scholarly journals Design of Compressor Endwall Velocity Triangles

Author(s):  
Kiran Auchoybur ◽  
Robert J. Miller

Near the endwalls of multi-stage compressor blade rows, there is a spanwise region of low momentum, high entropy fluid which develops due to the presence of annulus walls, leakage flows and corner separations. Off-design this region, known as the endwall flow region, often grows rapidly and in practice sets the compressor’s operating range. By contrast, over the operating range of the compressor, the freestream region of the flow is not usually close to its diffusion limit and has little effect on overall range. In light of these two distinct flow regions within a bladerow, this paper considers how velocity triangles in the endwall region should be designed to give a more balanced spanwise failure across the blade span. In the first part of the paper, the sensitivity of the operating flow range of a single blade row to variations in realistic multistage inlet conditions and endwall geometry is investigated. It is shown that the operating range of the blade row is largely controlled by the size and structure of the endwall ‘repeating stage’ inlet boundary layer and not the detailed local geometry within the blade row. In the second part of the paper the traditional design process is ‘flipped’. Instead of redesigning a blade’s endwall geometry to cope with a particular inlet profile into the blade row, the endwall region is redesigned in the multi-stage environment to ‘tailor’ the inlet profile into downstream blade rows. This is shown to allow an extra degree of freedom not usually open to the designer. This extra degree of freedom is exploited to balance freestream and endwall operating range, resulting in a compressor having an increased operating range of ∼20%. If this increased operating range is traded with reduced blade count, it is shown that a design efficiency improvement of Δη∼0.5% can be unlocked.

2017 ◽  
Vol 139 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kiran Auchoybur ◽  
Robert J. Miller

The operating range of a compressor is usually limited by the rapid growth of three-dimensional (3D) separations in the endwall flow region. In contrast, the freestream region is not usually close to its diffusion limit and has little effect on overall range. In light of these two distinct flow regions, this paper considers how velocity triangles in the endwall region should be designed to give a more balanced spanwise failure across the span of a blade row. In the first part of this paper, the sensitivity of 3D separations in a single blade row to variations in realistic multistage inlet conditions and endwall geometry is investigated. It is shown that a blade's 3D separation size is largely controlled by the dynamic pressure within the incoming endwall “repeating stage” boundary layer and not the detailed local geometry within the blade row. In the second part of this paper, the traditional design process is “flipped.” Instead of redesigning a blade's endwall geometry to cope with a particular inlet profile into the blade row, the endwall region is redesigned in the multistage environment to “tailor” the inlet profile into downstream blade rows, giving the designer a new extra degree-of-freedom. This extra degree-of-freedom is exploited to balance freestream and endwall operating range, resulting in a compressor having an increased operating range of ∼20%. If this increased operating range is traded with reduced blade count, it is shown that a design efficiency improvement of ∼0.5% can be unlocked.


Author(s):  
Milorad B. Dzodzo ◽  
Bin Liu ◽  
Pablo R. Rubiolo ◽  
Zeses E. Karoutas ◽  
Michael Y. Young

A numerical investigation was performed to study the variation in axial and lateral velocity profiles occurring downstream of the inlet nozzle of a typical Westinghouse 17×17 PWR fuel assembly. A Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) model was developed with commercial CFD software. The model comprised the lower region of the fuel assembly, including: the Debris Filter Bottom Nozzle (DFBN), P-grid, Bottom Inconel grid, one and half grid span, as well as the lower core plate hole. The purpose of the study was to obtain insight into the flow redistribution resulting from the interaction of the jet arising from the lower core plate hole and the fuel assembly structure. In particular the axial and lateral velocities before and after the nozzle were studied. The results, axial and lateral velocity contours, streamlines and maximum axial and lateral velocity distributions at various elevations are presented and discussed in relation to the potential risk of high turbulent excitation over the rod and the resulting rod-to-grid fretting-wear damage. The CFD model results indicated that the large jet flows from the lower core plate are effectively dissipated by DFBN nozzle and the grids components of the fuel assembly. The breakup of the large jets in the DFBN and the lower grids helps to reduce the steep velocity gradients and thus the rod vibration and fretting-wear risk in the lower part of the fuel assembly. The presented CFD model is one step towards developing advanced tools that can be used to confirm and evaluate the effect of complex PWR structures on flow distribution. In the future the presented model could be integrated in a larger CFD model involving several fuel assemblies for evaluating the lateral velocities generated due to the non-uniform inlet conditions into the various fuel assemblies.


