scholarly journals Commencement and Development Processes of Flow Unsteadiness at Tip Clearance Region of a Low Speed Axial Compressor Rotor Blade Row

2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 288
Author(s):  
Marhamat Zeinali ◽  
Sarallah Abbasi ◽  
Abolfazl Hajizadeh Aghdam
Keyword(s):  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Axial Compressor ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Leakage Flow ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Low Speed ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Blade Row ◽  
Development Processes ◽  
Flow Frequency

Commencement and development processes of unsteadiness, caused by blade row tip leakage flow in a low speed axial compressor, are investigated and results are presented in this paper. Analyses are based on results obtained through numerical simulation of unsteady three dimensional viscous flows. Discretization of the Navier-Stokes’s equations has been carried out based on upwind second-order scheme and k-ω-SST turbulence modeling was used for estimation of eddy viscosity.Three different circumstances, including design point and two near stall conditions are considered for investigation and discussion. Tip leakage flow frequency spectrums were examined through surveying instantaneous static pressure signals imposed on the blades surfaces. Focusing on time dependent flow structure results signified existence of some pressure peaks at near stall conditions. These regions, which are created as a result of interaction between main inflow and tip leakage flow, lead to occurrence of self-induced unsteadiness. However, at design condition, flow is more affected by the main inflow instead of the tip leakage flow. By occurrence of self-induced unsteadiness, which occurs at near stall condition, tip leakage vortex flow starts to fluctuate at a frequency about the blade passing frequency. Further decrease in the flow rate up to a specified value showed no significant variations in the leakage flow frequency, but, on the other hand, magnified amplitudes of this unsteadiness.

Numerical Study on Tip Leakage Flow Structure of an Axial Flow Compressor Rotor

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chenkai Zhang ◽  
Jun Hu ◽  
Zhiqiang Wang ◽  
Wei Yan ◽  
Chao Yin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Flow Structure ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Numerical Study ◽  
Axial Compressor ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Leakage Flow ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Tip Leakage Vortex ◽  
Low Speed ◽  
Tip Leakage

To deepen the knowledge of tip leakage flow/vortex flow structure in the tip clearance of axial compressor rotors, this paper presents steady numerical studies on a subsonic rotor. The rotor and its related low-speed large-scale repeating-stage axial compressor are used for low-speed model testing of a modern high-pressure compressor. Results were first compared with available experimental data to validate adopted numerical method. Then complex endwall flow structure and flow loss mechanism at design operating point were studied. At last, comparisons were made for tip leakage vortex structure, interface of the leakage flow/main flow, endwall blockage and loss between design and near-stall operating points. Results show that only the spilled flows below 62.5% clearance height at the leading edge will roll into tip leakage vortex for this rotor. In addition, tip leakage vortex plays a secondary important role for higher positions, where secondary leakage flow occurs and occupies broader chordwise range. Although tip leakage vortex would expand and strongly mix with the mainflow when it propagates downstream, which leads to a rapid reduction of the normalized streamwise vorticity, the value of the normalized helicity shows that concentrated vortex feature is still maintained.

scholarly journals A Prediction of 3-D Viscous Flow and Performance of the NASA Low-Speed Centrifugal Compressor

1990 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Moore ◽  
Joan G. Moore
Keyword(s):  
Centrifugal Compressor ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Leakage Flow ◽  
Present Calculation ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Flow Measurements ◽  
Low Speed ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Flow Mixing

A prediction of the three-dimensional turbulent flow in the NASA Low-Speed Centrifugal Compressor Impeller has been made. The calculation was made for the compressor design conditions with the specified uniform tip clearance gap. The predicted performance is significantly worse than that predicted in the NASA design study. This is explained by the high tip leakage flow in the present calculation and by the different model adopted for tip leakage flow mixing. The calculation gives an accumulation of high losses in the shroud/pressure-side quadrant near the exit of the impeller. It also predicts a region of meridional backflow near the shroud wall. Both of these flow features should be extensive enough in the NASA impeller to allow detailed flow measurements, leading to improved flow modelling. Recommendations are made for future flow studies in the NASA impeller.

