Analysis of a Tilted Turbine Housing Volute Design Under Pulsating Inlet Conditions

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel P. Lee ◽  
Martyn L. Jupp ◽  
Ambrose K. Nickson ◽  
John M. Allport
Keyword(s):  
Steady State ◽  
Incidence Angle ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Pulsating Flow ◽  
Flow Conditions ◽  
Low Velocity ◽  
Mixed Flow ◽  
Turbine Wheel ◽  
Housing Design ◽  
Inlet Conditions

Radial inflow turbines are widely used in the automotive turbocharger industry due to the greater amount of work that can be extracted per stage and their ease of manufacture compared with equivalent axial designs [1]. The current industry trend towards downsized engines for lower emissions has driven research to focus on improving turbine technologies for greater aero-thermal efficiency. Consequently, mixed flow turbines have recently received significant interest due to a number of potential performance benefits over their radial counterparts, including reduced inertia and improved performance at low velocity ratios. This paper investigates the performance of a tilted volute design compared with that of a radial design, under steady state and pulsating flow conditions. The tilted volute design was introduced in an attempt to improve inlet flow conditions of a mixed flow turbine wheel and hence improve performance. The investigation is entirely computational and the approach used was carefully validated against gas stand test results. The results of the study show that under steady state conditions the tilted volute design resulted in stage efficiency improvements of up to 1.64%. Under pulsating flow conditions, the tilted housing design resulted in a reduction in incidence angle and a maximum cycle averaged rotor efficiency improvement of 1.49% while the stage efficiencies resulted in a 1.23% increase. To assess the loss mechanisms within the rotor, the entropy flux generation through the blade passage was calculated. The tilted housing design resulted in reductions in leading edge suction and shroud surface separation resulting in the improved efficiency as observed.

The Effect of Leading Edge Curvature on a Mixed Flow Turbine Performance Under Pulsating Flow Conditions

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Chen ◽  
Weilin Zhuge ◽  
Yangjun Zhang ◽  
Shuyong Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Incidence Angle ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Simulation Models ◽  
Pulsating Flow ◽  
Flow Conditions ◽  
Mixed Flow ◽  
Turbine Performance ◽  
Unsteady Simulation ◽  
Overall Performance ◽  
Inlet Angle

Turbines used in turbochargers matched to reciprocating engines are under natural pulsating flow conditions, and the turbine which has a good performance under steady design condition normally cannot get the same performance in the whole engine actual working circle. Under the pulsating conditions, the incidence angle will change tremendously, thus leads to undesirable flowfield in the turbine. It is shown in some published literature that varying turbine blade inlet angle can achieve better performance characteristics. In this paper, leading edge curvature is introduced to an original mixed flow turbine, while steady and unsteady simulation models of the mixed flow turbine are built to investigate the aerodynamic performance of the original and modified turbine. Flowfield analysis shows that the leading edge curvature can make the flow less sensitive to the incidence change, and average instantaneous efficiency under pulsating flow conditions is improved, while a better overall performance of the turbine is achieved.

scholarly journals Analysis of leading edge flow characteristics in a mixed flow turbine under pulsating flows

2018 ◽  
Vol 233 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel P Lee ◽  
Martyn L Jupp ◽  
Simon M Barrans ◽  
Ambrose K Nickson
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Flow ◽  
Cone Angle ◽  
Axial Flow ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Flow Structures ◽  
Outer Diameter ◽  
Low Velocity ◽  
Mixed Flow ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Inlet Conditions

Current trends in the automotive industry towards engine downsizing means turbocharging now plays a vital role in engine performance. A turbocharger increases charge air density using a turbine to extract waste energy from the exhaust gas to drive a compressor. Most turbocharger applications employ a radial inflow turbine. However, to ensure radial stacking of the blade fibers and avoid excessive blade stresses, the inlet blade angle must remain at zero degrees, creating large incidence angles. Alternately, mixed flow turbines can offer non-zero blade angles while maintaining radial stacking of the blade fibers and reducing leading edge separation at low velocity ratios. Furthermore, the physical blade cone angle introduced reduces the blade mass at the rotor outer diameter reducing rotor inertia and improving turbine transient response. The current paper investigates the performance of a mixed flow turbine under a range of pulsating inlet flow conditions. A significant variation in incidence across the LE span was observed within the pulse, where the distribution of incidence over the LE span was also found to change over the duration of the pulse. Analysis of the secondary flow structures developing within the volute shows the non-uniform flow distribution at the volute outlet is the result of the Dean effect in the housing passage. In-depth analysis of the mixed flow effect is also included, showing that poor axial flow turning ahead of the rotor was evident, particularly at the hub, resulting in modest blade angles. This work shows that the complex secondary flow structures that develop in the turbine volute are heavily influenced by the inlet pulsating flow. In turn, this significantly impacts the rotor inlet conditions and rotor losses.

