Cascade With Synthetic Jets

Author(s):  
Yong Qin ◽  
Ruoyu Wang ◽  
Yanping Song ◽  
Fu Chen ◽  
Huaping Liu

Numerical investigations on the control effects of synthetic jets are conducted upon a highly loaded compressor stator cascade. The influence of forcing parameters including actuation frequency, jet amplitude and slot location are analyzed in detail with the single-slit synthetic jet. Besides, a new slot arrangement is put forward for the purpose of effectively controlling flow separation. Simulation results validate the remarkable effectiveness of the single-slit synthetic jet on controlling flow separation. Owing to the coupling effect between the jet and the main flow, the actuation appears to be most efficient under the characteristic frequency of the main flow passing through the airfoil. Additionally, with the increase of jet momentum coefficient, the control effect is enhanced at first and then decreased, depending on the two aspects: the improvements of aerodynamic performance by momentum injection and the additional flow losses caused by the jet. Compared to other actuator configurations, the segment synthetic jet with three sections can more effectively deflect the end-wall cross flow and thus impede the development of corner vortex, which helps to restrain the accumulation of low momentum fluid towards the corner, emphasizing the importance of slot arrangement. Accordingly, under the optimum condition, the total pressure loss coefficient gains a 15.8% reductions and the static pressure rise coefficient is increased by 5.01%.

Author(s):  
V Zander ◽  
M Hecklau ◽  
W Nitsche ◽  
A Huppertz ◽  
M Swoboda

This article presents the potential of active flow control to increase the aerodynamic performance of highly loaded turbomachinery compressor blades. Experimental investigations on a large-scale compressor cascade equipped with 30 synthetic jet actuators mounted to the sidewalls and the blades themselves have been carried out. Results for a variation of the inflow angle, the jet amplitude, and the actuation frequency are presented. The wake measurements show total pressure loss reductions of nearly 10 per cent for the synthetic jet actuation. An efficiency calculation reveals that the energy saved by actuation is nearly twice the energy consumption of the synthetic jets.


Author(s):  
Christoph Gmelin ◽  
Mathias Steger ◽  
Frank Thiele ◽  
Andre´ Huppertz ◽  
Marius Swoboda

A highly loaded compressor cascade is analyzed by means of time-resolved 3D RANS simulations. Due to the low aspect ratio of the cascade, strong three-dimensional effects emerge, such as large corner vortices and trailing edge separation at the midspan. The feasibility of the simulation using a commercial software and the applicability of controlling the separated regions using zero net mass flux synthetic jets is analyzed. The work includes two control concepts that are investigated separately. One aims to affect the secondary flow emerging from the sidewalls via actuation at the cascade casing walls. The other aims to reattach the separated flow to the blade suction side using an actuator on the blade. Beneficial flow control parameters characterizing a synthetic jet are determined for both locations by a systematic variation. Special attention is drawn to the global efficiency of the stator cascade by means of total pressure loss and pressure rise.


Author(s):  
Yong Qin ◽  
Yanping Song ◽  
Ruoyu Wang ◽  
Huaping Liu ◽  
Fu Chen

This paper presents flow separation control conducted on a highly loaded compressor stator cascade using endwall synthetic jets. Numerical methods are employed and mechanisms of endwall synthetic jets in improving the cascade performance are discussed in detail. The influence of several actuation parameters is also investigated. Results show that endwall synthetic jets are able to improve the flows in the blade passage significantly, a maximum loss reduction of 21.63% and a pressure rise increment of 5.60% are obtained at design condition. Apart from energizing the low momentum fluid inside endwall boundary layer by streamwise momentum addition, endwall synthetic jets could induce a streamwise jet vortex and impede the transverse movement of endwall boundary layer through upwash and downwash. Hence, at the expense of slightly degraded near-wall flows, the formation and further evolution of passage vortex would be delayed and flows in the midspan region would be improved notably. The effectiveness of endwall synthetic jets relies on the proper selection of actuation position and jet angle. Flow control turns out to be the most efficient when the actuator is positioned at just upstream of corner separation region with a relatively small jet angle, and a large enough injected momentum is also necessary. Additionally, the adaptability of the actuation at off-design conditions is validated in the present study.


