The improvement of transonic compressor performance by the self-circulating casing treatment

Author(s):  
Song Yan ◽  
Wuli Chu

The performance curve of the compressor is limited by the surge boundary, so it is of great significance to increase the stable working range of the compressor. The self-circulating casing treatment is an effective way to improve the stable working range of the compressor. In this paper, the study of the influence of the injector position of the self-circulating casing treatment on the transonic axial flow compressor rotor performance is carried out by using the numerical simulation. The influence mechanism of the injector position on the enhancing stability effect of the self-circulating casing treatment is revealed. It is found that the self-circulating casing treatment can reduce the blade tip blockage by restraining the blade tip clearance leakage flow and changing the trajectory of the tip clearance leakage vortex, thus delaying the deterioration of the rotor tip flow field and improving the rotor stability. When the injector position of the self-circulating casing treatment moves from the upstream of the leading edge of the blade tip to the trailing edge of the blade tip, the enhancing stability effect of the self-circulating casing treatment increases first and then decreases. But the high-velocity jet from the injector of the self-circulating casing treatment aggravates the mixing loss of the rotor tip flow field, so that the rotor efficiency slightly decreases after using the self-circulating casing treatment.

Author(s):  
Hao G Zhang ◽  
Fei Y Dong ◽  
Wei Wang ◽  
Wu L Chu ◽  
Song Yan

This investigation aims to understand the mechanisms of affecting the axial flow compressor performance and internal flow field with the application of self-recirculation casing treatment. Besides, the potentiality of further enhancing the compressor performance and stability by optimizing the geometric structure of self-recirculation casing treatment is discussed in detail. The results show that self-recirculation casing treatment generates about 7.06, 7.89% stall margin improvements in the experiment and full-annulus unsteady calculation, respectively. Moreover, the compressor total pressure and isentropic efficiency are improved among most of operating points, and the experimental and calculated compressor peak efficiencies are increased by 0.7% and 0.6%, respectively. The comparisons between baseline shroud and self-recirculation casing treatment show that the flow conditions of the compressor rotor inlet upstream are improved well with self-recirculation casing treatment, and the degree of the pressure enhancement in the blade top passage for self-recirculation casing treatment is higher than that for baseline. Further, self-recirculation casing treatment can restrain the leading edge-spilled flows made by the blade tip clearance leakage flows and weaken the blade tip passage blockage. Hence, the flow loss near the rotor top passage is reduced after the application of self-recirculation casing treatment. The rotor performance and stability for self-recirculation casing treatment are greater than those for baseline. The flow-field analyses also indicate that the adverse effects caused by the clearance leakage flows of the blades tip rear are greater than those made by the clearance leakage flows of the blades leading edge. When one injecting part of self-recirculation casing treatment is aligned with the inlet of one blade tip passage, the flow-field quality in the passage is not the best among all the passages between two adjacent injecting parts of self-recirculation casing treatment. Further, the flow-field analyses also indicate that the effect of the relative position between the blade and self-recirculation casing treatment on the flows in the self-recirculation casing treatment may be ignored during the optimization of the recirculating loop configuration.


Author(s):  
Song Yan ◽  
WuLi Chu ◽  
Zhengjing Shen

Abstract Casing treatment (CT) has proven to be an effective way to enhance stability, and has a very important role in enhancing the stability of the compressor. Researchers have made great achievements and progress in the study of single-type CT structure, but less research on combined-type CT structure. In this paper, the isolated rotor of a high-load axial-flow compressor is taken as the research object, and the numerical simulation method is used to study the enhancing stability mechanism of the combined-type casing treatment (ASCT) by combining the axial slot casing treatment (ASC) and the self-circulating casing treatment (SCT). The study found that the reasonable choice of the ASCT scheme can make the enhancing stability effect of the ASCT higher than that of the single-type CT structure scheme. Through detailed quantitative analysis of the rotor’s internal flow field, it was found that ASC and SCT can suction the airflow downstream of the rotor passage, and then spray it into the main flow from the upstream of the rotor passage, and the blade tip blockage is reduced, the flow capacity of the blade tip passage is improved, and the rotor stability is enhanced by suppressing tip clearance leakage flow. The ASCT has both the spraying effect of the ASC and the SCT, and has the best improvement effect on the flow blockage zone in the rotor passage, and the obtained enhancing stability effect is also best. In addition, the circulation and re-injection of the airflow after CT has aggravated the flow blending loss in the blade tip zone, which has reduced the rotor efficiency. The ASCT has both the characteristics of the effect of the ASC and the SCT on the rotor efficiency, resulting in a large reduction in the rotor efficiency after using the ASCT.


Author(s):  
HaoGuang Zhang ◽  
Feng Tan ◽  
YanHui Wu ◽  
WuLi Chu ◽  
Wei Wang ◽  
...  

