Interaction Phenomena of High Frequency Pulsed Blowing in LP Turbine-Like Boundary Layers at High Speed Test Conditions

Author(s):  
Valentin Bettrich ◽  
Martin Bitter ◽  
Reinhard Niehuis

The use of fluidic oscillators for active flow control applications is a proven and efficient concept. For the well-known highly loaded LP turbine profile T161, the total pressure losses could already reduced by 40% at low Reynolds numbers, were usually flow separation occurs. For further improvements of the active flow control concept, it is essential to understand the driving flow phenomena responsible for the loss reduction mechanism, which are discussed in this paper. The results presented are based on experimental investigations on a flat plate with pressure gradient, imposed with an aerodynamically highly loaded low pressure turbine suction side flow and equipped with active flow control. The analogy to the suction side of the T161 is shown and validated against former cascade measurements. Based on the T161 equivalent operating point of Re = 70,000 and a theoretical out flow Mach number of Ma2,th = 0.6, the focus is set on the interaction of the boundary layer flow with high frequency actuation. The chosen actuator, a high frequency coupled fluidic oscillator, is designed to independently adjust mass flow and frequency. The flat plate is equipped with an array of high frequency actuators to control the flow separation. For this study one oscillator operating point at 6.7kHz is presented and the influence on transition and loss reduction compared to the non-actuated case is discussed. This oscillator operating point was found to be most efficient and the steady and unsteady mixing behavior of the high frequency actuator impact and the low pressure turbine like suction side boundary layer flow is investigated in much detail. Depending on the measurement technique, the isentropic Mach number distribution, frequency spectra, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis are evaluated. The most important results are on the one hand, that the chosen concept is more efficient compared to former studies in means of mass flow investment, which is mainly based on the chosen oscillator outlet position and frequency. On the other hand, in a transonic flow the mixing and interaction of the high frequency pulses and the boundary layer flow require about 10% of the surface length to even establish and about to 30% to be completed. These results of the mixing behavior between actuator and boundary layer for compressible flow conditions help to attain a fundamental understanding for future designs of active flow control concepts.

2009 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 157-160
Author(s):  
Jing Chuen Lin ◽  
An Shik Yang ◽  
Li Yu Tseng

The main purpose of active flow control research is to develop a cost-effective technology that has the potential for inventive advances in aerodynamic performance and maneuvering compared to conventional approaches. It can be essential to thoroughly understand the flow characteristics of the formation and interaction of a synthetic jet with external crossflow before formulating a practicable active flow control strategy. In this study, the theoretical model used the transient three-dimensional conservation equations of mass and momentum for compressible, isothermal, turbulent flows. The motion of a movable membrane plate was also treated as the moving boundary by prescribing the displacement on the plate surface. The predictions by the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code ACE+® were compared with measured transient phase-averaged velocities of Rumsey et al. for software validation. The CFD software ACE+® was utilized for numerical calculations to probe the time evolution of the development process of the synthetic jet and its interaction within a turbulent boundary layer flow for a complete actuation cycle.


Author(s):  
Julia Kurz ◽  
Reinhard Niehuis

One application method of active flow control is the exploitation of the interaction between transition and flow separation on a profile. As turbulent flows are able to withstand higher adverse pressure gradients the enforcement of the transition process can be utilized to prevent or to reduce flow separation. This paper focuses on gaining a better understanding of high frequency active flow control (AFC) by fluidic oscillators and its influence on the transition process for a separated boundary layer. Flow control is applied on a highly loaded turbine exit case (TEC) profile which was in particular designed for this application. The profile is investigated in the high-speed cascade wind tunnel at the Bundeswehr University Munich. Significant loss reduction by AFC could be observed by total pressure loss determination in the low Reynolds number regime. In order to gain a better understanding of development of the suction side boundary layer, several boundary layer profiles are determined by hot-wire measurements at six axial positions on the suction side of the profile. Differences between the boundary layer development and the extent of the separation can be detected. Furthermore, a stability analysis of the boundary layer upstream of separation is conducted and compared to the measured frequency spectra.


