Effect of Casing Geometry on Flow Characteristics in a Model Can-Combustor

Author(s):  
Abdur Rahim ◽  
Dhirgham Alkhafagiy ◽  
Prabal Talukdar

In a gas turbine combustor, it is necessary to use a diffuser to decelerate the high velocity air stream delivered by the compressor and thus avoid high total pressure loss. The interaction between the diffuser and combustor external flows plays a key role in controlling the pressure loss, air flow distribution around the combustor liner. Flow through casing-liner annulus is crucial as it feeds air to the primary, secondary and dilution holes. It is important that the annulus flow has sufficient static pressure to achieve adequate penetration of the jets. Moreover, the correct proportion of air enters the combustor liner through the dome and the various ports to maintain stable operation and good quality outlet condition. Length of combustor can be reduced if a provision is made for sufficient diffusion in the dump region. In the present numerical study, three can-combustor models of different geometry with a constant dump-gap have been analyzed with emphasis on the flow through annulus. A comparison has been made amongst the three models in terms of flow uniformity, static pressure recovery and total pressure loss. It is observed that flow uniformity in the annulus region is improved if a small divergence in length and a curved shape step height casing is made.

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weili Yang ◽  
Peter Grant ◽  
James Hitt

Abstract Our principle goal of this study is to develop a CFD based analysis procedure that could be used to analyze the geometric tradeoffs in scroll geometry when space is limited. In the study, a full centrifugal compressor stage at four different operating points from near surge to near choke is analyzed using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and laboratory measurement. The study concentrates on scroll performance and its interaction with a vaneless diffuser and impeller. The numerical results show good agreement with test data in scroll circumferential pressure distribution at different ΛAR, total pressure loss coefficient, and pressure distortion at the tongue. The CFD analysis also predicts a reasonable choke point of the stage. The numerical results provide overall flow field in the scroll and diffuser at different operating points. From examining the flow fields, one can have a much better understanding of rather complicated flow behavior such as jet-wake mixing, and choke. One can examine total pressure loss in detail to provide crucial direction for scroll design improvement in areas such as volute tongue, volute cross-section geometry and exit conical diffuser.


Author(s):  
P. Schuler ◽  
W. Kurz ◽  
K. Dullenkopf ◽  
H.-J. Bauer

In order to prevent hot-gas ingestion into the rotating turbo machine’s inside, rim seals are used in the cavities located between stator- and rotor-disc. The sealing flow ejected through the rim seal interacts with the boundary layer of the main gas flow, thus playing a significant role in the formation of secondary flows which are a major contributor to aerodynamic losses in turbine passages. Investigations performed in the EU project MAGPI concentrate on the interaction between the sealing flow and the main gas flow and in particular on the influence of different rim seal geometries regarding the loss-mechanism in a low-pressure turbine passage. Within the CFD work reported in this paper static simulations of one typical low-pressure turbine passage were conducted containing two different rim seal geometries, respectively. The sealing flow through the rim seal had an azimuthal velocity component and its rate has been varied between 0–1% of the main gas flow. The modular design of the computational domain provided the easy exchange of the rim seal geometry without remeshing the main gas flow. This allowed assessing the appearing effects only to the change of rim seal geometry. The results of this work agree with well-known secondary flow phenomena inside a turbine passage and reveal the impact of the different rim seal geometries on hot-gas ingestion and aerodynamic losses quantified by a total pressure loss coefficient along the turbine blade. While the simple axial gap geometry suffers considerable hot-gas ingestion upstream the blade leading edge, the compound geometry implying an axial overlapping presents a more promising prevention against hot-gas ingestion. Furthermore, the effect of rim seals on the turbine passage flow field has been identified applying adequate flow visualisation techniques. As a result of the favourable conduction of sealing flow through the compound geometry, the boundary layer is less lifted by the ejected sealing flow, thus resulting in a comparatively reduced total pressure loss coefficient over the turbine blade.


2004 ◽  
Vol 126 (4) ◽  
pp. 650-657 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. K. Sullerey ◽  
A. M. Pradeep

In this paper, results are presented of an experimental investigation into the effectiveness of vortex generator jets in controlling secondary flows in two-dimensional S-duct diffusers. The experiments were performed in uniform and distorted inflow conditions and the performance evaluation of the diffuser was carried out in terms of static pressure recovery and quality of the exit flow. In the case with inflow distortion, tapered fin vortex generators were employed in addition to vortex generator jets to control flow separation that was detected on the wall with inflow distortion. Detailed measurements including total pressure, velocity distribution, surface static pressure, skin friction, and boundary layer measurements were taken at a Reynolds number of 7.8×105. These results are presented in terms of static pressure rise, distortion coefficient, and total pressure loss coefficient at the duct exit. For uniform inflow, the use of vortex generator jets resulted in more than a 30 percent decrease in total pressure loss and flow distortion coefficients. In combination with passive device (tapered fin vortex generators), the vortex generator jets reduce total pressure losses by about 25 percent for distorted inflow conditions. A potential application of this method may include control of secondary flows in turbo machinery.