For compressor blade tip stall, one effective way of extending stable operating range is with the application of circumferential grooved casing treatment and its validity was proved by a lot of experimental and numerical investigations. The emphases of most circumferential grooved investigations are focused on the influence of groove depth and groove number on compressor stability, and there is few investigations dealt with the center offset degree of circumferential grooves casing treatment. Hence, an axial compressor rotor with casing treatment (CT) was investigated with experimental and numerical methods to explore the effect of center offset degree on compressor stability and performance. In the work reported here, The center offset degree is defined as the ratio of the central difference between rotor tip axial chord and CT to the axial chord length of rotor tip. When the center of CT is located within the upstream direction of the center of rotor tip axial chord, the value of center offset degree is positive. The experimental and numerical results show that stall margin improvement gained with CT is reduced as the value of center offset degree varies from 0 to 0.33 or −0.33, and the CT with −0.33 center offset degree achieves the lowest value of stall margin improvement at 53% and 73% design rotational speed. The detailed analysis of the flow-field in compressor tip indicates that there is not positive effect made by grooves on leading edge of rotor blade tip when the value of center offset degree is −0.33. As the mass flow of compressor reduces further, tip clearance leakage flow results in the outlet blockage due to the absence of the positive action of grooves near blade tip tail when the value of center offset degree is 0.33. Blockage does not appear in rotor tip passage owing to utilizing the function of all grooves with CT of 0 center offset degree.


Author(s):  
J. Anton Streit ◽  
Frank Heinichen ◽  
Hans-Peter Kau

A state-of-the-art transonic compressor rotor has a distinct potential for increased efficiency if modified for improved interaction with an axial-slot type casing treatment. Reducing the number of blades and thus the surface lowers friction losses but increases tip clearance effects and deteriorates the stall margin due to the higher aerodynamic blade loading. The latter two negative effects can be compensated for by the casing treatment, thus restoring the required stall margin and gaining an overall reduction of losses. For the specific compressor rotor under investigation, the potential in polytropic efficiency is as high as 0.7%. The present study was performed using time-accurate CFD (URANS) simulations. Both the reference rotor as well as the modified design are analyzed regarding their interaction with the casing treatment. The traceability of the conclusions is assured by interpreting the detailed flow phenomena. The newly designed rotor is found to be favorably influenced by the casing treatment at design operating conditions whilst the reference only benefits at throttled operating points. Casing treatments are commonly used to broaden the operating range of existing compressors without changing the design of the compressor rotor itself. This study aims to show the possible transformation of this potential in the stall margin into efficiency at design operating conditions by implementing an appropriate rotor design.


Author(s):  
M. Voges ◽  
C. Willert ◽  
R. Mönig ◽  
H.-P. Schiffer

The application of casing treatments (CT) is an effective measure to increase the stable operating range of modern aero engine or gas turbine compressors. As the development and design process of optimized CT geometries is primarily based on numerical simulations, the need for accurate experimental flow field data for related code validation is increasing with the number of applications. While the stall margin enhancement and other stage characteristics can be verified using conventional measurement techniques such as pressure and temperature probes, a deeper insight to the aerodynamic effect of the CT on the rotor flow field can only be provided using non-intrusive, laser-based flow field diagnostics, given that optical access to the compressor stage can be established. The investigation presented herein involved particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements at high spatial resolution in the blade tip region of the Darmstadt Transonic Compressor Rotor-1 under the influence of a bend-slot CT. Tangential PIV measurement planes were placed at 95% span as well as in the tip gap of the rotor. The investigation included operating conditions at the aerodynamic design point (peak efficiency) and near stall conditions at 100% rpm. Additional reference measurements were performed with the untreated, smooth casing. The experimental study was complimented by numerical simulations of the same compressor and CT geometry using the DLR TRACE code. Based on the combination of both, experimental and numerical flow field results, a detailed analysis of the shock structures and the tip clearance vortex under the influence of the CT was performed. Under the influence of the CT, the fluid exchange between rotor passage and CT slots — driven by the pressure gradient over the blade tip and the leading edge bow shock, respectively — induces secondary flow structures in the tip vortex regime. At near stall conditions the periodical injection of energized fluid out of the CT cavities was identified to be one of the major effects stabilizing the tip clearance vortex and hence delaying the onset of rotating stall.


