scholarly journals Effect of casing aspiration on the tip leakage flow in the axial flow compressor cascade

Author(s):  
Xiaochen Mao ◽  
Bo Liu ◽  
Tianquan Tang

Tip leakage flow is usually responsible for the deterioration of compressor performance and stability. The current paper conducts numerical simulations on the impact of casing aspiration on the axial compressor cascade performance. Three aspiration schemes with different chordwise coverage are studied and analyzed. It is found that the cascade performance can be effectively improved by the appropriate casing aspiration, and the optimum aspiration scheme should cover the area including the onset point of tip leakage vortex and its vicinity. The control mechanisms are different for the aspiration schemes located at different blade chord ranges. For the aspiration scheme covering the onset point of tip leakage vortex, the improvement of the cascade performance is mainly due to that the starting point of the tip leakage vortex is shifted downstream. The original tip leakage vortex structure is divided into two parts if the aspiration scheme is located behind the onset point of tip leakage vortex and the final control effect is the combination of the influence from the two different parts of tip leakage vortex. Additionally, the casing aspiration redistributes the blade loading along the chord near blade tip. The results of these investigations may offer guidance for the appropriate design of aspiration scheme in the future updated compressors and the overall total pressure loss coefficient caused by aspiration slot should be considered in the design process.

Author(s):  
Martina Ricci ◽  
Roberto Pacciani ◽  
Michele Marconcini ◽  
Andrea Arnone

Abstract The tip leakage flow in turbine and compressor blade rows is responsible for a relevant fraction of the total loss. It contributes to unsteadiness, and have an important impact on the operability range of compressor stages. Experimental investigations and, more recently, scale-resolving CFD approaches have helped in clarifying the flow mechanism determining the dynamics of the tip leakage vortex. Due to their continuing fundamental role in design verifications, it is important to establish whether RANS/URANS approaches are able to reproduce the effects of such a flow feature, in order to correctly drive the design of the next generation of turbomachinery. Base studies are needed in order to accomplish this goal. In the present work the tip leakage flow in axial compressor rotor blade cascade have been studied. The cascade was tested experimentally in Virginia Tech Low Speed Cascade Wind Tunnel in both stationary and moving endwall configurations. Numerical analyses were performed using the TRAF code, a state-of-the-art in-house-developed 3D RANS/URANS flow solver. The impact of the numerical framework was investigated selecting different advection schemes including a central scheme with artificial dissipation and a high-resolution upwind strategy. In addition, two turbulence models have been used, the Wilcox linear k–ω model and a non-linear eddy viscosity model (Realizable Quadratic Eddy Viscosity Model), which accounts for turbulence anisotropy. The numerical results are scrutinized using the available measurements. A detailed discussion of the vortex evolution inside the blade passage and downstream of the blade trailing edge is presented in terms of streamwise velocity, streamwise vorticity, and turbulent kinetic energy contours. The purpose is to identify guidelines for obtaining the best representation of the vortex dynamics, with the methodologies usually employed in routine design iterations and, at the same time, evidence their weak aspects that need further modelling efforts.


Entropy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 128
Author(s):  
Botao Zhang ◽  
Bo Liu ◽  
Changfu Han ◽  
Hang Zhao

To investigate the influence of the change of tip clearance size on the control effect of the endwall suction, the effects of endwall suction on the aerodynamic performance of the axial compressor cascade were studied numerically. Three tip clearance sizes of 0.5% h, 1.0% h, and 2.0% h (h is the blade height) were mainly considered. The results show that the endwall suction scheme whose coverage range was 8–33% axial chord can reduce the leakage flow and improve the aerodynamic performance by directly influencing the structure of tip leakage vortex. The overall total pressure loss coefficients of the three clearance size schemes at 0° angle of incidence with 0.4 inlet Mach number are reduced by about 10.3%, 10.8%, and 6.0%, respectively, at the suction flow rate of 0.7%. Under the same suction flow rate, the onset position of the tip leakage vortex of the cascade with small clearance is shifted from the 15% of the axial chord length of original to the 48% of the axial chord length, which with large clearance is nearly no changed. The leakage flow rate and the distance from the leakage vortex to the suction slot are the main reasons for the different control effect of the endwall suction under different tip clearance sizes. The difference of the spanwise distribution of flow field parameters may also cause the difference of flow control effect.