Author(s):  
Prasanta K. Sinha ◽  
Biswajit Haldar ◽  
Amar N. Mullick ◽  
Bireswar Majumdar

Curved diffusers are an integral component of the gas turbine engines of high-speed aircraft. These facilitate effective operation of the combustor by reducing the total pressure loss. The performance characteristics of these diffusers depend on their geometry and the inlet conditions. In the present investigation the distribution of axial velocity, transverse velocity, mean velocity, static and total pressures are experimentally studied on a curved diffuser of 30° angle of turn with an area ratio of 1.27. The centreline length was chosen as three times of inlet diameter. The experimental results then were numerically validated with the help of Fluent, the commercial CFD software. The measurements of axial velocity, transverse velocity, mean velocity, static pressure and total pressure distribution were taken at Reynolds number 1.9 × 105 based on inlet diameter and mass average inlet velocity. The mean velocity and all the three components of mean velocity were measured with the help of a pre-calibrated five-hole pressure probe. The velocity distribution shows that the flow is symmetrical and uniform at the inlet and exit sections and high velocity cores are accumulated at the top concave surface due to the combined effect of velocity diffusion and centrifugal action. It also indicates the possible development of secondary motions between the concave and convex walls of the test diffuser. The mass average static pressure recovery and total pressure loss within the curved diffuser increases continuously from inlet to exit and they attained maximum values of 35% and 14% respectively. A comparison between the experimental and predicated results shows a good qualitative agreement between the two. Standard k-ε model in Fluent solver was chosen for validation. It has been observed that coefficient of pressure recovery Cpr for the computational investigation was obtained as 38% compared to the experimental investigation which was 35% and the coefficient of pressure loss is obtained as 13% in computation investigation compared to the 14% in experimental study, which indicates a very good qualitative matching.


2013 ◽  
Vol 117 (1188) ◽  
pp. 193-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. L. N. Desikan ◽  
J. Kurian

AbstractThis paper presents the experimental results of the role of struts in supersonic mixing. Experiments were carried out with novel strut configurations to show their capabilities on mixing with reasonable total pressure losses. The performances were compared with the Baseline Strut configurations (BSPI and BSNI). The analysis presented includes the mixing quantifications using Mie scattering signature, flow field visualisation, measurement of wall static pressure and the total pressure loss calculations. The results clearly demonstrated that the proposed strut configurations achieved increased mixing (7-8%) compared to BSPI with increase in total pressure loss (2%). On the other hand, when compared with BSNI, the mixing performance was found to be decreased by 6% with reduced total pressure loss (12%).


2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. M. Pradeep ◽  
R. K. Sullerey

Performance enhancement of three-dimensional S-duct diffusers by separation control using vortex generator jets is the objective of the current experimental investigation. Two different diffuser geometries namely, a circular diffuser and a rectangular–to–circular transitioning diffuser were studied in uniform inflow conditions at a Reynolds number of 7.8 × 105 and the performance evaluation of the diffusers was carried out in terms of static pressure improvement and quality (flow uniformity) of the exit flow. Detailed measurements that included total pressure, velocity distribution, surface static pressure, skin friction and boundary layer measurements were taken and these results are presented here in terms of static pressure rise, distortion coefficient and total pressure loss coefficient at the duct exit. The mass flow rate of the air injected through the VGJ was about 0.06 percent of the main flow for separation control. The distortion coefficient reduced by over 25 percent and the total pressure loss coefficient reduced by about 30 percent in both the diffusers. The physical mechanism of the flow control devices used has been explored using smoke visualization images.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akshoy Ranjan Paul ◽  
Shrey Joshi ◽  
Aman Jindal ◽  
Shivam P. Maurya ◽  
Anuj Jain

The flow control in twin air-intakes is necessary to improve the performance characteristics, since the flow traveling through curved and diffused paths becomes complex, especially after merging. The paper presents a comparison between two well-known techniques of flow control: active and passive. It presents an effective design of a vortex generator jet (VGJ) and a vane-type passive vortex generator (VG) and uses them in twin air-intake duct in different combinations to establish their effectiveness in improving the performance characteristics. The VGJ is designed to insert flow from side wall at pitch angle of 90 degrees and 45 degrees. Corotating (parallel) and counterrotating (V-shape) are the configuration of vane type VG. It is observed that VGJ has the potential to change the flow pattern drastically as compared to vane-type VG. While the VGJ is directed perpendicular to the side walls of the air-intake at a pitch angle of 90 degree, static pressure recovery is increased by 7.8% and total pressure loss is reduced by 40.7%, which is the best among all other cases tested for VGJ. For bigger-sized VG attached to the side walls of the air-intake, static pressure recovery is increased by 5.3%, but total pressure loss is reduced by only 4.5% as compared to all other cases of VG.


