Numerical Simulation of the Effect of the Tip Clearance Flow on Rotor-Stator Interaction Tone Noise in Axial-Flow Fan

Author(s):  
Wang Liangfeng ◽  
Xiang Kangshen ◽  
Mao Luqin ◽  
Tong Hang ◽  
Qiao Weiyang

Abstract The present study is focused on the sound generation due to the rotor tip clearance flow interaction with stator in an axial flow fan. A hybrid URANS/Goldstein’s equations method is applied to calculate the unsteady flow and tone noise in a high loaded axial-flow fan with different rotor tip clearance. The numerical simulation results show that the main sound sources of fan tip clearance tone noise are concentrated in the leading edge of downstream stator blades. It is found that when the rotor tip clearance increases from zero to 2.5 mm (0.94% relative blade height), the mass flow of the fan decreases by about 2% and the efficiency of the fan decreases by about 1 percentage, and the sound power level at 1BPF forward tone increases by 1.47dB, and that of backward tone increases by 0.65dB. However, the influence of tip clearance on the tone noise intensity at 2BPF and 3BPF is more complex, and the variation range is less than 1dB. It is found that the wake width and wake strength at the rotor exit increase with the increase of tip clearance. The tip secondary flow caused by rotor clearance seriously affects the circumferential inhomogeneity of stator leading edge inflow conditions.

Author(s):  
Matthew A. Bennington ◽  
Mark H. Ross ◽  
Joshua D. Cameron ◽  
Scott C. Morris ◽  
Juan Du ◽  
...  

A numerical and experimental study was conducted to investigate the tip clearance flow and its relationship to stall in a transonic axial compressor. The CFD results were used to identify the existence of an interface between incoming axial flow and the reverse tip clearance flow. A surface streaking method was used to experimentally identify this interface as a line of zero axial shear stress at the casing. The position of this line, denoted xzs, moved upstream with decreasing flow coefficient in both the experiments and computations. The line was found to be at the rotor leading edge plane when the compressor stalled. Further measurements using rotor offset and inlet distortion further corroborated these results, and demonstrated that the movement of the interface upstream of the leading edge leads to the generation of rotating (“spike”) disturbances. Stall was therefore interpreted to occur as a result of a critical momentum balance between the approach fluid and the tip-leakage flow.


2003 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Changming Yang ◽  
Cichang Chen ◽  
Jinnuo Wang ◽  
Quankai Ji

Author(s):  
Horst Saathoff ◽  
Udo Stark

The paper describes an investigation of the overtip end-wall flow in a single–stage axial–flow low–speed compressor utilizing an oil flow technique and a periodic multisampling pressure measurement technique. Representative oil flow pictures and ensemble averaged casingwall pressure distributions with standard deviations — supplemented by selected endwall oil flow pictures from a corresponding 2D compressor cascade — are shown and carefully analysed. The results enable the key features of the overtip endwall flow to be identified and changes with flow rate — or inlet angle — to be determined.


Author(s):  
Chunill Hah

Effects of axial casing grooves (ACGs) on the stall margin and efficiency of a one and a half stage low-speed axial compressor with a large rotor tip gap are investigated in detail. The primary focus of the current paper is to identify the flow mechanisms behind the changes in stall margin and on the efficiency of the compressor stage with a large rotor tip gap. Semicircular axial grooves installed in the rotor’s leading edge area are investigated. A large eddy simulation (LES) is applied to calculate the unsteady flow field in a compressor stage with ACGs. The calculated flow fields are first validated with previously reported flow visualizations and stereo PIV (SPIV) measurements. An in-depth examination of the calculated flow field indicates that the primary mechanism of the ACG is the prevention of full tip leakage vortex (TLV) formation when the rotor blade passes under the axial grooves periodically. The TLV is formed when the incoming main flow boundary layer collides with the tip clearance flow boundary layer coming from the opposite direction near the casing and rolls up around the rotor tip vortex. When the rotor passes directly under the axial groove, the tip clearance flow boundary layer on the casing moves into the ACGs and no roll-up of the incoming main flow boundary layer can occur. Consequently, the full TLV is not formed periodically as the rotor passes under the open casing of the axial grooves. Axial grooves prevent the formation of the full TLV. This periodic prevention of the full TLV generation is the main mechanism explaining how the ACGs extend the compressor stall margin by reducing the total blockage near the rotor tip area. Flows coming out from the front of the grooves affect the overall performance as it increases the flow incidence near the leading edge and the blade loading with the current ACGs. The primary flow mechanism of the ACGs is periodic prevention of the full TLV formation. Lower efficiency and reduced pressure rise at higher flow rates for the current casing groove configuration are due to additional mixing between the main passage flow and the flow from the grooves. At higher flow rates, blockage generation due to this additional mixing is larger than any removal of the flow blockage by the grooves. Furthermore, stronger double-leakage tip clearance flow is generated with this additional mixing with the ACGs at a higher flow rate than that of the smooth wall.


