Investigation Into the Effects of Hub Rotation on the Hub Leakage Flow of Cantilever Stator in a Transonic Axial Compressor

Author(s):  
Botao Zhang ◽  
Bo Liu ◽  
Xin Sun ◽  
Hang Zhao

Abstract In order to explore the similarities and differences between the flow fields of cantilever stator and idealized compressor cascade with tip clearance, and to extend the cascade leakage model to compressors, the influence of stator hub rotation to represent cascade and cantilever stator on hub leakage flow was numerically studied. On this basis, the control strategy and mechanism of blade root suction were discussed. The results show that there is no obvious influence on stall margin of the compressor whether the stator hub is rotating or stationary. For rotating stator hub, the overall efficiency is decreased while the total pressure ratio is increased. At peak efficiency point and near stall point, the efficiency is reduced by about 0.43% and 0.34% individually, while the total pressure ratio is enlarged by about 0.23% and 0.27%, respectively. The gap leakage flow is promoted due to stator hub rotation, and the structure of the leakage vortex is weakened obviously. In addition, the hub leakage flow originating from the blade leading edge of rotating hub may contribute to double leakage near the trailing edge of the adjacent blade. However, the leakage flow directly out of the blade passage with stationary stator hub. The stator root loading and strength of the leakage flow increase with the rotation of the hub, and the leakage vortex is further away from the suction surface of the blade and is stretched to an ellipse closer to the endwall under the shear action. The rotating hub makes the flow loss near the stator gap increase, while the flow loss in the upper part of the blade root is decreased. Meanwhile, the total pressure ratio in the end area is increased. Blade root suction of cantilever stator can effectively control the hub leakage flow, inhibit the development of hub leakage vortex, and improve the flow capacity of the passage, thereby reducing the flow loss and modifying the flow field in the end zone.

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 2215
Author(s):  
Han Teng ◽  
Wanyang Wu ◽  
Jingjun Zhong

To improve the performance of electrically assisted turbochargers (EATs), the influences of the hub profile and the casing profile on EAT performance were numerically studied by controlling the upper and lower endwall profiles. An artificial neural network and a genetic algorithm were used to optimize the endwall profile, considering the total pressure ratio and the isentropic efficiency at the peak efficiency point. Different performances of the prototype EAT and the optimized EAT under variable clearance sizes were discussed. The endwall profile affects an EAT by making the main flow structure in the endwall area decelerate and then accelerate due to the expansion and contraction of the meridional surface, which weakens the secondary leakage flow of the prototype EAT and changes the momentum ratio of the clearance leakage flow and the separation flow in the suction surface corner area. Because the tip region flow has a more significant influence on EAT performance, the optimal casing scheme has a better effect than the hub scheme. The optimization design can increase the isentropic efficiency of the maximum efficiency point by 1.5%, the total pressure ratio by 0.67%, the mass flow rate by 1.2%, and the general margin by 6.4%.


Author(s):  
Hanru Liu ◽  
Yangang Wang ◽  
Songchuan Xian ◽  
Wenbin Hu

The present paper numerically conducted full-annulus investigation on the effects of circumferential total pressure inlet distortion on the performance and flow field of the axial transonic counter-rotating compressor. Results reveal that the inlet distortion both deteriorates the performance of the upstream and downstream rotors resulting in reduction of total pressure ratio, efficiency and stall margin of the transonic contra-rotating compressor. Regarding the development of distortion inside compressor, the downstream rotor reinforces the air-flow mixing effects and, thus, attenuates the distortion intensity significantly. Under the distorted inflow conditions, the detached shockwave at the leading edge of downstream rotor interacts with the tip leakage flow and causes the blockage of the blades passage, which is one important reason for the transonic contra-rotating compressor stall.