Author(s):  
Johann Gross ◽  
Malte Krack ◽  
Harald Schoenenborn

The prediction of aerodynamic blade forcing is a very important topic in turbomachinery design. Usually, the wake from the upstream blade row and the potential field from the downstream blade row are considered as the main causes for excitation, which in conjunction with relative rotation of neighboring blade rows, give rise to dynamic forcing of the blades. In addition to those two mechanisms so-called Tyler-Sofrin (or scattered or spinning) modes, which refer to the acoustic interaction with blade rows further up- or downstream, may have a significant impact on blade forcing. In particular, they lead to considerable blade-to-blade variations of the aerodynamic loading. In part 1 of the paper a study of these effects is performed on the basis of a quasi 3D multi-row and multi-passage compressor configuration. Part 2 of the paper proposes a method to analyze the interaction of the aerodynamic forcing asymmetries with the already well-studied effects of random mistuning stemming from blade-to-blade variations of structural properties. Based on a finite element model of a sector, the equations governing the dynamic behavior of the entire bladed disk can be efficiently derived using substructuring techniques. The disk substructure is assumed as cyclically symmetric, while the blades exhibit structural mistuning and linear aeroelastic coupling. In order to avoid the costly multi-stage analysis, the variation of the aerodynamic loading is treated as an epistemic uncertainty, leading to a stochastic description of the annular force pattern. The effects of structural mistuning and stochastic aerodynamic forcing are first studied separately and then in a combined manner for a blisk of a research compressor without and with aeroelastic coupling.


Author(s):  
Martin Lipfert ◽  
Jan Habermann ◽  
Martin G. Rose ◽  
Stephan Staudacher ◽  
Yavuz Guendogdu

In a joint project between the Institute of Aircraft Propulsion Systems (ILA) and MTU Aero Engines a two-stage low pressure turbine is tested at design and strong off-design conditions. The experimental data taken in the altitude test-facility aims to study the effect of positive and negative incidence of the second stator vane. A detailed insight and understanding of the blade row interactions at these regimes is sought. Steady and time-resolved pressure measurements on the airfoil as well as inlet and outlet hot-film traverses at identical Reynolds number are performed for the midspan streamline. The results are compared with unsteady multi-stage CFD predictions. Simulations agree well with the experimental data and allow detailed insights in the time-resolved flow-field. Airfoil pressure field responses are found to increase with positve incidence whereas at negative incidence the magnitude remains unchanged. Different pressure to suction side phasing is observed for the studied regimes. The assessment of unsteady blade forces reveals that changes in unsteady lift are minor compared to changes in axial force components. These increase with increasing positive incidence. The wake-interactions are predominating the blade responses in all regimes. For the positive incidence conditions vane 1 passage vortex fluid is involved in the midspan passage interaction leading to a more distorted three-dimensional flow field.


Author(s):  
Laura Junge ◽  
Graham Ashcroft ◽  
Peter Jeschke ◽  
Christian Frey

Due to the relative motion between adjacent blade rows the aerodynamic flow fields within turbomachinery are normally dominated by deterministic, periodic phenomena. In the numerical simulation of such unsteady flows (nonlinear) frequency-domain methods are therefore attractive as they are capable of fully exploiting the given spatial and temporal periodicity, as well as capturing or modelling flow nonlinearity. Central to the efficiency and accuracy of such frequency-domain methods is the selection of the frequencies and the circumferential modes to be resolved in simulations. Whilst trivial in the context of the simulation of a single compressor- or turbine-stage, the choice of solution modes becomes substantially more involved in multi-stage configurations. In this work the importance of mode scattering, in the context of the unsteady aerodynamic field, is investigated and quantified. It is shown that scattered modes can substantially impact the unsteady flow field and are essential for the accurate modelling of wake propagation within multistage configurations. Furthermore, an iterative approach is outlined, based on the spectral analysis of the circumferential modes at the interfaces between blade rows, to identify the dominant solution modes that should be resolved in the adjacent blade row. To demonstrate the importance of mode scattering and validate the approach for their identification the unsteady blade row interaction within a 4.5 stage axial compressor is computed using both the harmonic balance method and, based on a full annulus midspan simulation, a time-domain method. Through the inclusion of scattered modes it is shown that the solution quality of the harmonic balance results is comparable to that of the nonlinear time-domain simulation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 612-629 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Verstraten ◽  
Raphael Furnémont ◽  
Pablo López-García ◽  
David Rodriguez-Cianca ◽  
Bram Vanderborght ◽  
...  