Author(s):  
Shirdish Poondru ◽  
Urmila Ghia ◽  
Karman Ghia

The operating Reynolds numbers (Re) for a low-pressure turbine (LPT) in an aircraft engine can drop below 25,000 during high-altitude cruise conditions. At these low Reynolds numbers, the boundary layer on the LPT blade is largely laminar, and is susceptible to separation on the aft portion of the blade suction surface. This separation is detrimental and causes a significant loss in the engine efficiency. The objective of the current research is to control this separation, and minimize the associated losses by numerically implementing an active flow control strategy. Unlike passive flow control techniques, active flow control (AFC) techniques can be turned on and off depending on the requirement for flow control. In the present paper, we numerically investigate the flow through an LPT cascade at a chord inlet Reynolds number of 25,000 with active separation control using synthetic jets and synthetic vortex-generator jets (VGJ’s). Synthetic jets hold an advantage over steady or pulsed jets in that they require no net mass flow, i.e., synthetic jets are formed entirely from the working fluid of the flow system in which they are deployed and, thus, can transfer linear momentum to the flow system without net mass injection across the flow boundary. In the LPT environment, this means that no compressor bleed air is required. While LPT separation control using steady and pulsed VGJs has been numerically investigated before, AFC on an LPT blade by synthetic jets and synthetic VGJs has not yet been numerically investigated. The geometrical difference between a synthetic jet and synthetic VGJ is the angle at which the jet enters the main flow. A synthetic jet enters the main flow normal to the surface, and on the other hand, a synthetic VGJ enters at a certain angle to the wall (pitch angle) and at a certain angle to the main flow (skew angle). For the present case, the VGJs are oriented at 30° to the surface and 90° to the main flow. In addition to the angle at which these two jets enter the main flow, these flow control mechanisms differ in the way they delay or avoid separation. Synthetic jets generate turbulent spots which energize the flow, whereas synthetic VGJ’s generate streamwise vortices which enhance mixing. The relative magnitudes of the effects of turbulence and streamwise vortices in enhancing mixing are being investigated. The results for both control mechanisms will be compared to each other, and with experimental data. An MPI-based higher-order accurate, Chimera version of the FDL3DI flow solver developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, is extended for the present turbomachinery application.


Author(s):  
Christoph Gmelin ◽  
Mathias Steger ◽  
Vincent Zander ◽  
Wolfgang Nitsche ◽  
Frank Thiele ◽  
...  

Time-resolved Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes simulations of a 3D stator compressor cascade are performed. At the design point of the airfoil under investigation, pronounced secondary flow effects are observed. Strong corner vortices emerge from the casing walls and the flow separates from the blade suction side towards the trailing edge. Transition from laminar to turbulent flow occurs within a laminar separation bubble. Using a commercial CFD software, the influence of the spatial resolution is investigated by means of a spanwise coarsening and refinement of the created mesh. Zero net mass flux synthetic jet actuation is used to control the separated regions. The work presents a variation of the temporal discretization and an analysis of the driving parameters of the actuation.


Author(s):  
Hongxin Zhang ◽  
Shaowen Chen ◽  
Yun Gong ◽  
Songtao Wang

A numerical research is applied to investigate the effect of controlling the flow separation in a certain highly loaded compressor cascade using different unsteady flow control techniques. Firstly, unsteady pulsed suction as a new novel unsteady flow control technique was proposed and compared to steady constant suction in the control of flow separation. A more exciting effect of controlling the flow separation and enhancing the aerodynamic performance for unsteady pulsed suction was obtained compared to steady constant suction with the same time-averaged suction flow rate. Simultaneously, with the view to further exploring the potential of unsteady flow control technique, unsteady pulsed suction, unsteady pulsed blowing, and unsteady synthetic jet (three unsteady flow control techniques) are analyzed comparatively in detail by the related unsteady aerodynamic parameters such as excitation location, frequency, and amplitude. The results show that unsteady pulsed suction shows greater advantage than unsteady pulsed blowing and unsteady synthetic jet in controlling the flow separation. Unsteady pulsed suction and unsteady synthetic jet have a wider range of excitation location obtaining positive effects than unsteady pulsed blowing. The ranges of excitation frequency and excitation amplitude for unsteady pulsed suction gaining favorable effects are both much wider than that of unsteady pulsed blowing and unsteady synthetic jet. The optimum frequencies of unsteady pulsed suction, unsteady pulsed blowing, and unsteady synthetic jet are found to be different, but these optimum frequencies are all an integer multiple of the natural frequency of vortex shedding. The total pressure loss coefficient is reduced by 16.98%, 16.55%, and 17.38%, respectively, when excitation location, frequency, and amplitude are all their own optimal values for unsteady pulsed suction, unsteady pulsed blowing, and unsteady synthetic jet. The optimum result of unsteady synthetic jet only slightly outperforms that of unsteady pulsed suction and unsteady pulsed blowing. But unfortunately, there is no advantage from the standpoint of overall efficiency for the optimum result of unsteady synthetic jet because the slight improvement has to require a greater power consumption than the unsteady pulsed suction and unsteady pulsed blowing methods.