A Proposal for Passive Wall Treatment Applied in High Performance Axial Flow Compressors

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rubén Bruno Díaz ◽  
Jesuino Takachi Tomita ◽  
Cleverson Bringhenti ◽  
Francisco Carlos Elizio de Paula ◽  
Luiz Henrique Lindquist Whitacker
Keyword(s):  
Stokes Equations ◽  
Axial Compressor ◽  
Axial Flow ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Leakage Flow ◽  
Smooth Wall ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Viscous Effects ◽  
Stall Margin ◽  
Tip Leakage

Abstract Numerical simulations were carried out with the purpose of investigating the effect of applying circumferential grooves at axial compressor casing passive wall treatment to enhance the stall margin and change the tip leakage flow. The tip leakage flow is pointed out as one of the main contributors to stall inception in axial compressors. Hence, it is of major importance to treat appropriately the flow in this region. Circumferential grooves have shown a good performance in enhancing the stall margin in previous researches by changing the flow path in the tip clearance region. In this work, a passive wall treatment with four circumferential grooves was applied in the transonic axial compressor NASA Rotor 37. Its effect on the axial compressor performance and the flow in the tip clearance region was analyzed and set against the results attained for the smooth wall case. A 2.63% increase in the operational range of the axial compressor running at 100%N, was achieved, when compared with the original smooth wall casing configuration. The grooves installed at compressor casing, causes an increase in the flow entropy generation due to the high viscous effects in this gap region, between the rotor tip surface and casing with grooves. These viscous effects cause a drop in the turbomachine efficiency. For the grooves configurations used in this work, an efficiency drop of 0.7% was observed, compared with the original smooth wall. All the simulations were performed based on 3D turbulent flow calculations using Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes equations, and the flow eddy viscosity was determined using the two-equation SST turbulence model. The details of the grooves geometrical dimensions and its implementation are described in the paper.

Three-Dimensional Navier-Stokes Analysis of Turbine Rotor and Tip-Leakage Flowfield

1997 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Luo ◽  
B. Lakshminarayana
Keyword(s):  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Turbine Rotor ◽  
Secondary Flows ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Navier Stokes ◽  
Leakage Flow ◽  
Mean Flow ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Blade Tip

The 3-D viscous flowfield in the rotor passage of a single-stage turbine, including the tip-leakage flow, is computed using a Navier-Stokes procedure. A grid-generation code has been developed to obtain embedded H grids inside the rotor tip gap. The blade tip geometry is accurately modeled without any “pinching”. Chien’s low-Reynolds-number k-ε model is employed for turbulence closure. Both the mean-flow and turbulence transport equations are integrated in time using a four-stage Runge-Kutta scheme. The computational results for the entire turbine rotor flow, particularly the tip-leakage flow and the secondary flows, are interpreted and compared with available data. The predictions for major features of the flowfield are found to be in good agreement with the data. Complicated interactions between the tip-clearance flows and the secondary flows are examined in detail. The effects of endwall rotation on the development and interaction of secondary and tip-leakage vortices are also analyzed.

Characteristics of the Tip Leakage Vortex in a Low-Speed Axial Compressor With Different Rotor Tip Gaps

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhibo Zhang ◽  
Xianjun Yu ◽  
Baojie Liu
Keyword(s):  
Axial Compressor ◽  
Pressure Rise ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Stereoscopic Particle Image Velocimetry ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Test Facility ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Tip Leakage Vortex ◽  
Low Speed ◽  
Tip Leakage

The detailed evolutionary processes of the tip leakage flow/vortex inside the rotor passage are still not very clear for the difficulties of investigating of them by both experimental and numerical methods. In this paper, the flow fields near the rotor tip region inside the blade passage with two tip gaps, 0.5% and 1.5% blade height respectively, were measured by using stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (SPIV) in a large-scale low speed axial compressor test facility. The measurements are conducted at four different operating conditions, including the design, middle, maximum static pressure rise and near stall conditions. In order to analyze the variations of the characteristics of the tip leakage vortex (TLV), the trajectory, concentration, size, streamwise velocity, and the blockage parameters are extracted from the ensemble-averaged results and compared at different compressor operating conditions and tip gaps. The results show that the formation of the TLV is delayed with large tip clearance, however, its trajectory moves much faster in an approximately linear way from the blade suction side to pressure side. In the tested compressor, the size of the tip gap has little effects on the scale of the TLV in the spanwise direction, on the contrary, its effects on the pitch-wise direction is very prominent. Breakdown of the TLV were both found at the near-stall condition with different tip gaps. The location of the initiation of the TLV breakdown moves downstream from the 60% chord to 70% chord as the tip gap increases. After the TLV breakdown occurs, the flow blockage near the rotor tip region increases abruptly. The peak value of the blockage effects caused by the TLV breakdown is doubled with the tip gap size increasing from 0.5% to 1.5% blade span.

