Design of a Highly Loaded Mixed Flow Turbine

Author(s):  
M Abidat ◽  
N C Baines ◽  
M R Firth

The high boost pressures and fuel–air ratios required for the next generation of turbocharged diesel engines imply an increased turbine expansion ratio without an increase in the speed of rotation. This leads to a requirement for high peak efficiency at lower values of blade speed/isentropic expansion velocity U/C than are normal today. The objective of this project was to achieve this with a mixed flow rotor with a positive inlet blade angle. Two rotors were manufactured and tested: one a ‘constant blade angle’ design and the other a ‘constant incidence’ design. In practice both achieved a peak efficiency at a low U/C value, but the constant blade angle design, at 0.84 total to static efficiency, was significantly more efficient than the constant incidence design at 0.77. These efficiencies are highly competitive, compared to current radial turbine design. It is suggested that the reasons for this difference are a lack of understanding of the incidence and its effects on a mixed flow rotor, and a region of diffusion in the shroud-trailing edge corner of the suction surface, apparently worse for the constant incidence design.

2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Leonard ◽  
Stephen Spence ◽  
Dietmar Filsinger ◽  
Andre Starke

Abstract Mixed flow turbines offer additional design freedom compared with conventional radial turbines. This is useful in the automotive turbocharger application to reduce rotor inertia, which can be very beneficial for the transient response of a highly boosted downsized passenger car powertrain. A previously published study from the authors analyzed a series of nine mixed flow turbine rotors with varying blade cone angle and inlet blade angle. This paper reports an extension of that study with two further mixed flow turbine rotors where the chord length of the rotor blade was extended. The aim of this work was to understand both the aerodynamic and mechanical impacts of varying the chord length, particularly for the turbocharger application where off-design performance and transient response are very important. The baseline mixed flow rotor for this study had a blade cone angle of 30 deg and an inlet blade angle of 30 deg. Two further variations were produced; one with the trailing edge (TE) extended in the downstream direction across the entire blade span. In the second variation, the chord was extended at the hub corner only, while the shroud corner of the TE remained unchanged, with the aim of achieving some aerodynamic improvement while meeting mechanical requirements. When the blade was extended at both the hub and shroud, the inertia and stress levels increased significantly and the blade eigenfrequencies reduced. There was a significant improvement in peak efficiency, but the mechanical performance was unfavourable. The improvement in peak efficiency was mainly due to better exhaust diffuser performance and, therefore, would not be realized in most turbocharger installations. The blade that was extended at only the hub corner incurred very little additional inertia, and the centrifugal stresses and blade eigenfrequencies were improved. Consequently, it was possible to reduce the blade thickness at the TE in order to achieve a more aerodynamically optimized design. In this case, the mechanical performance was acceptable and there were efficiency improvements of up to 1.1% points at off-design conditions, with no reduction in peak efficiency or maximum mass flowrate. Therefore, the blade that was extended only at the hub produced some improvement within acceptable mechanical limits. The flow field features were considered for the three rotor geometries to explain the changes in loss and efficiency across the operating range.


Author(s):  
Carl Fredriksson ◽  
Nick Baines

In automotive turbochargers, the nature of the performance characteristics of a conventional radial turbine are such that it does not make good use of the exhaust gas energy of the engine, because the efficiency is lowest when the exhaust manifold pressure is highest, i.e. at the peak of the exhaust pulse, and the point at which most exhaust gas energy is theoretically available. The turbine design is also seriously compromised by requirements of size and inertia to improve the transient response of the engine. In this study, the use of forward swept rotor blading to improve the efficiency characteristic is investigated. Stress considerations mean that a mixed flow turbine geometry is required for this purpose. By comparing a baseline radial and two mixed flow turbines in engine simulations, it is shown that under steady-state conditions, a large increase in engine torque at low speed (before the wastegate opens) is obtained with the mixed flow turbines. The simulated response of the engine to a load step also shows that the same transient torque (and therefore vehicle response) can be achieved with the mixed flow turbine, even allowing for large increases in rotating inertia. The use of forward swept blades, and the improvement in exhaust energy recovery that stems from it, compensates for increases in inertia required by the mixed flow geometry and increases in overall turbine size.