Author(s):  
Hou Jiexuan ◽  
Liu Yangwei

Abstract Numerical simulations are carried out to investigate the effect of the sloped trench casing treatment on the performance and stability of a compressor cascade, an isolated rotor, and a single compressor stage. The research objects alter from a simplified flow model to an actual compressor working environment. Firstly, a detailed study of how the sloped trench casing treatment effects the tip leakage flow structure, especially the tip leakage vortex of a compressor cascade, is presented. Results show that the strength of the tip leakage vortex is weakened as the sloped trench casing treatment transforms the structure of the tip leakage vortex. Then the simulation results of the isolated rotor and the single stage are studied. For both cases, the effect of the sloped trench casing treatment on the tip leakage flow is analogous to that of the cascade case. For the isolated rotor, the improvement on the performance is not obvious. While under the stage environment, different from the traditional casing treatment, both the performance and the stability of the compressor are advanced, by getting the tip leakage vortex under control and letting the downstream stator working under a better inflow condition.


Author(s):  
Y. T. Lee ◽  
M. J. Laurita ◽  
J. Feng ◽  
C. L. Merkle

Tip-leakage flows for a linear compressor cascade and a one-stage shrouded pump rotor are discussed in this paper. A numerical method solving the Reynolds averaged Navier Stokes equations is used to explore various detail features of the tip-leakage flows. Calculation results for the cascade provide an assessment for predicting flow past a non-rotating blade passage with zero and 2% chord clearances. On the other hand, the pump rotor configuration provides a swirling passage flow with the complication of a trailing-edge separation vortex mixed with the tip-clearance and passage vortices and produces a very complex three-dimensional flow in the rotor wake. The physical aspects of the tip-clearance flows are discussed including suction-side reloading and pressure-side unloading due to a tip clearance and formation and transportation of the tip-leakage vortex. Detailed velocity comparisons in the blade passage and the tip gap region are shown to indicate the difficulty of predicting tip-leakage flow. The pressure at the core of the tip vortex is also examined to evaluate the strength of the tip-leakage vortex. Some computational guidelines for design usage are provided for these tip-leakage flow calculations.


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

In order to deeply analyze the application prospect of the boundary layer suction technique on the compressor, the flow control effect of endwall suction scheme on the tip leakage flow of a compressor cascade at a large incidence angle with complex internal flow structure and different loss proportion from the case at design incidence angle, was studied numerically, as well as on the overall aerodynamic performance. The results show that the suction scheme directly affects the structure of the tip leakage flow and makes the onset position of the tip leakage vortex move backward, which weakens the intensity and influence range of the tip leakage flow, thus improving the cascade performance in the tip region. At the large incidence angle, large flow suction makes the boundary layer separation in the low span area advance, and the corner separation region at the gap-free end expands to the upper. The position of the separation vortex shedding rises from 10% blade span under the condition without suction to about 70% blade span under the condition with the suction flow rate of 0.7%, and the separation loss increases. The overall performance of the cascade at the large incidence angle mainly depends on the increase of separation loss, while the effect of the decrease of leakage loss on it is greatly reduced. With suction, the total pressure loss coefficient of the cascade increases by about 5.7% at the incidence angle of +8°.


Author(s):  
Chaowei Zhang ◽  
Xuezhi Dong ◽  
Xiyang Liu ◽  
Qing Gao ◽  
Chunqing Tan ◽  
...  

Two one-dimensional models are established for the tip leakage vortex trajectory and rotating stall-onset point prediction respectively for subsonic centrifugal impellers. The goal of modeling is to supply an effective estimation strategy of the stall-onset point for use in the one-dimensional performance prediction stage. The tip leakage vortex trajectory prediction is a critical part of the stall-onset prediction. The proposed one-dimensional model (one-dimensional tip leakage vortex trajectory model) to predict the tip leakage vortex trajectory is based on blade loading, i.e. the velocity difference between the pressure and suction surfaces. The loading function considers the effect of radial rotation, blade turning, and passage width variation. Compared with the computational fluid dynamics results, the current model shows reasonable accuracy, with an average relative error below 12.35%. The one-dimensional prediction model (Model II) is developed to determine the stall-onset point, where the interface between the tip leakage flow and the main flow spills from the blade leading edge. In this model, the momentum balance analysis is applied to identify the position of the interface. The parameter of the tip leakage vortex trajectory in Model II is determined by one-dimensional tip leakage vortex trajectory model. The effective origin of the tip leakage flow is correlated with the rotational speed and tip clearance. The effectiveness of Model II is validated with the experimental and computational fluid dynamics results using three impellers. Compared with the conventional model (Model I), Model II shows better accuracy, with a maximum error of about 7.42%.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 39-49
Author(s):  
Koch Régis ◽  
Sanjosé Marlène ◽  
Moreau Stéphane