Influence of Degree of Reaction on Turbine Performance for Pulsating Flow Conditions

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harald Roclawski ◽  
Marc Gugau ◽  
Florian Langecker ◽  
Martin Böhle
Keyword(s):  
Steady State ◽  
Hysteresis Loop ◽  
Pulsating Flow ◽  
Flow Conditions ◽  
Load Step ◽  
Turbine Wheel ◽  
Engine Load ◽  
Flow Capacity ◽  
Turbine Performance ◽  
Degree Of Reaction

This paper presents a study on the influence of the degree of reaction (DoR) on turbine performance under highly pulsating inflow. A reference test turbine wheel is designed and scaled to three different wheel diameters while an identical flow capacity of all three turbines is provided by adjusting the volute size. Hence, the three turbines differ by their DoR, inertia and efficiency characteristic. The investigation is done completely numerically using highly validated models. Naturally, the pulsating flow character of a 4-cylinder gasoline engine requires unsteady CFD. In addition steady-state turbine maps were calculated beforehand as a reference base. The results of the steady state calculation show that for the combination of the bigger turbine wheel with the smaller turbine volute the peak efficiency is smaller but is shifted towards higher pressure ratios respectively to lower blade speed ratios. This is fundamentally beneficial for turbines in automotive turbochargers for gasoline engines characterized by highly pulsating flow conditions, in particular at lower engine speeds. For the transient flow calculations with pulsating turbine inflow, the hysteresis loop and the turbine power generation was investigated. It is shown that the smallest volute compared to the biggest one causes a more contracted hysteresis loop combined with increased power output within one pulse cycle. In order to include the influence of moment of inertia, the turbines with varying DoR but same flow capacity were analytically compared with a 1D code simulating engine load step operation. Thus, the paper shows the effect of turbine DoR on both, steady-state turbine performance under pulsating inflow and the capability for optimum engine load step operation.

scholarly journals Periodicity and Repetivity of Unsteady Measurements of an Annular Turbine Cascade at Off Design Flow Conditions

1993 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Bölcs ◽  
H. Körbächer
Keyword(s):  
Steady State ◽  
Test Data ◽  
Separation Bubble ◽  
Incidence Angle ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Design Flow ◽  
Turbine Cascade ◽  
Flow Conditions ◽  
Suction Surface ◽  
Shock Region

A two-dimensional section of a gas turbine cascade has been investigated experimentally in an annular non-rotating cascade facility as regards to its steady-state and time-dependent aerodynamic characteristics at off-design flow conditions. The blades vibrated in the first traveling wave bending mode. Steady-state and unsteady data were obtained for an off-design incidence angle of about 22° and for an isentropic outlet Mach number of M2s=1.19. At this flow condition, a separation bubble was present on the suction surface close to the leading edge. A shock appeared at trans- and supersonic outlet flow conditions on the suction surface. The data showed high unsteady loads close to the leading edge and in the shock region. It was found that the steady and the unsteady pressures in the shock region on the blade surface seemed to be very sensitive to small changes in the flow conditions. The periodicity and repetitivity of the steady and the unsteady pressures (σ=180°) was checked at several circumferential channel positions. This was done to figure out to which extend test data obtained in an annular ring channel can serve as a basis for the comparison with numerically obtained data. The aim of this paper is to show where problems may arise when comparing calculated results with test data.