Author(s):  
Zhihui Li ◽  
Yanming Liu ◽  
Ramesh K. Agarwal

Manufacturing uncertainties always lead to significant variability in compressor performance. In this work, the tip clearance uncertainties inherent in a transonic axial compressor are quantified to determine their effect on performance. The validated tip clearance losses model in conjunction with the 3D reynolds averaged navier-stokes (RANS) solver are utilized to simulate these uncertainties and quantify their effect on the adiabatic efficiency, total pressure ratio and choked mass flow. The sensitivity analysis method is employed to figure out which parameters play the most significant roles in determining the overall performance of compressor. To propagate these uncertainty factors, the non-intrusive polynomial chaos expansion (PCE) algorithm is used in this paper and the probability distributions of compressor performance are successfully predicted. A robust design optimization has been carried out based on the combination of the genetic algorithm (GA) and the uncertainty quantification (UQ) method, leading to a robust compressor rotor design for which the overall performance is relatively insensitive to variability in tip clearance without reducing the sources of the manufacturing noise. The optimization results show that the mean value of the adiabatic rotor efficiency is improved by 1.4 points with the overall variation of that reduced by 64.1%, while the total pressure ratio is slightly improved when compared to the prototype.


1993 ◽  
Vol 115 (3) ◽  
pp. 444-450 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Kang ◽  
C. Hirsch

An analysis of the experimental data of a linear compressor cascade with tip clearance is presented with special attention to the development of the tip leakage vortex. A method for determining the tip vortex core size, center position, and vorticity or circulation from the measured data is proposed, based on the assumption of a circular tip vortex core. It is observed that the axial velocity profile passing through the tip vortex center is wavelike. The vorticity of the tip vortex increases rapidly near the leading edge and reaches its highest values at a short distance downstream, from which it gradually decreases. In the whole evolution, its size is growing and its center is moving away from both the suction surface and the endwall, approximately in a linear way.


Author(s):  
Chao Jiang ◽  
Jun Hu ◽  
Jiayu Wang ◽  
Jun Li ◽  
Rong Xu

Abstract In this paper, 1.5-stage high-speed compressor stator was studied using numerical computation method. Four gap cases were calculated under the condition of the hub being stationary or rotating, and the characteristic curves of the 1.5-stage compressor was obtained. Firstly, the influence of the change of the gap on the total pressure ratio and the efficiency curve was studied when the state of the hub is fixed. Then, the influence of the rotation of the hub on the total pressure ratio and the efficiency curve was discussed when the tip clearance is fixed. Finally, the total pressure loss of the stator channel would be analyzed. The above research would make people understand that the relative motion of the end wall has an important influence on the performance of the axial-flow compressor; when hub is stationary, the optimal gap is greater than 0, while when hub was rotating, the optimal gap was 0; and recognize that the variation of clearance and the motion state of the hub have an important influence on the distribution of total pressure loss along the span.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 6-14
Author(s):  
Adil Malik ◽  
Qun Zheng ◽  
Shafiq R. Qureshi ◽  
Salman A. Ahmed ◽  
D. KB Gambo

Abstract In the paper, a back swept impeller of centrifugal compressor is experimentally studied and numerically validated and modified to increase its pressure ratio and improve efficiency, as well as to analyse the effect of splitter blade location between two main blades. The back swept multi splitter blade impeller was designed with a big splitter positioned close to the main blade suction surface and a smaller splitter close to the pressure surface. Adding this multi splitter improves the overall performance of the modified impeller due to less intensive flow separation and smaller pressure loss. In particular, the total pressure ratio was observed to increase from 4.1 to 4.4, with one percent increase in efficiency.


