Effect of hub clearance of cantilever stator on aerodynamic performance and flow field of a transonic axial-flow compressor

Author(s):  
Botao Zhang ◽  
Bo Liu ◽  
Xiaochen Mao ◽  
Hejian Wang

To investigate the effect of hub clearance of cantilever stator on the aerodynamic performance and the flow field of the transonic axial-flow compressor, the performance of single-stage compressors with the shrouded stator and cantilever stator was studied numerically. It is found that the hub corner separation on the stator blade suction surface (SS) was modified by introducing the hub leakage flow. The separation vortex on the SS of the stator blade root at about 10% axial chord length caused by the interaction of the shock wave and boundary layer was also controlled. Compared with the tip clearance size of the rotor blade, the stator hub clearance size (HCS) has a much less effect on the overall aerodynamic performance of the compressor, and there is no obvious effect on the flow field in the upstream blade row. With the increase of HCS, the leakage loss and the blockage degree in the flow field near the stator hub are increased and further make the adiabatic efficiency and the total pressure ratio of the compressor gradually decrease. Meanwhile, the stall margin of the compressor was changed slightly, but the response of the stall margin to the change of the HCS is nonlinear and insensitive. The stator hub leakage flow (HLF) can not only change the flow field near the hub but also redistribute the flow law within the range of the entire blade span. It will contribute to further understand the mechanism of the HLF and provide supports for the design of the cantilever stator of transonic compressors.

Author(s):  
Tian Liang ◽  
Bo Liu ◽  
Stephen Spence ◽  
Liying Jiao

To extend the current understanding of the circumferential groove casing suction applied to a counter-rotating axial flow compressor, the impact of different axial locations of the circumferential suction groove on the characteristics of the tip leakage flow (TLF) and the corresponding physical mechanisms producing the stability enhancement have been studied based on validated numerical simulations. The results show that the optimal location for the suction groove is at around 20% axial chord, which demonstrated a high potential for reducing additional stall mass flow coefficient with about 8.4% increment in the stall margin. After the casing suction groove was applied, the interface between the incoming main flow and TLF was pushed significantly downstream in the second rotor. The blade loading in the region below the groove, the tip leakage flow angle and the reversed axial momentum flux injected into main flow passage through the tip gap were all reduced, which contributed to the stall margin improvement. Detailed analysis of the tip leakage flow structures showed that the TLF originating from different chord locations played different roles in the stall inception process. It was found to be more effective to improve stall margin and adiabatic efficiency by controlling the front part of the TLF, which was most sensitive.


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.


Author(s):  
Xiaochen Mao ◽  
Bo Liu ◽  
Hang Zhao

This paper presents the studies performed to better understand the effects of increased tip clearance size on the unsteady flow behaviors and overall performance under the rotor–rotor interaction environment in a counter-rotating axial flow compressor. The investigation method is based on the three-dimensional unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes simulations. The results show that the intensified tip leakage flow in front rotor (R1) caused by the increased tip clearance size will lead to the growth of incoming incidence angle near the tip of the rear rotor (R2). The increasing of double leakage flow range plays a significant role in the sensitivity of the efficiency to tip clearance size and its extent is enlarged gradually with the increase of tip clearance size. As the tip clearance size is increased to 1.5τ (τ represents the designed tip clearance size) from 0.5τ, the results of the fast Fourier transform for the static pressure near blade tip show that two other new fluctuating frequency components appear due to the happening of tip leakage flow self-unsteadiness in R1 and R2, respectively. Additionally, the fluctuating strength near the tip in R2 is significantly increased. However, both the overall fluctuation in R1 caused by the potential effect from downstream and the oscillation in the hub corner on the pressure side of R2 are decreased obviously. The relative inflow angle tends to increase when the incoming wakes and tip leakage flow from R1 encounter the blade leading edge of R2, which leads to the result that the trajectory of tip leakage flow is shifted more upstream.