Steady State Engine Test Demonstration of Performance Improvement With an Advanced Turbocharger

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold Sun ◽  
Dave Hanna ◽  
Liangjun Hu ◽  
Eric Curtis ◽  
James Yi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Steady State ◽  
Performance Improvement ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Combustion Engine ◽  
Load Condition ◽  
Department Of Energy ◽  
Speed Ratio ◽  
Mixed Flow ◽  
Turbine Wheel ◽  
Low Speed

Heavy EGR required on diesel engines for future emission regulation compliance has posed a big challenge to conventional turbocharger technology for high efficiency and wide operation range. This study, as part of the U.S. Department of Energy sponsored research program, is focused on advanced turbocharger technologies that can improve turbocharger efficiency on customer driving cycles while extending the operation range significantly, compared to a production turbocharger. The production turbocharger for a medium-duty truck application was selected as a donor turbo. Design optimizations were focused on the compressor impeller and turbine wheel. On the compressor side, advanced impeller design with arbitrary surface can improve the efficiency and surge margin at low end while extending the flow capacity, while a so-called active casing treatment can provide additional operation range extension without compromising compressor efficiency. On the turbine side, mixed flow turbine technology was revisited with renewed interest due to its performance characteristics, i.e. high efficiency at low-speed ratio, relative to the base conventional radial flow turbine, which is relevant to heavy EGR operation for future diesel applications. The engine dynamometer test shows that the advanced turbocharger technology enables over 3% BSFC improvement at part-load as well as full-load condition, in addition to an increase in rated power. The performance improvement demonstrated on engine dynamometer seems to be more than what would typically be translated from the turbocharger flow bench data, indicating that mixed flow turbine may provide additional performance benefits under pulsed exhaust flow on an internal combustion engine and in the low-speed ratio areas that are typically not covered by steady state flow bench tests.

scholarly journals Detailed Flow Measurements at the Exit of a Mixed Flow Turbine Under Steady Flow Conditions

1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Karamanis ◽  
R. F. Martinez-Botas ◽  
C. C. Su
Keyword(s):  
Laser Doppler Velocimetry ◽  
Incidence Angle ◽  
Performance Tests ◽  
Doppler Velocimetry ◽  
Flow Conditions ◽  
Blade Angle ◽  
Mixed Flow ◽  
Flow Measurements ◽  
Flow Investigation ◽  
Improved Performance

A detailed flow investigation downstream of two mixed-flow turbocharger turbines has been carried out at 50% and 70% design speeds, equivalent to 29,400 and 41,300 rpm respectively. The measurement technique used was laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV). The measurements were performed at a plane 9.5 mm behind the rotor trailing edge, they were resolved in a blade-to-blade sense to fully examine the nature of the flow. The results confirmed the performance tests and indicated the improved performance of the rotor with a constant inlet blade angle relative to the rotor with a nominally constant incidence angle.

Optimization of a Radial Turbine for Pulsating Flows

2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zheng Liu ◽  
Colin Copeland
Keyword(s):  
Steady State ◽  
Cone Angle ◽  
Exhaust System ◽  
Maximum Energy ◽  
Pulsating Flow ◽  
Energy Output ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Maximum Deviation ◽  
Flow Conditions ◽  
Blade Shape

Abstract A turbocharger turbine is exposed to pulsating flow conditions when it is connected to an engine exhaust system due to the opening and closing of the exhaust valves. However, many radial turbines are designed and tested under steady-state conditions without taking into account these unsteady exhaust flows. In order to seek the optimal aerodynamic design of a radial flow turbine (RFT) under pulsating flow conditions, the present research utilizes a numerical simulation approach to optimize the blade shape of a small-scale mixed flow turbine (MFT) under 50 Hz pulses. This corresponds to a four-stroke, three-cylinder engine rotating at 2000 rpm. In order to understand how a less computationally intensive, steady-state optimization compares, the blade shape was also optimized using the peak power point of the pulse. Three turbine features were modified during the optimization process, including blade cone angle, blade axial location, and blade camber angles. The optimization was carried out using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD)–genetic algorithm (GA) coupled approach, targeting at maximizing both energy-weighted efficiency and energy output during a predefined pulse period. To ensure that the new design maintains a similar matching to the engine, the maximum deviation of turbine swallowing capacity is controlled to within ±5% of the baseline for all new blade designs. The design that achieves the maximum pulse cycle-averaged efficiency was produced from unsteady optimization, with a performance benefit of 0.66%. The unsteady optimization also produced a blade shape that delivers the maximum energy output, with an improvement of 5.42%.