The flow in a linear compressor cascade with tip gap is simulated using a wall-resolved compressible Large-Eddy Simulation. The cascade is based on the Virginia Tech Low Speed Cascade Wind Tunnel. The Reynolds number based on the chord is 3.88 x 10⁵ and the Mach number is 0.07. The gap considered in this study is 4.0 mm (2.9% of axial chord). An aerodynamic analysis of the tip-leakage flow allow us identifying the main mechanisms responsible for the development and the convection of the tip-leakage vortex downstream of the cascade. A region of high turbulence and vorticity levels is located along an ellipse that borders the top of the tip-leakage vortex. The influence of the airfoil suction side boundary layer development on the tip-leakage vortex is highlighted by tripping the flow. A tripped boundary layer induces a stronger and larger tip-leakage vortex that tends to move further away from the airfoil suction side and from the endwall compared with an untripped flow. The boundary layer turbulent state influences the tip-leakage flow development.


ACTA IMEKO ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 277
Author(s):  
Masanao Kaneko

In this study, the influences of the single groove installed at the mid-chord – which is known to have a large expansion effect on the stable operating flow range of low-speed axial compressors – on the flow behaviour and the loss generation in a linear compressor cascade were investigated numerically at different tip clearances. Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes simulations of the incompressible flow in the test cascade were performed, with the computed results clarifying the following remarkable phenomena, which are common to both small and large tip-clearance cases. The single groove locally weakens the tip leakage flow by the decrease in the blade loading and the streaming of the flow near the blade pressure side into the groove, consequently reducing the distance between the tip leakage vortex and the blade suction surface. Meanwhile, although the groove decreases the loss due to the tip leakage vortex generated from the blade leading edge, the loss generation in the entire cascade passage is almost the same as that in the cascade without the groove due to the additional loss generation resulting from the presence of the groove.


1993 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Kang ◽  
C. Hirsch

Tip leakage flow in a linear compressor cascade of NACA 65-1810 profiles is investigated, for tip clearance levels of 1.0, 2.0 and 3.25 percent of chord at design and off-design flow conditions. Data, velocity and pressures, are collected from three transverse sections inside tip clearance and sixteen sections within flow passage. Tip separation vortex influence is identified from the data. Leakage flow mixing is clearly present inside the clearance and has a significant influence on the internal loss.


Author(s):  
Kai Zhou ◽  
Chao Zhou

In turbines, secondary vortices and tip leakage vortices develop and interact with each other. In order to understand the flow physics of vortices interaction, the effects of incoming vortex on the downstream tip leakage flow are investigated in terms of the aerodynamic performance in a turbine cascade. Experimental, numerical and analytical methods are used. In the experiment, a swirl generator was used upstream near the casing to generate the incoming vortex, which interacted with the tip leakage vortex in the turbine cascade. The swirl generator was located at ten different pitchwise locations to simulate the quasi-steady effects. In the numerical study, a Rankine-like vortex was defined at the inlet of the computational domain to simulate the incoming swirling vortex. Incoming vortices with opposite directions were investigated. The vorticity of the positive incoming swirling vortex has a large vector in the same direction as that of the tip leakage vortex. In the case of the positive incoming swirling vortex, the vortex mixes with the tip leakage vortex to form one vortex near the tip as it transports downstream. The vortices interaction reduces the vorticity of the flow near the tip, as well as the loss by making up for the streamwise momentum within the tip leakage vortex core. In contrast, the negative incoming swirling vortex has little effects on the tip leakage vortex and the loss. As the negative incoming swirling vortex transports downstream, it is separated from the tip leakage vortex and forms two vortices. A triple-vortices-interaction kinetic analytical model and one-dimensional mixing model are proposed to explain the mechanism of vortex interaction on the aerodynamic performance.


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