Author(s):  
Jo¨rg Bergner ◽  
Heinz-Peter Schiffer

Three-dimensional laser-2-focus measurements complemented by measurements of the instantaneous static wall pressure in the casing above the rotor are used to investigate short length-scale rotating stall inception in an axial transonic compressor rotor. The data was collected at the Darmstadt Transonic Compressor using the forward swept “Rotor-3”. Detailed analysis of the experimental data reveals that in this configuration with pronounced forward sweep stall is not directly caused by the blockage created by the shock vortex interaction. Due to the reduced aerodynamic loading, the tip clearance vortex passes the shock without significant deceleration but shows some great fluctuation in terms of vortex strength. As the compressor is throttled to near stall, the tip clearance vortex eventually reaches the leading edge of the adjacent blade. It can be suggested that as an result, spill forward and so-called “self-induced vortex-oscillation” occurs. A phase-lock of both of these phenomena might be the trigger for a spike-type disturbance of the flow-field. The investigation underpins the great importance of the unsteady flow phenomena at near stall. For a thorough understanding of the flow features at the stability limit of a compressor, which is the basis of any effort to increase the operation range, special attention has to be paid to the unsteadiness of the flow in both experimental and numerical work. To study the mechanism of stall inception it might even be necessary to analyze the flow field around the whole annulus, as there appears to be significant interaction of the flow between neighboring passages.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (14) ◽  
pp. 4168
Author(s):  
Botao Zhang ◽  
Xiaochen Mao ◽  
Xiaoxiong Wu ◽  
Bo Liu

To explain the effect of tip leakage flow on the performance of an axial-flow transonic compressor, the compressors with different rotor tip clearances were studied numerically. The results show that as the rotor tip clearance increases, the leakage flow intensity is increased, the shock wave position is moved backward, and the interaction between the tip leakage vortex and shock wave is intensified, while that between the boundary layer and shock wave is weakened. Most of all, the stall mechanisms of the compressors with varying rotor tip clearances are different. The clearance leakage flow is the main cause of the rotating stall under large rotor tip clearance. However, the stall form for the compressor with half of the designed tip clearance is caused by the joint action of the rotor tip stall caused by the leakage flow spillage at the blade leading edge and the whole blade span stall caused by the separation of the boundary layer of the rotor and the stator passage. Within the investigated varied range, when the rotor tip clearance size is half of the design, the compressor performance is improved best, and the peak efficiency and stall margin are increased by 0.2% and 3.5%, respectively.


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.


2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanhui Wu ◽  
Qingpeng Li ◽  
Jiangtao Tian ◽  
Wuli Chu

To investigate the pre-stall behavior of an axial flow compressor rotor, which was experimentally observed with spike-type stall inception, systematic experimental and whole-passage simulations were laid out to analyze the internal flow fields in the test rotor. In this part, emphases were put on the analyses of the flow fields of whole-passage simulation, which finally diverged, and the objective was to uncover the flow mechanism of short length scale disturbance (or spike) emergence. The numerical result demonstrated that the test rotor was of spike-type stall initiation. The numerical probes, arranged ahead of the rotor to monitor the static pressure variation, showed that there first appear two pips on the curves. After one rotor revolution, there was only one pip left, spreading at about 33.3% rotor speed. This propagation speed was almost the same as that of the spike observed in experiments. The further analysis of the flow field revealed a concentrated blockage sector on the flow annuls ahead of rotor developed gradually with the self-adjustment of flow fields. The two pins on monitoring curves corresponded to two local blockage regions in near-tip passages, and were designated as B1 and B2, respectively. The correlation between the tip secondary vortices (TSVs) in the preceding and native passages was the flow mechanism for propagation of B2 and B1, thereby leading to their spread speed approximate to the active period of the TSV in one passage. Furthermore, the self-sustained unsteady cycle of TSVs was the underlying flow mechanism for the occurrence of the so-called “tip clearance spillage flow” and “tip clearance backflow.” Because B2 was the tip-front of the blockage sector, TSVs associated with its propagation became stronger and stronger, so that the “tip clearance backflow” induced by it was capable of spilling into the next passage below the blade tip. This phenomenon was regarded as the threshold event where B2 started to evolve into a spike. The distinctive flow feature during the development stage of the spike was the occurrence of a separation focus on the suction side in the affected passages, which changed the self-sustained unsteady cycle of the TSV substantially. A three-dimensional vortex originating from this focus led to a drastic increase in the strength of the TSV, which, in turn, led to a rapid increase in the “tip clearance backflow” induced by the TSV and the radial extent of spillage flow.


Author(s):  
C. S. Kang ◽  
A. B. McKenzie ◽  
R. L. Elder

An experimental investigation to examine the influence of the vaned recess casing treatment on stall margin, operating efficiency and the flow field of a low speed axial flow fan with aerospace type blade loading is presented. Different geometrical designs of the vaned passages were examined. The best configuration resulted in a stall margin improvement of 67%, a significantly higher pressure rise in the stall region and insignificant change in peak efficiency. Detailed 3-D flow measurements in the endwall region and in the casing recess were carried out with a slanted hot-wire, providing some insight to the operation of the device. The results revealed that the stall margin improvement was largely due to the removal of flow from the blade tip to the recess, and the elimination of the growth of the stall region at the tip, which occurs at stall in the solid casing build.


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