scholarly journals On Scaling Method to Investigate High-Speed Over-Tip-Leakage Flow at Low-Speed Condition

2018 ◽  
Vol 140 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongmei Jiang ◽  
Li He ◽  
Qiang Zhang ◽  
Lipo Wang
Keyword(s):  
High Speed ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Flow Distribution ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Leakage Flow ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Scaling Method ◽  
Low Speed ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Speed Condition

Modern high-pressure turbine blades operate at high-speed conditions. The over-tip-leakage (OTL) flow can be high-subsonic or even transonic. From the consideration of problem simplification and cost reduction, the OTL flow has been studied extensively in low-speed experiments. It has been assumed a redesigned low-speed blade profile with a matched blade loading should be sufficient to scale the high-speed OTL flow down to the low-speed condition. In this paper, the validity of this conventional scaling approach is computationally examined. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methodology was first validated by experimental data conducted in both high- and low-speed conditions. Detailed analyses on the OTL flows at high- and low-speed conditions indicate that, only matching the loading distribution with a redesigned blade cannot ensure the match of the aerodynamic performance at the low-speed condition with that at the high-speed condition. Specifically, the discrepancy in the peak tip leakage mass flux can be as high as 22%, and the total pressure loss at the low-speed condition is 6% higher than the high-speed case. An improved scaling method is proposed hereof. As an additional dimension variable, the tip clearance can also be “scaled” down from the high-speed to low-speed case to match the cross-tip pressure gradient between pressure and suction surfaces. The similarity in terms of the overall aerodynamic loss and local leakage flow distribution can be improved by adjusting the tip clearance, either uniformly or locally.

PIV Maps of Tip Leakage and Secondary Flow Fields on a Low-Speed Turbine Blade Cascade With Moving End Wall

2007 ◽  
Vol 130 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Palafox ◽  
M. L. G. Oldfield ◽  
J. E. LaGraff ◽  
T. V. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Flow Field ◽  
Secondary Flow ◽  
Field Measurements ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Leakage Flow ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Tip Leakage Vortex ◽  
Low Speed ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
End Wall

New, detailed flow field measurements are presented for a very large low-speed cascade representative of a high-pressure turbine rotor blade with turning of 110deg and blade chord of 1.0m. Data were obtained for tip leakage and passage secondary flow at a Reynolds number of 4.0×105, based on exit velocity and blade axial chord. Tip clearance levels ranged from 0% to 1.68% of blade span (0% to 3% of blade chord). Particle image velocimetry was used to obtain flow field maps of several planes parallel to the tip surface within the tip gap, and adjacent passage flow. Vector maps were also obtained for planes normal to the tip surface in the direction of the tip leakage flow. Secondary flow was measured at planes normal to the blade exit angle at locations upstream and downstream of the trailing edge. The interaction between the tip leakage vortex and passage vortex is clearly defined, revealing the dominant effect of the tip leakage flow on the tip end-wall secondary flow. The relative motion between the casing and the blade tip was simulated using a motor-driven moving belt system. A reduction in the magnitude of the undertip flow near the end wall due to the moving wall is observed and the effect on the tip leakage vortex examined.

The Influence of Tip Clearance Momentum Flux on Stall Inception in a High-Speed Axial Compressor

2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua D. Cameron ◽  
Matthew A. Bennington ◽  
Mark H. Ross ◽  
Scott C. Morris ◽  
Juan Du ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Momentum Flux ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Axial Compressor ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Flow Coefficient ◽  
Axial Position ◽  
Leakage Flow ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Tip Leakage