Author(s):  
Pritam Batabyal ◽  
Dilipkumar B. Alone ◽  
S. K. Maharana

This paper presents a numerical case study of various stepped tip clearances and their effect on the performance of a single stage transonic axial flow compressor, using commercially available software ANSYS FLUENT 14.0. A steady state, implicit, three dimensional, pressure based flow solver with SST k-Ω turbulence model has been selected for the numerical study. The stepped tip clearances have been compared with the baseline model of zero tip clearance at 70% and 100 % design speed. It has been observed that the compressor peak stage efficiency and maximum stage pressure ratio decreases as the tip clearances in the rear part are increased. The stall margin also increases with increase in tip clearance compared to the baseline model. An ‘optimum’ value of stepped tip clearance has been obtained giving peak stage compressor performance. The CFD results have been validated with the earlier published experimental data on the same compressor at 70% design speed.


1998 ◽  
Vol 120 (3) ◽  
pp. 477-486 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. W. Thompson ◽  
P. I. King ◽  
D. C. Rabe

The effects of stepped-tip gaps and clearance levels on the performance of a transonic axial-flow compressor rotor were experimentally determined. A two-stage compressor with no inlet guide vanes was tested in a modern transonic compressor research facility. The first-stage rotor was unswept and was tested for an optimum tip clearance with variations in stepped gaps machined into the casing near the aft tip region of the rotor. Nine causing geometries were investigated consisting of three step profiles at each of three clearance levels. For small and intermediate clearances, stepped tip gaps were found to improve pressure ratio, efficiency, and flow range for most operating conditions. At 100 percent design rotor speed, stepped tip gaps produced a doubling of mass flow range with as much as a 2.0 percent increase in mass flow and a 1.5 percent improvement in efficiency. This study provides guidelines for engineers to improve compressor performance for an existing design by applying an optimum casing profile.


Author(s):  
Donald W. Thompson ◽  
Paul I. King ◽  
Douglas C. Rabe

The effects of stepped tip gaps and clearance levels on the performance of a transonic axial-flow compressor rotor were experimentally determined. A two-stage compressor with no inlet guide vanes was tested in a modern transonic compressor research facility. The first-stage rotor was unswept and was tested for an optimum tip clearance with variations in stepped gaps machined into the casing near the aft tip region of the rotor. Nine casing geometries were investigated consisting of three step profiles at each of three clearance levels. For small and intermediate clearances, stepped tip gaps were found to improve pressure ratio, efficiency, and flow range for most operating conditions. At 100% design rotor speed, stepped tip gaps produced a doubling of mass flow range with as much as a 2.0% increase in mass flow and a 1.5% improvement in efficiency. This study provides guidelines for engineers to improve compressor performance for an existing design by applying an optimum casing profile.


Author(s):  
Kurian K. George ◽  
S. N. Agnimitra Sunkara ◽  
Jubin Tom George ◽  
Melvin Joseph ◽  
A. M. Pradeep ◽  
...  

In an axial flow compressor, the presence of separated flow near the hub-end of a stator would result in an overall loss in the performance. In the present paper, stator hub-stall is attempted to be eliminated for a high hub-tip ratio (0.8) axial flow compressor stage consisting of a highly loaded rotor and stator. Numerical and experimental studies on an untreated straight stator (straight-stacked, twisted) blade show a large vortex near its hub. The large vortex is attempted to be reduced by modifying the present blade by (i) providing an additional twist at the hub-end of the stator blade (ii) providing a hub-clearance (a cantilevered blade fixed from the casing). The straight (untreated) stator, hub-end-bend version and the hub-clearance version are studied for two different rotor-tip clearances. Detailed computational analysis of the variation of hub-clearance at a fixed rotor-tip clearance is also carried out. Throughout the study, experiments are carried out on the above discussed different stator (untreated & hub-treated) configurations, in combination with the same rotor, at a fixed rotor-tip clearance. The studies show that the flow conditions are improved near the hub of the highly loaded stator blade both by the hub-end-bend design and by the hub-clearance provided.