Author(s):  
Thomas Leonard ◽  
Stephen Spence ◽  
Dietmar Filsinger ◽  
Andre Starke

Abstract Mixed flow turbines offer additional design freedom compared with conventional radial turbines. This is useful in the automotive turbocharger application to reduce rotor inertia, which can be very beneficial for the transient response of a highly-boosted downsized passenger car powertrain. A previously published study from the authors analysed a series of nine mixed flow turbine rotors with varying blade cone angle and inlet blade angle. This paper reports an extension of that study with two further mixed flow turbine rotors where the chord length of the rotor blade was extended. The aim of this work was to understand both the aerodynamic and mechanical impacts of varying the chord length, particularly for the turbocharger application where off-design performance and transient response are very important. The baseline mixed flow rotor for this study had a blade cone angle of 30° and an inlet blade angle of 30°. Two further variations were produced; one with the TE extended in the downstream direction across the entire blade span. In the second variation the chord was extended at the hub corner only, while the shroud corner of the TE remained unchanged, with the aim of achieving some aerodynamic improvement while meeting mechanical requirements. When the blade was extended at both the hub and shroud, the inertia and stress levels increased significantly and the blade eigenfrequencies reduced. There was significant improvement in peak efficiency, but the mechanical performance was unfavourable. The improvement in peak efficiency was mainly due to better exhaust diffuser performance and therefore would not be realised in most turbocharger installations. The blade that was extended at only the hub corner incurred very little additional inertia, and the centrifugal stresses and blade eigenfrequencies were improved. Consequently, it was possible to reduce the blade thickness at the TE in order to achieve a more aerodynamically optimised design. In this case, the mechanical performance was acceptable and there were efficiency improvements of up to 1.1% pts at off-design conditions, with no reduction in peak efficiency or maximum mass flow rate. Therefore, the blade that was extended only at the hub produced some improvement within acceptable mechanical limits. The flow field features were considered for the three rotor geometries to explain the changes in loss and efficiency across the operating range.


1982 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Fairbanks

Incidence losses occur when the gas flow angle does not coincide with the blade angle. Several incidence models which are available to the designer are reviewed and a new method of calculating the incidence losses in the stator and rotor of a mixed flow radial turbine is presented. The results from this model have been compared in the case of a mixed flow radial turbine rotor with the results from the other models and with the experimental results for the stator. All the models assume a change in the tangential component of kinetic energy at stator or rotor inlet. It is concluded that none of these models is satisfactory because they do not take into account the flow pattern in the rotor or stator passages.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 674
Author(s):  
Paul Caicedo ◽  
David Wood ◽  
Craig Johansen

Solar chimney power plants (SCPPs) collect air heated over a large area on the ground and exhaust it through a turbine or turbines located near the base of a tall chimney to produce renewable electricity. SCPP design in practice is likely to be specific to the site and of variable size, both of which require a purpose-built turbine. If SCPP turbines cannot be mass produced, unlike wind turbines, for example, they should be as cheap as possible to manufacture as their design changes. It is argued that a radial inflow turbine with blades made from metal sheets, or similar material, is likely to achieve this objective. This turbine type has not previously been considered for SCPPs. This article presents the design of a radial turbine to be placed hypothetically at the bottom of the Manzanares SCPP, the only large prototype to be built. Three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were used to assess the turbine’s performance when installed in the SCPP. Multiple reference frames with the renormalization group k-ε turbulence model, and a discrete ordinates non-gray radiation model were used in the CFD simulations. Three radial turbines were designed and simulated. The largest power output was 77.7 kW at a shaft speed of 15 rpm for a solar radiation of 850 W/m2 which exceeds by more than 40 kW the original axial turbine used in Manzanares. Further, the efficiency of this turbine matches the highest efficiency of competing turbine designs in the literature.


Author(s):  
Hasan Eroglu ◽  
Widen Tabakoff

The results of Laser Doppler Velocimetry (LDV) measurements, in particular, turbulent stresses in radial turbine guide vanes are presented in this paper, in order to provide experimental data for the numerical predictions. The flow velocities were measured at upstream, inside and downstream of the guide vanes for two different mass flow rates (0.2 lb/s “0.0907 kg/s” and 0.3 lb/s “0.1361 kg/s”) using a two-component LDV system. The results are presented as contour plots of turbulent stresses. The LDV system consists of a 5 watt argon-ion laser, the seeding particle atomizer, the optical and the data acquisition systems. The optical components were arranged in the backward scatter mode to measure two orthogonal velocity components simultaneously. Frequency shifts were used on both components to determine the flow direction. The results indicate a significant transport of higher turbulence fluid into the suction surface-end wall corner by the end wall cross flows inside the passage. High turbulent stress gradients show that there is considerable flow mixing downstream of the flow passages. Turbulence was found to be locally anisotropic everywhere.