2015 ◽  
Vol 741 ◽  
pp. 475-480
Author(s):  
Na Gao ◽  
Chen Pu ◽  
Bao Chen

2nd order implicit format is implemented in the Navier-Stokes code to deal with instantaneous item unsteady flows. Three simulations are made to testify the method on flow control. First, the external flow fields of synthetic jets are simulated, the mean velocity on the center line, the jet width and velocity distribution are compared well with experimental results. Secondly, the flow fields of synthetic jet in a crossflow are simulated, orifice slot, the mean velocity on the center line and velocity distribution are compared well with experimental results. Finally, the flow control experiments on separation of airfoil are simulated, control methods include steady suction and synthetic jets. Both methods show their ability to favorably effect the flow separation, shortening the length of separation bubble and improving the pressure levels in separation areas in different degrees.


Author(s):  
Daniel Nerger ◽  
Horst Saathoff ◽  
Rolf Radespiel ◽  
Volker Gu¨mmer ◽  
Carsten Clemen

The following paper describes an experimental investigation of a highly loaded stator cascade with a pitch to chord ratio of t/l = 0.6. Experiments without as well as with active flow control by means of endwall and suction side blowing were conducted. Five-hole-probe measurements in pitchwise and spanwise direction as well as endwall oil flow visualizations were carried out in order to determine the performance of the cascade and to analyze the flow phenomena occuring. To quantify the effectivity of the active flow control method, taking the additional energy input into account, corrected losses and an efficiency, which relates the difference of flow power deficit with and without active flow control to the flow power of the blowing jet itself, were evaluated. Even though an increase of static pressure rise could be achieved, a decrease of the total pressure losses was possible for a few operating points only.


2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yumeng Tang ◽  
Yangwei Liu ◽  
Lipeng Lu

Abstract Blade end slots were proposed to control corner separation in a highly loaded compressor cascade in our previous studies. This study focuses on the evaluation of compressor blading with blade end slots and full-span slots. First, the two-dimensional configuration performance is evaluated both for the datum and slotted profiles. The slotted configuration could effectively suppress separation, especially under positive incidence conditions when the separation is large. Thus, two three-dimensional blading with full-span slots and blade end slots (20% span height from the endwall) are compared. Results show that blading with full-span slots could effectively reduce the loss and enlarge pressure rise under relative high incidence angles, while blading with blade end slots could effectively reduce the loss and enlarge pressure rise above an incidence angle of −4 deg. Blading with slots alters the flow structures and reorganizes the flow in the blade end regions. The self-adaptive jets from the slots reenergize the low-momentum flow downstream and restrain its migration toward the mid-span, so that the corner separation is reduced and the performance is enhanced. The loss for the end slotted blade is lower than that of the full-span slotted blade under incidence angles within 4 deg. This is because the additional mixing loss of the jet and the main flow are caused by the full-span slots at the mid-span regions where the flow remains attached for the blade end slots.


Author(s):  
Farzad Bazdidi–Tehrani ◽  
Ali Saadniya ◽  
Soroush Rashidzadeh

Nowadays, synthetic jets have various applications such as cooling enhancement and active flow control. In the present paper, the capability of two turbulence modelling approaches in predicting thermal performance of an impinging synthetic jet is investigated. These two approaches are scale adaptive simulation (SAS) and detached eddy simulation (DES). Comparisons between numerical data and experimental studies reveal that the ability of DES in predicting the asymmetrical trend of heat transfer profiles is better than SAS in almost all the study cases. Although, near the stagnation zone, the performance of SAS is superior. Results show that the effects of parameters such as frequency, cross-flow velocity and suction duty cycle factor are well predicted by both approaches. An increase of cross-flow velocity from 1.81 m/s to 2.26 m/s results in an improvement of [Formula: see text] near the stagnation point by almost 16.3% and 9.2% using DES and SAS, respectively.


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