Investigation of the mixed flow turbine performance under inlet pulsating flow conditions

2012 ◽  
Vol 340 (3) ◽  
pp. 165-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Hamel ◽  
Miloud Abidat ◽  
Sid Ali Litim
Keyword(s):  
Pulsating Flow ◽  
Flow Conditions ◽  
Mixed Flow ◽  
Turbine Performance

Comparison Between Steady and Unsteady Double-Entry Turbine Performance Using the Quasi-Steady Assumption

2010 ◽  
Vol 133 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin D. Copeland ◽  
Ricardo Martinez-Botas ◽  
Martin Seiler
Keyword(s):  
Steady State ◽  
Pulsating Flow ◽  
Flow Conditions ◽  
Experimental Performance ◽  
State Data ◽  
Turbine Performance ◽  
Partial Admission ◽  
Unsteady Operation ◽  
Unsteady Performance ◽  
Double Entry

The experimental performance evaluation of a circumferentially divided, double-entry turbocharger turbine is presented in this paper with the aim of understanding the influence of pulsating flow. By maintaining a constant speed but varying the frequency of the pulses, the influence of frequency was shown to play an important role in the performance of the turbine. A trend of decreasing cycle-averaged efficiency at lower frequencies was measured. One of the principal objectives was to assess the degree to which the unsteady performance differs from the quasi-steady assumption. In order to make the steady-unsteady comparison for a multiple entry turbine, a wide set of steady equal and unequal admission flow conditions were tested. The steady-state data was then interpolated as a function of three, nondimensional parameters in order to allow a point-by-point comparison with the instantaneous unsteady operation. As an average, the quasi-steady assumption generally underpredicted the mass flow and efficiency loss through the turbine, albeit the differences were reduced as the frequency increased. Out-of-phase pulsations produced unsteady operating orbits that corresponded to a significant steady-state, partial admission loss, and this was reflected as a drop in the quasi-steady efficiency. However, these differences between quasi-steady in-phase and out-of-phase predictions were not replicated in the measured results, suggesting that the unequal admission loss is not as significant in pulsating flow as it is in steady flow.

scholarly journals Numerical and experimental investigation of the pressure fluctuation in a mixed-flow pump under low flow conditions

2019 ◽  
Vol 234 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xi Shen ◽  
Desheng Zhang ◽  
Bin Xu ◽  
Ruijie Zhao ◽  
Yongxin Jin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Flow Field ◽  
Flow Rate ◽  
Flow Separation ◽  
Pressure Fluctuation ◽  
Static Pressure ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Low Flow ◽  
Flow Conditions ◽  
Mixed Flow ◽  
Flow Pump

In this paper, the large eddy simulation is utilized to simulate the flow field in a mixed-flow pump based on the standard Smagorinsky subgrid scale model, which is combined with the experiments to investigate pressure fluctuations under low flow conditions. The experimental results indicated that the amplitude of fluctuation at the impeller inlet is the highest, and increases with the reduction of the flow rate. The main frequencies of pressure fluctuation at the impeller inlet, impeller outlet, and vane inlet are blades passing frequency, while the main frequency at the vane outlet changes with the flow rate. The results of the simulation showed that the axial plane velocity at impeller inlet undergoes little change under 0.8 Qopt. In case of 0.4 Qopt, however, the flow field at impeller inlet becomes complicated with the axial plane velocity changing significantly. The flow separation is generated at the leading edge of the suction surface at t* = 0.0416 under 0.4 Qopt, which is caused by the increase of the incidence angle and the influence of the tip leakage flow. When the impeller rotates from t* = 0.0416 to t* = 0.1249, the flow separation intensified and the swirling strength of the separation vortex is gradually increased, leading to the reduction of the static pressure, the rise of adverse pressure gradient, and the generation of backflow. The static pressure at the leading edge of the impeller recovers gradually until the backflow is reached. In addition, the flow separation is the main reason for the intensification of the pressure fluctuation.

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