Author(s):  
Y. Guendogdu ◽  
A. Vorreiter ◽  
J. R. Seume

Aerofoil active flow control has been attempted to increase the permissible loading of boundary layers in gas turbine components. Steady suction and blowing, pulsing and synthetic jets are all means to remove low energy flow, replace momentum deficits, or promote mixing to inhibit boundary layer separation. A curved surface near the trailing edge (“Coanda surface”) is another technique used to control aerofoil boundary layer separation. This paper presents the design of a stator with active flow control for a high speed compressor using a Coanda surface. The Coanda surface is located behind an injection slot on the aerofoil suction side of the first stage of a four-stage high speed research compressor. The design method and the present results are based on steady numerical calculations. The design intent is to reduce the number of vanes. This active flow control is used to maintain the flow exit angle of the reference stator despite the resulting increase in stator loading. It is shown that the solidity of the flow-controlled stator can be decreased by 25% with a blowing rate of 0.5% of the main mass flow.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Fietzke ◽  
Rudibert King ◽  
Jan Mihalyovics ◽  
Dieter Peitsch

Abstract Novel pressure gain combustion concepts invoke periodic flow disturbances in a gas turbine’s last compressor stator row. This contribution presents studies of mitigation efforts on the effects of these periodic disturbances on an annular compressor stator rig. The passages were equipped with pneumatic Active Flow Control (AFC) influencing the stator blade’s suction side, and a rotating throttling disc downstream of the passages inducing periodic disturbances. For steady blowing, it is shown that with increasing actuation amplitudes Cμ, the extension of a hub corner vortex deteriorating the suction side flow can be reduced, resulting in an increased static pressure rise coefficient Cp of a passage. The effects of the induced periodic disturbances could not be addressed intrinsically, by using steady blowing actuation, Considering a corrected total pressure loss coefficient ζ*, which includes the actuation effort, the stator row’s efficiency decreases with higher cμ due to the increasing costs of the actuation mass flow. Therefore, a closed-loop approach is presented to address the effects of the disturbances more specifically, thus lowering the actuation cost, i.e., mass flow. For this, a Repetitive Model Predictive Control (RMPC) was applied, taking advantage of the periodic nature of the induced disturbances. The presented RMPC formulation is restricted to a binary control domain to account for the used solenoid valves’ switching character. An efficient implementation of the optimization within the RMPC is presented, which ensures real-time capability. As a result, Cp increases in a similar magnitude but with a lower actuation mass flow of up to 66%, resulting in a much lower ζ* for similar values of cμ.


2018 ◽  
Vol 124 (2) ◽  
pp. 533-551 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Aswathy Nair ◽  
A. Sameen ◽  
S. Anil Lal

2011 ◽  
Vol 134 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Arne Vorreiter ◽  
Susanne Fischer ◽  
Horst Saathoff ◽  
Rolf Radespiel ◽  
Joerg R. Seume

Airfoil active flow control has been attempted in the past in order to increase the permissible loading of boundary layers in gas turbine components. The present paper presents a stator with active flow control for a high-speed compressor using a Coanda surface near the trailing edge in order to inhibit boundary layer separation. The design intent is to reduce the number of vanes while—in order to ensure a good matching with the downstream rotor—the flow turning angle is kept constant. In a first step, numerical simulations of a linear compressor cascade with circulation control are conducted. The Coanda surface is located behind an injection slot on the airfoil suction side. Small blowing rates lead to a gain in efficiency associated with a rise in static pressure. In a second step, this result is transferred to a four-stage high-speed research compressor, where the circulation control is applied in the first stator. The design method and the first results are based on steady numerical calculations. The analysis of these results shows performance benefits of the concept. For both the cascade and the research compressor, the pressure gain and efficiency are shown as a function of blowing rate and jet power ratio. The comparison is performed based on a dimensionless efficiency, which takes into account the change in power loss.


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