Experimental and numerical studies were conducted to investigate tip-leakage flow and its relationship to stall in a transonic axial compressor. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) results were used to identify the existence of an interface between the approach flow and the tip-leakage flow. The experiments used a surface-streaking visualization method to identify the time-averaged location of this interface as a line of zero axial shear stress at the casing. The axial position of this line, denoted xzs, moved upstream with decreasing flow coefficient in both the experiments and computations. The line was consistently located at the rotor leading edge plane at the stalling flow coefficient, regardless of inflow boundary condition. These results were successfully modeled using a control volume approach that balanced the reverse axial momentum flux of the tip-leakage flow with the momentum flux of the approach fluid. Nonuniform tip clearance measurements demonstrated that movement of the interface upstream of the rotor leading edge plane leads to the generation of short length scale rotating disturbances. Therefore, stall was interpreted as a critical point in the momentum flux balance of the approach flow and the reverse axial momentum flux of the tip-leakage flow.

scholarly journals Experimental investigation of the tip leakage flow in a low-speed multistage axial compressor

2020 ◽  
Vol 103 (3) ◽  
pp. 003685042095107
Author(s):  
Jun Li ◽  
Jun Hu ◽  
Chenkai Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Static Pressure ◽  
Axial Compressor ◽  
Stereoscopic Particle Image Velocimetry ◽  
Leakage Flow ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Complex Flow ◽  
Tip Leakage Vortex ◽  
Low Speed ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Multistage Axial Compressor

Casing pressure measurements and Stereoscopic Particle-Image Velocimetry (SPIV) measurements are used together to characterize the behavior of the rotor tip leakage flow at both the design and near-stall conditions in a low-speed multistage axial compressor. A three-dimensional Navier-Stokes solver is also performed for the multistage compressor and the prediction of tip leakage flow is compared with SPIV data and casing dynamic static pressure data. During the experiment 10 high-frequency Kulite transducers are mounted in the outer casing of the rotor 3 to investigate the complex flow near the compressor casing and Fourier analyses of the dynamic static pressure on the casing of the rotor 3 are carried out to investigate the tip leakage flow characteristics. At the same time, the two CCD cameras are arranged at the same side of the laser light sheet, which is suitable for investigating unsteady tip leakage flow in the multistage axial compressor. The SPIV measurements identify that the tip leakage flow exists in the rotor passage. The influence of tip leakage flow leads to the existence of low axial velocity region in the rotor passage and the alternating regions of positive and negative radial velocity indicates the emergence of tip leakage vortex (TLV). The trajectory of the tip leakage vortex moves from the suction surface toward the pressure surface of adjacent blade, which is aligned close to the rotor at the design point (DP). However, the tip leakage vortex becomes unstable and breaks down at the near-stall point (NS), making the vortex trajectory move upstream in the rotor passage and causing a large blockage in the middle of the passage.

scholarly journals On Scaling Method to Investigate High-Speed Over-Tip-Leakage Flow at Low-Speed Condition

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongmei Jiang ◽  
Li He ◽  
Qiang Zhang ◽  
Lipo Wang
Keyword(s):  
High Speed ◽  
Flow Distribution ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Leakage Flow ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Scaling Method ◽  
Low Speed ◽  
Aerodynamic Loss ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Speed Condition

Modern High Pressure Turbine (HPT) blades operate at high speed conditions. The Over-Tip-Leakage (OTL) flow, which plays a major role in the overall loss generation for HPT, can be high-subsonic or even transonic. In practice from the consideration of problem simplification and cost reduction, the OTL flow has been studied extensively in low speed experiments. It has been assumed a redesigned low speed blade profile with a matched blade loading should be sufficient to scale the high speed OTL flow down to the low speed condition. In this paper, the validity of this conventional scaling approach is computationally examined. The CFD methodology was firstly validated by experimental data conducted in both high and low speed conditions. Detailed analyses on the OTL flows at high and low speed conditions indicate that, only matching the loading distribution with a redesigned blade cannot ensure the match of the aerodynamic performance at the low speed condition with that at the high-speed condition. Specifically, the discrepancy in the peak tip leakage mass flux can be as high as 22.2%, and the total pressure loss at the low speed condition is 10.7% higher than the high speed case. An improved scaling method is proposed hereof. As an additional dimension variable, the tip clearance can also be “scaled” down from the high speed to low speed case to match the cross-tip pressure gradient between pressure and suction surfaces. The similarity in terms of the overall aerodynamic loss and local leakage flow distribution can be improved by adjusting the tip clearance, either uniformly or locally. The limitations of this proposed method are also addressed in this paper.

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