Aeroelastic Stability of Axial Compressor Blades Under Different Operating Conditions

Author(s):  
Mingchang Fang ◽  
Yanrong Wang

Abstract Flutter is one of the important issues in turbomachinery analysis. There are four common types of flutter, including sub/transonic stall flutter, choke flutter, supersonic stall flutter, and supersonic non-stall flutter. Flutter may occur under many different operating conditions. Therefore, it is important to study the aeroelastic stability of blades when the compressor operates under different conditions. Based on the energy method proposed by Carta [1], this paper studied the aeroelastic stability of the second-stage rotor blade of an axial compressor under different operating conditions. It is found that the aerodynamic damping of the blade under the near-stall operating point of the compressor is negative. Three typical operating points are selected to study the differences in flutter mechanism between different operating conditions. The 90% span section is selected as the reference section to analyze the variation of the aerodynamic work at different operating points. The influence of reduced frequency, modal component, and tip clearance on aerodynamic damping are analyzed under three operating points.

Author(s):  
Zhizhong Fu ◽  
Yanrong Wang ◽  
Xianghua Jiang ◽  
Dasheng Wei

The tip clearance effects on aero-elastic stability of axial compressor blades are investigated with two independent three-dimensional (3D) flutter prediction approaches: energy method and aero-elastic eigenvalue analysis. An axial compressor rotor which has encountered broken fault caused by flutter during the test rig and flight has been analyzed for five tip gap configurations. A consistent conclusion obtained by these two independent approaches shows the variation trend of aerodynamic damping is not monotonic, but aerodynamic damping at the least stable case shows a trend of first decrease and then increase with the rising of tip gap size, which is different from the results of other researchers and can be utilized to understand the conflict between the conclusions of different research work. Apart from the results of tip clearance effects on aero-elastic stability, the employed two methods have revealed the key factors involved in the flutter occurrence from a different perspective.


Author(s):  
Matthias Schuff ◽  
Jannik Reisberg

A flexible UHBR fan is investigated at different flight conditions with a focus on static deflections and aeroelastic stability. Operating points at varying inlet conditions, which are comparable according to the Mach similarity principle, are investigated. However, not all the aerodynamic characteristics remain identical and aerodynamic damping of mode shape vibrations is changed. When steady deformations of the fan blades are taken into account, the deviation between different inlet conditions increases further. This is mainly due to torsional deflections, changing the effective angle of attack and causing a general shift of the compressor map. Even though the subsequent changes in flutter predictions are not severe for most parts of the compressor map, the behavior at the boundaries is sensitive to the real flight condition. As shown, the Mach similarity principle is not suitable for investigating aeroelastic stability throughout the whole flight envelope, especially when the static blade deformation is not neglectable. The reason for this can be found in the complex interaction between dimension-less numbers (Mach, Reynolds), sized values (pressure difference or aerodynamic loading, natural frequency) and their dependency on each other.


Author(s):  
Zhibo Zhang ◽  
Xianjun Yu ◽  
Baojie Liu

The detailed evolutionary processes of the tip leakage flow/vortex inside the rotor passage are still not very clear for the difficulties of investigating of them by both experimental and numerical methods. In this paper, the flow fields near the rotor tip region inside the blade passage with two tip gaps, 0.5% and 1.5% blade height respectively, were measured by using stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (SPIV) in a large-scale low speed axial compressor test facility. The measurements are conducted at four different operating conditions, including the design, middle, maximum static pressure rise and near stall conditions. In order to analyze the variations of the characteristics of the tip leakage vortex (TLV), the trajectory, concentration, size, streamwise velocity, and the blockage parameters are extracted from the ensemble-averaged results and compared at different compressor operating conditions and tip gaps. The results show that the formation of the TLV is delayed with large tip clearance, however, its trajectory moves much faster in an approximately linear way from the blade suction side to pressure side. In the tested compressor, the size of the tip gap has little effects on the scale of the TLV in the spanwise direction, on the contrary, its effects on the pitch-wise direction is very prominent. Breakdown of the TLV were both found at the near-stall condition with different tip gaps. The location of the initiation of the TLV breakdown moves downstream from the 60% chord to 70% chord as the tip gap increases. After the TLV breakdown occurs, the flow blockage near the rotor tip region increases abruptly. The peak value of the blockage effects caused by the TLV breakdown is doubled with the tip gap size increasing from 0.5% to 1.5% blade span.