Author(s):  
Qiuye Tu ◽  
Rutan Deng ◽  
Dongdong Zhang ◽  
Xingjian Sun

In the previous studies, the proposed method for gooseneck geometric modeling employed two polynomials to construct the inner-wall and area distribution curves. The inflection point location served as the variable to control the inner-wall polynomial curve, and the peak point location and peak value to control the area distribution polynomial curve. In the effort to be quickly located, the control variables were provided with more geometric meaning. 3D numerical simulations indicated that there existed a total pressure recovery island for given solution area of the three control variables. Consequently, the relationships between the geometric parameters and the total pressure loss were set up. This paper focused on the 2D simplifications to quickly address the control variables for the total pressure island. The studies were conducted in three aspects. First, the simplified model took the constructional blocking effects of struts into account. The baseline of the 2D simplified modeling was set at 30% spanwise near the hub through comparisons of different settings. Therefore, 70% blocking area compensated to outer-wall and 30% to inner-wall along the normal direction of the baseline. The 2D simulation results indicated that the static pressure distribution was consistent with the 3D results, but waves exited at the end walls of both leading and trailing edges due to the geometric changes. Second, the simplification considered the blocking effects of the wake. The wake was converted to boundary layer thickness, and moreover, compensation to the end wall was similar with the constructional blocking of struts. The simulation results revealed that wake blocking had very small impacts to the simplification, although the peak values of static pressure slightly increased at the end wall. Third, smoothing treatments were done for both inner-wall and outer-wall after the above compensating transformations. The results showed that smoothing treatments were very necessary and improved the waves located at end wall on the static pressure distribution which was nearly the same with 3D results. After all the simplifying treatments above, the final 2D results had almost the same total pressure loss distributions with the 3D results, and could save at least 40% calculation time as a quick assessment used to search the reasonable geometric solution areas of inflection point location and peak point location for minimum total pressure loss of the gooseneck.


Author(s):  
Toyotaka Sonoda ◽  
Toshiyuki Arima ◽  
Mineyasu Oana

Experimental and numerical investigations were carried out to gain a better understanding of the flow characteristics within an annular S-shaped duct, including the effect of the inlet boundary layer (IBL) on the flow. A duct with six struts and the same geometry as that used to connect compressor spools on our experimental small two-spool turbofan engine was investigated. A curved downstream annular passage with a similar meridional flow path geometry to that of the centrifugal compressor has been fitted at the exit of S-shaped duct. Two types of the IBL (i.e. thin and thick IBL) were used. Results showed that large differences of flow pattern were observed at the S-Shaped duct exit between two types of the IBL, though the value of “net” total pressure loss has not been remarkably changed. According to “overall” total pressure loss, which includes the IBL loss, the total pressure loss was greatly increased near the hub as compared to that for a thin one. For the thick IBL, a vortex pair related to the hub-side horseshoe vortex and the separated flow found at the strut trailing edge has been clearly captured in the form of the total pressure loss contours and secondary flow vectors, experimentally and numerically. The high-pressure loss regions on either side of the strut wake near the hub may act on a downstream compressor as a large inlet distortion, and strongly affect the downstream compressor performance. There is a much-distorted three-dimensional flow pattern at the exit of S-Shaped duct. This means that the aerodynamic sensitivity of S-Shaped duct to the IBL thickness is very high. Therefore, sufficient carefulness is needed to design not only downstream aerodynamic component (for example centrifugal impeller) but also upstream aerodynamic component (LPC OGV).


Author(s):  
Toyotaka Sonoda ◽  
Toshiyuki Arima ◽  
Mineyasu Oana

Experimental and numerical investigations were carried out to gain a better understanding or the flow characteristics within an annular S-shaped duct, including the influence of the shape of the downstream passage located at the exit of the duct on the flow. A duct with six struts and the same geometry as that used to connect the compressor spools on our new experimental small two-spool turbofan engine was investigated. Two types of downstream passage were used. One type had a straight annular passage and the other a curved annular passage with a similar meridional flow path geometry to that of the centrifugal compressor. Results showed that the total pressure loss near the hub is large due to instability of the flow, as compared with that near the casing. Also, a vortex related to the horseshoe vortex was observed near the casing, in the case of the curved annular passage, the total pressure loss near the hub was greatly increased compared with the case of the straight annular passage, and the spatial position of the above vortex depends on the passage core pressure gradient. Furthermore, results of calculation using an in-house-developed three-dimensional Navier-Stokes code with a low Reynolds number k-ε turbulence model were in good qualitative agreement with experimental results. According to the simulation results, a region of very high pressure loss is observed near the hub at the duct exit with the increase of inlet boundary layer thickness. Such regions of high pressure loss may act on the downstream compressor as a large inlet distortion, and strongly affect downstream compressor performance.


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