Author(s):  
Pradyumna Kodancha ◽  
Pramod Salunkhe

Abstract Numerical investigations are carried out in a single-stage subsonic axial flow compressor to unravel the influence of blade tip surface roughness on the tip leakage flow characteristics and hence the compressor performance. The studies were carried out at different tip clearance of 0.38?, 0.77?, 1.15? and 1.54? and blade tip surface roughness of 0.31? and 0.62?. The tip clearance of 0.38? with blade tip surface roughness of 0.62? resulted in the highest stall margin and pressure rise of 20.3% and 4.3%, respectively. The compressor blade loading was found to be improved by 5.9% after incorporating the blade tip surface roughness. The iso-surfaces of vorticity contour plotted using the Q-criterion showed the reduction in strength of the tip leakage vortex. The tip leakage trajectory was found to be shifted towards the suction surface of the blade for the blade tip with surface roughness. This positive alteration in the tip leakage flow structure led to the improved performance for the blade tip with surface roughness.


Author(s):  
Mitesh Goswami ◽  
Dilipkumar Bhanudasji Alone ◽  
Harish S. Choksi

This paper deals with the numerical studies on the combined effect of tip clearance and axisymmetric circumferential grooves casing treatment (CGCT) on the overall performance and stall margin of a single stage transonic axial flow compressor. Steady state numerical analysis was carried out by solving three dimensional Reynolds-averaged-Navier-Stokes (RANS) Equations using the Shear Stress Transport (SST) k-ω Turbulence Model. The numerical stall inception point was identified from the last converged point by the convergence criteria, and the stall margin was numerically predicted. Additionally, the stall margin and the isentropic peak stage efficiencies of the circumferential casing grooves with various tip clearances were compared and evaluated in order to explore the influence of the tip clearance. Results obtained were compared with those obtained on the baseline compressor with the smooth casing (SC). Further computational studies were conducted to study the role of the tip leakage flow in axial compressor in triggering the stall. The relationship between the tip clearance flow, flow field and surge margin extension from circumferential groove casing treatment with various rotor tip clearances were studied numerically. The application of the circumferential groove casing treatment with varying clearance leads to significant improvement in the operating stability of compressor with slight reduction in the isentropic peak stage efficiency for small tip clearances, whereas there was slight increment in the isentropic peak stage efficiency at higher tip clearance of 2.5 mm.


Author(s):  
Maoyi Li ◽  
Wei Yuan ◽  
Xizhen Song ◽  
Yajun Lu ◽  
Zhiping Li ◽  
...  

The traditional annulus casing treatment often pays the price of lowered efficiency for improving the stall margin of a compressor under inlet distortion. In view of the unsymmetry of the inlet flow-field of compressors, partial casing treatment was used to control the flow in a transonic axial-flow compressor with arc-skewed-slots deployed at different circumferential positions under inlet distortion. The experimental results indicate that when the partial casing treatment is arranged on the undistorted and distorted sectors, the stall margin is enhanced by 8.02%, with the relative peak efficiency improved simultaneously by 2.143%, compared with the case of solid casing at 98% rotating speed. By contrast, the traditional casing treatment increases the stall-margin by 23.13%, but decreases the relative peak efficiency by 0.752%. By analyzing dynamic and static experimental data, the mechanism underlying the partial casing treatment was also studied in detail here. The disturbances of inlet flow were restrained by annulus casing treatment, nevertheless the total pressure ratio was decreased obviously in the distorted sector. As a result, the stall-margin is improved, but the relative peak efficiency is decreased too. When the partial casing treatment was arranged on the undistortded and distorted sectors, the stall disturbances was thereby restrained. So the stall margin was enhanced. In addition, the total pressure ratio was improved by the partial casing treatment in the distorted and transition sectors, and thus the relative peak efficiency was also increased markedly.


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