Author(s):  
Hailiang Jin ◽  
Donghai Jin ◽  
Fang Zhu ◽  
Ke Wan ◽  
Xingmin Gui

This paper presents the design of a highly loaded transonic two-stage fan using several advanced three-dimensional blading techniques including forward sweep and “hub bending” in rotors and several bowed configurations in stators. The effects of these blading techniques on the performance of the highly loaded transonic two-stage fan were investigated on the basis of three-dimensional Navier-Stokes predictions. The results indicate that forward sweep has insignificant impact on the total pressure ratio and adiabatic efficiency of the fan. The throttling range of the fan is found to be improved by forward sweep because the shock in the forward swept rotor is expelled later upstream to the leading edge than that in the unswept one. Hub bending design technique increases the efficiency in the hub region of R1 due to the reduction of the low momentum zone in the hub region near the trailing edge. The stator vane design has a pronounced impact on the performance of the fan. The total pressure ratio, adiabatic efficiency, and stall margin of the schemes with the bowed vanes are increased significantly compared to the scheme with the straight vanes. The large corner stall in the straight S1 vane is reduced effectively by the bowed S1 vanes. Moreover, the strong corner stall in the straight S2 vane is fully eliminated by the bowed S2 vanes. Among the bowed vane schemes, the scheme with positive bowed (P. B.) hub and negative bowed (N. B.) tip vanes has the best efficiency and stall margin performances thanks to the superiority of the performance over the midspan regions of the bowed vanes.


Author(s):  
Semiu A. Gbadebo ◽  
Nicholas A. Cumpsty ◽  
Tom P. Hynes

This paper considers the interaction of tip clearance flow with three-dimensional (3D) separations in the corner region of a compressor cascade. Three-dimensional numerical computations were carried out using ten levels of tip clearance, ranging from zero to 2.18% of blade chord. The 3D separations on the blade suction surface were largely removed by the clearance flow for clearance about 0.58% of chord. For this cascade, experimental results at zero and 1.7% chord tip clearance were used to assess the validity of the numerical predictions. The removal mechanism was associated with the suppression of the leading edge horseshoe vortex and the interaction of tip clearance flow with the endwall boundary layer, which develops into a secondary flow as it is drifted towards the blade suction surface. Such interaction leads to the formation of a new 3D separation line on the endwall. The separation line forms the base of a separated stream surface which rolls up into the clearance vortex.


Author(s):  
Shan Ma ◽  
Wuli Chu ◽  
Haoguang Zhang ◽  
Xiangjun Li ◽  
Haiyang Kuang

In the current study, the effects of micro-vortex generators on the flow characteristics of a high-load compressor cascade are investigated, and four types of micro-vortex generators including “rectangular,” “curved rectangular,” “trapezoidal,” and “curved trapezoidal” are considered and named VGR, VGCR, VGT, and VGCT separately. The calculated results show that a rising reverse flow region, which is considered a main reason for occurring stall at +8° incidence, collapses rapidly from the leading edge in the cascade. Therefore, the micro-vortex generators are all mounted on the end-wall in front of the passage to suppress the development of the secondary flow, and the stall occurrence is delayed from +8° to +11° incidence by applying VGCT. At the design condition, the VGT can make the total pressure loss decrease by 0.54%. The modified micro-vortex generators show an obvious superiority when the range of incidence is between +3° and +8°. At the stall condition, the VGCT can make the total pressure loss decrease by 9.36%. Moreover, the reduction of the secondary flow loss is considered a main goal of the adoption of micro-vortex generators which is an achievement for decreasing the total pressure loss, and the highest reduction of the secondary flow loss reaches 34.6% at the stall condition in the cascade with VGCT.


Author(s):  
Shun Kang ◽  
Ch. Hirsch

An analysis of the experimental data of a linear compressor cascade with tip clearance is presented with special attention to the development of the tip leakage vortex. A method for determining the tip vortex core size, centre position and vorticity or circulation from the measured data is proposed, based on the assumption of a circular tip vortex core. It is observed that the axial velocity profile passing through the tip vortex centre is wake-like. The vorticity of the tip vortex increases rapidly near the leading edge and reaches its highest values at a short distance downstream, from which it gradually decreases. In the whole evolution, its size is growing and its centre is moving away from both the suction surface and the endwall, approximately in a linear way.


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