Author(s):  
Carlo Cravero ◽  
Martino Marini

The authors decided to organize their design/analysis computational tools in an integrated software suite in order to help teaching radial turbine, taking advantage of their research background and a set of codes previously developed. The software is proposed for use during class works and the student can either use a single design/analysis tool or face a complete design loop consisting of iterations between design and analysis tools. The intended users are final year students in mechanical engineering. The codes output are discussed with two practical examples in order to highlight the turbomachinery performance at design and off-design conditions. The above suite gives the student the opportunity of getting used to different concepts (choking, blade loading, performance maps, …) that are encountered in turbomachinery design and of understanding the effects of the main design parameters.


Author(s):  
Nicholas Anton ◽  
Magnus Genrup ◽  
Carl Fredriksson ◽  
Per-Inge Larsson ◽  
Anders Christiansen-Erlandsson

In the process of evaluating a parallel twin-turbine pulse-turbocharged concept, the results considering the turbine operation clearly pointed towards an axial type of turbine. The radial turbine design first analyzed was seen to suffer from sub-optimum values of flow coefficient, stage loading and blade-speed-ratio. Modifying the radial turbine by both assessing the influence of “trim” and inlet tip diameter all concluded that this type of turbine is limited for the concept. Mainly, the turbine stage was experiencing high values of flow coefficient, requiring a more high flowing type of turbine. Therefore, an axial turbine stage could be feasible as this type of turbine can handle significantly higher flow rates very efficiently. Also, the design spectrum is broader as the shape of the turbine blades is not restricted by a radially fibred geometry as in the radial turbine case. In this paper, a single stage axial turbine design is presented. As most turbocharger concepts for automotive and heavy-duty applications are dominated by radial turbines, the axial turbine is an interesting option to be evaluated for pulse-charged concepts. Values of crank-angle-resolved turbine and flow parameters from engine simulations are used as input to the design and subsequent analysis. The data provides a valuable insight into the fluctuating turbine operating conditions and is a necessity for matching a pulse-turbocharged system. Starting on a 1D-basis, the design process is followed through, resulting in a fully defined 3D-geometry. The 3D-design is evaluated both with respect to FEA and CFD as to confirm high performance and durability. Turbine maps were used as input to the engine simulation in order to assess this design with respect to “on-engine” conditions and to engine performance. The axial design shows clear advantages with regards to turbine parameters, efficiency and tip speed levels compared to a reference radial design. Improvement in turbine efficiency enhanced the engine performance significantly. The study concludes that the proposed single stage axial turbine stage design is viable for a pulse-turbocharged six-cylinder heavy-duty engine. Taking into account both turbine performance and durability aspects, validation in engine simulations, a highly efficient engine with a practical and realizable turbocharger concept resulted.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prakhar Kapoor ◽  
Aaron W. Costall ◽  
Nikolaos Sakellaridis ◽  
Jochem Hooijer ◽  
Rogier Lammers ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Ziyi Shao ◽  
Wen Li ◽  
Aiting Li ◽  
Xing Wang ◽  
Xuehui Zhang ◽  
...  

The shrouded radial-inflow turbine is widely employed as a power generation device in the compressed air energy storage (CAES) system. The loss mechanism and off-designed performance of the shrouded radial turbine are lesser known hitherto and should be deeply understood. Loss analyses of a shrouded radial turbine are conducted numerically based on the first and second laws of thermodynamics in the current study. The relationship between losses and the secondary flow has been discussed in detail. A high proportion of loss in the rotor and outblock passage is found under off-designed conditions. The secondary vortex cores and wake are the primary sources of energy dissipation, while the entropy generation mainly appears at the edge of secondary vortices. The suction-surface separation expands as the velocity ratio is decreased, making the high entropy generation scope on the cross-sectional plane wider. Reducing the seal clearance and avoiding the low velocity ratio conditions are quite necessary to reduce losses. It is recommended the outlet passage should be designed longer than the length of rotor axial chord for a uniform outflow.


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