Robots often switch from highly dynamic motion to delivering high torques at low speeds. The actuation requirements for these two regimes are very different. As a consequence, the average efficiency of the actuators is typically much lower than the efficiency at the optimal working point. A potential solution is to use multiple motors for a single motor joint. This results in a redundant degree of freedom, which can be exploited to make the system more efficient overall. In this work, we explore the potential of kinematically redundant actuators in dynamic applications. The potential of a kinematically redundant actuator with two motors is evaluated against a single-motor equivalent in terms of operating range, maximum acceleration, and energy consumption. We discuss how the comparison is influenced by the design of the actuator and the way how the power is distributed over the input motors. Our results support the idea that kinematically redundant actuators can resolve the conflicting torque–speed requirements typical of robots.


Author(s):  
Y. Bousquet ◽  
X. Carbonneau ◽  
I. Trebinjac ◽  
N. Binder ◽  
G. Dufour

The present works details the occurrence of the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability in a centrifugal compressor operating near stall. The analysis are based on unsteady three dimensional simulations performed on a calculation domain covering the full annulus for the impeller and the vaned diffuser. A detailed investigation of the flow structure is presented, together with its evolution consequent to the mass flow reduction. It is demonstrated that this reduction leads to an enlargement of the low momentum flow region initially induced by the combination of the secondary and leakage flows. When the compressor operates near stall, the shear layer at the interface between the main flow and this low momentum flow becomes unstable and induces a periodic vortex shedding. The frequency of such an unsteady phenomenon is not correlated with the blade passing frequency. Its signature is thus easily isolated from the deterministic rotor/stator interaction. Its detection requires full-annulus simulations with an accurate resolution in time and space, which explains why it has never been previously observed in centrifugal compressors.


2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yixiong Liu ◽  
Dazhong Lao ◽  
Ce Yang

AbstractThe detailed flow behavior of the nozzle channel of a variable turbine is presented in this paper. The numerical model of a variable nozzle turbine was developed by using computational fluid dynamics method, and validated by the measured performance data of the turbine. Two opening positions of the nozzle vane, as well as two inlet conditions of the nozzle representing different vane loadings, were investigated to evaluate the clearance flow behaviors. It is shown that the channel shock waves are produced at proper conditions, such as small opening and large inlet pressure, which has significant impact on the end wall clearance leakage flow. When the leakage flows through the end wall clearance from the pressure side to the suction side encountering by the main stream, and the leakage vortex is formed. It is found that this leakage vortex gradually enhanced from the trailing edge to the middle edge.


Author(s):  
Ahmed Abdelwahab

Industrial centrifugal compressors generally comprise a number of low pressure ratio intercooled stages. This is done primarily for the purpose of reducing the compressor power requirements and improving the operating range of the multi-stage compressor. In recent years, however, rapid increases in the per-kilowatt-hour prices both domestically and worldwide has led to renewed research efforts to further reduce the power requirements of this type of compression equipment. Several attempts have been made to use direct water injection as a means to overspray the compressor inlet to further reduce its power requirement. This paper presents an investigation into the use of this technology in industrial centrifugal compressors. A simple numerical method is presented for the computation of wet compression processes. The method is based on both droplet evaporation and compressor mean-line calculations. An assessment, based on the developed model, of the effectiveness of evaporative processes in reducing the compressor power consumption per stage is presented. The impacts on stage efficiency and operating range are also presented.


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