1993 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. K. Nikolos ◽  
D. I. Douvikas ◽  
K. D. Papailiou

An algorithm was set up for the implementation of the tip clearance models, described in Part I, in a secondary flow calculation method. A complete theoretical procedure was, thus, developed, which calculates the circumferentially averaged flow quantities and their radial variation due to the tip clearance effects. The calculation takes place in successive planes, where a Poisson equation is solved in order to provide the kinematic field. The self induced velocity is used for the positioning of the leakage vortex and a diffusion model is adopted for the vorticity distribution. The calculated pressure deficit due to the vortex presence is used, through an iterative procedure, in order to modify the pressure difference in the tip region. The method of implementation and the corresponding algorithm are described in this part of the paper and calculation results are compared to experimental ones for cascades and single rotors. The agreement between theory and experiment is good.


Author(s):  
Chunill Hah ◽  
Michael Hathaway ◽  
Joseph Katz

The primary focus of this paper is to investigate the effect of rotor tip gap size on how the rotor unsteady tip clearance flow structure changes in a low speed one and half stage axial compressor at near stall operation (for example, where maximum pressure rise is obtained). A Large Eddy Simulation (LES) is applied to calculate the unsteady flow field at this flow condition with both a small and a large tip gaps. The numerically obtained flow fields at the small clearance matches fairly well with the available initial measurements obtained at the Johns Hopkins University with 3-D unsteady PIV in an index-matched test facility which renders the compressor blades and casing optically transparent. With this setup, the unsteady velocity field in the entire flow domain, including the flow inside the tip gap, can be measured. The numerical results are also compared with previously published measurements in a low speed single stage compressor (Maerz et al. [2002]). The current study shows that, with the smaller rotor tip gap, the tip clearance vortex moves to the leading edge plane at near stall operating condition, creating a nearly circumferentially aligned vortex that persists around the entire rotor. On the other hand, with a large tip gap, the clearance vortex stays inside the blade passage at near stall operation. With the large tip gap, flow instability and related large pressure fluctuation at the leading edge are observed in this one and a half stage compressor. Detailed examination of the unsteady flow structure in this compressor stage reveals that the flow instability is due to shed vortices near the leading edge, and not due to a three-dimensional separation vortex originating from the suction side of the blade, which is commonly referred to during a spike-type stall inception. The entire tip clearance flow is highly unsteady. Many vortex structures in the tip clearance flow, including the sheet vortex system near the casing, interact with each other. The core tip clearance vortex, which is formed with the rotor tip gap flows near the leading edge, is also highly unsteady or intermittent due to pressure oscillations near the leading edge and varies from passage to passage. For the current compressor stage, the evidence does not seem to support that a classical vortex breakup occurs in any organized way, even with the large tip gap. Although wakes from the IGV influence the tip clearance flow in the rotor, the major characteristics of rotor tip clearance flows in isolated or single stage rotors are observed in this one and a half stage axial compressor.


2008 ◽  
Vol 131 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xingen Lu ◽  
Wuli Chu ◽  
Junqiang Zhu ◽  
Yangfeng Zhang

In order to advance the understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of axial skewed slot casing treatment and their effects on the subsonic axial-flow compressor flow field, the coupled unsteady flow through a subsonic compressor rotor and the axial skewed slot was simulated with a state-of-the-art multiblock flow solver. The computational results were first compared with available measured data, that showed the numerical procedure calculates the overall effect of the axial skewed slot correctly. Then, the numerically obtained flow fields were interrogated to identify the physical mechanism responsible for improvement in stall margin of a modern subsonic axial-flow compressor rotor due to the discrete skewed slots. It was found that the axial skewed slot casing treatment can increase the stall margin of subsonic compressor by repositioning of the tip clearance flow trajectory further toward the trailing of the blade passage and retarding the movement of the incoming∕tip clearance flow interface toward the rotor leading edge plane.


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