Author(s):  
Katharina Winter ◽  
Joerg Hartmann ◽  
Peter Jeschke ◽  
Manfred Lahmer

This paper gives an account of an experimental and numerical assessment of the aerodynamic influence of surface imperfections, in the form of sinusoidal waviness, as typically caused by manufacturing malfunctions, on a highly subsonic compressor blade. This knowledge marks a step forward towards an aerodynamically and commercially adequate zero-scrap-rate industrial manufacturing process of expensive integral parts like integrally bladed rotors. The investigation itself used the following approach. First, five potential setups were identified by intensive numerical pre-examination, differing in respect of the two parameters, wave length and wave height. The setups were investigated in the linear cascade wind tunnel of the IST for three operating conditions, with a peak profile Mach number around one, all at constant Reynolds number. It was possible to confirm three main effects responsible for higher losses due to surface waviness. These were: an acceleration on the raising edge of the wave; small shock systems on the first two wave crests; and a shock-induced separation in the wave hollow which leads to a strong shear layer.


Author(s):  
A Ghenaiet ◽  
S C Tan ◽  
R L Elder

Erosion of compressor blades due to operation in particulate environments is a serious problem for the manufacturers and users of industrial and aeronautical gas turbines, because of drastic degradations in performance, mostly through blunting of blade leading edges, reduction of chord and increase of tip clearance and surface roughness. This paper presents a numerical study to assess the effects of erosion by sand ingestion on blade geometry deterioration and the subsequent performance degradation. These computations were carried out for an axial turbomachine in steps; first, calculations of particle trajectories and erosion resulting from cumulative impacts by sand particles (MIL-E 5007E, 0–1000 μm) were carried out, then, the required data were used in the estimation of performance degradation based on a mean-line method that included Lieblein and Koch-Smith loss correlations, in addition to an erosion fault model derived from blade geometry deterioration. This global procedure was successfully validated upon an axial fan stage, and can be generalized easily to other axial compressor designs.


1948 ◽  
Vol 159 (1) ◽  
pp. 255-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. D. S. Carter

It has long been known that the energy losses occurring in an axial compressor or turbine cannot be fully accounted for by the skin-friction losses on the blades and annulus walls. The difference, usually termed secondary loss, is attributed to miscellaneous secondary flows which take place in the blade row. These flows both cause losses in themselves and modify the operating conditions of the individual blade sections, to the detriment of the overall performance. This lecture analyses the three-dimensional flow in axial compressors and turbines, so that, by appreciation of the factors involved, possible methods of improving the performance can readily be investigated. The origin of secondary flow is first examined for the simple case of a straight cascade. The physical nature of the flow, and theories which enable quantitative estimates to be made, are discussed at some length. Following this, the three-dimensional flow in an annulus with a stationary blade row is examined, and, among other things, the influence of radial equilibrium on the flow pattern is noted. All physical restrictions are then removed, and the major factors governing the three-dimensional flow in an actual machine are investigated as far as is possible with existing information, particular attention being paid to the influence of a non-uniform velocity profile, tip clearance, shrouding, and boundary layer displacement. Finally the various empirical factors used in design are discussed, and the relationships between them established.


2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xu Dong ◽  
Yingjie Zhang ◽  
Ziqing Zhang ◽  
Xingen Lu ◽  
Yanfeng Zhang

Abstract This research presents a series of simulations that investigate the effects of tip clearance on the aeroelastic stability of a wide-chord high-speed transonic fan rotor. The results show that the stall margin and the total pressure ratio decreases as the tip clearance increases. The effect of tip clearance on the blade loading can extend to 30% span. The phase of the influence coefficient without tip clearance is different from that with clearance, which causes the most unstable aerodynamic damping to shift in the nodal diameter. As the clearance increases from 0.25 mm to 2 mm, the damping decreases. The nonmonotonic behavior found by other researchers was not observed in this study. We conclude that the tip clearance affects the aeroelastic stability in two ways. The first is to change the blade loading so that the amplitude of the unsteady pressure increases or decreases, while the phase hardly changes, resulting in changes in aerodynamic damping. The second is to change the local flow so that the unsteady pressure amplitude and the phase change locally.


Author(s):  
Lorenzo Cozzi ◽  
Filippo Rubechini ◽  
Michele Marconcini ◽  
Andrea Arnone ◽  
Pio Astrua ◽  
...  

Multistage axial compressors have always been a great challenge for designers since the flow within these kind of machines, subjected to severe diffusion, is usually characterized by complex and widely developed 3D structures, especially next to the endwalls. The development of reliable numerical tools capable of providing an accurate prediction of the overall machine performance is one of the main research focus areas in the multistage axial compressor field. This paper is intended to present the strategy used to run numerical simulations on compressors achieved by the collaboration between the University of Florence and Ansaldo Energia. All peculiar aspects of the numerical setup are introduced, such as rotor/stator tip clearance modelling, simplified shroud leakage model, gas and turbulence models. Special attention is payed to the mixing planes adopted for steady-state computations because this is a crucial aspect of modern heavy-duty transonic multistage axial compressors. In fact, these machines are characterized by small inter-row axial gaps and transonic flow in front stages, which both may affect non-reflectiveness and fluxes conservation across mixing planes. Moreover, the high stage count may lead to conservation issues of the main flow properties form inlet to outlet boundaries. Finally, the likely occurrence of partspan flow reversal in the endwall regions affects the robustness of non-reflecting mixing plane models. The numerical setup has been validated on an existing machine produced and experimentally tested by Ansaldo Energia. In order to evaluate the impact on performance prediction of the mixing planes introduced in the steady-state computation, un-steady simulations of the whole compressor have been performed at different operating conditions. These calculations have been carried out both at the compressor design point and close to the surge-line to evaluate the effect of rotor/stator interaction along the compressor working line.


Author(s):  
Klaus Brun ◽  
William C. Foiles ◽  
Terrence A. Grimley ◽  
Rainer Kurz

An investigation of the effectiveness of online combustion turbine axial compressor washing using various purity grade waters and commercial washing detergents was performed. For this project, blade surface fouling dirt was obtained from gas turbine axial compressor blades installed at various field sites. The dirt was analyzed to determine the composition and consistency of typical blade surface fouling materials. A representative dirt formula and blade coating procedure was developed so that comparative tests could be performed using various cleaning fluids. Dirt coated blades were installed in a wind tunnel capable of simulating compressor operating conditions. A spray nozzle upstream of the blade test section was used for washing blades with five different test liquids to determine the effectiveness or advantages of any liquid. Once this testing was completed, a similar test setup was then utilized to inject a mixture of formulated fouling dirt and the various online cleaning liquids upstream of the blade into the wind tunnel to assess redeposit characteristics. The effect of high-purity water versus regular water on fouling dirt was also studied in separate residue experiments. Results indicate that spraying cleaning fluid into a flowing air stream is a viable means of cleaning a compressor blade. Each of the fluids was able to clean the test blade at both low and high air velocities and at different blade incident angles. Within the parameters/fluids tested, the results indicate that: 1. The blade cleaning is primarily a mechanical function and does not depend on the type of fluid used for cleaning. The results showed that most of the cleaning occurs shortly after the cleaning fluid is introduced into the flow stream. 2. Dirt removed from the blades may redeposit in other areas as the cleaning fluid is evaporated. Redeposit occurred in flow recirculation zones during the cleaning tests, and heated flow tests demonstrated dirt deposit in the presence of a cleaning fluid. In addition, the type of fluid used for cleaning has no effect on the redeposit characteristics of the dirt. 3. Blade erosion was not found to be a significant issue for the short durations that online water-washing was performed. However, uncontrolled water-washing (or overspray) for extended periods of time did result in measureable leading and trailing edge blade erosions.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document