scholarly journals Numerical Optimization of a Stall Margin Enhancing Recirculation Channel for an Axial Compressor

Fluids ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 88
Author(s):  
Motoyuki Kawase ◽  
Aldo Rona

A proof of concept is provided by computational fluid dynamic simulations of a new recirculating type casing treatment. This treatment aims at extending the stable operating range of highly loaded axial compressors, so to improve the safety of sorties of high-speed, high-performance aircraft powered by high specific thrust engines. This casing treatment, featuring an axisymmetric recirculation channel, is evaluated on the NASA rotor 37 test case by steady and unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) simulations, using the realizable k-ε model. Flow blockage at the recirculation channel outlet was mitigated by chamfering the exit of the recirculation channel inner wall. The channel axial location from the rotor blade tip leading edge was optimized parametrically over the range −4.6% to 47.6% of the rotor tip axial chord c z . Locating the channel at 18.2% c z provided the best stall margin gain of approximately 5.5% compared to the untreated rotor. No rotor adiabatic efficiency was lost by the application of this casing treatment. The investigation into the flow structure with the recirculating channel gave a good insight into how the new casing treatment generates this benefit. The combination of stall margin gain at no rotor adiabatic efficiency loss makes this design attractive for applications to high-speed gas turbine engines.

Author(s):  
D. C. Rabe ◽  
C. Hah

Experimental and numerical investigations were conducted to study the fundamental flow mechanisms of circumferential grooves in the casing of a transonic compressor and their influence on compressor stall margin. Three different groove configurations were tested in a highly loaded transonic compressor. Experimental results show that circumferential grooves increase the stall margin of the compressor at the tested operating condition. Grooves with a much smaller depth than conventional designs are shown to be similarly effective in increasing the stall margin. Steady-state Navier-Stokes analyses were performed to study flow structures associated with each casing treatment. The numerical procedure calculates the overall effects of the circumferential grooves correctly. Detailed investigation of calculated flow fields indicates that losses are generated by interaction between the main passage flow and flow exiting the grooves. The grooves increase the stall margin by reducing the flow incidence angle on the pressure side of the leading edge, despite an overall increase in the endwall boundary layer thickness. This is due to complex interaction of the main passage flow with the additional radial and tangential flows created by the grooves.


2016 ◽  
Vol 139 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyril Guinet ◽  
André Inzenhofer ◽  
Volker Gümmer

The design space of axial-flow compressors is restricted by stability issues. Different axial-type casing treatments (CTs) have shown their ability to enhance compressor stability and to influence efficiency. Casing treatments have proven to be effective, but there still is need for more detailed investigations and gain of understanding for the underlying flow mechanism. Casing treatments are known to have a multitude of effects on the near-casing 3D flow field. For transonic compressor rotors, these are more complex, as super- and subsonic flow regions alternate while interacting with the casing treatment. To derive design rules, it is important to quantify the influence of the casing treatment on the different tip flow phenomena. Designing a casing treatment in a way that it antagonizes only the deteriorating secondary flow effects can be seen as a method to enhance stability while increasing efficiency. The numerical studies are carried out on a tip-critical rotor of a 1.5-stage transonic axial compressor. The examined recirculating tip blowing casing treatment (TBCT) consists of a recirculating channel with an air off-take above the rotor and an injection nozzle in front of the rotor. The design and functioning of the casing treatment are influenced by various parameters. A variation of the geometry of the tip blowing, more specifically the nozzle aspect ratio, the axial position, or the tangential orientation of the injection port, was carried out to identify key levers. The tip blowing casing treatment is defined as a parameterized geometric model and is automatically meshed. A sensitivity analysis of the respective design parameters of the tip blowing is carried out on a single rotor row. Their impact on overall efficiency and their ability to improve stall margin are evaluated. The study is carried out using unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) simulations.


Author(s):  
Minsuk Choi

AbstractThe casing groove is a highly effective method for improving the stall margin with the least detrimental effect on the peak efficiency in an axial compressor. In this work, a single casing groove with different heights and positions was numerically tested to evaluate effects of each geometric parameter on the stall margin in a transonic compressor. Validation between the simulation and experiment was conducted with a smooth casing as a reference case, and the computed and experimental results were compared in terms of performance curves, downstream flow properties and Mach number contours. Subsequently, the performance curves for each test case with a single casing groove were obtained from the numerical results and compared with each other to determine the appropriate position and height of the groove for increasing the stall margin. A casing groove installed near the leading edge was found to be effective for expanding the stable operating range in a transonic compressor, giving about 3% point improvement in the stall margin at the cost of a small drop in efficiency at the design point. An attempt was also made to understand the underlying mechanism of the casing groove based on the analysis of the numerical flow data.


Author(s):  
Ashwin Ashok ◽  
Patur Ananth Vijay Sidhartha ◽  
Shine Sivadasan

Abstract Tip clearance of axial compressor blades allows leakage of the flow, generates significant losses and reduces the compressor efficiency. The present paper aims to discuss the axial compressor tip aerodynamics for various configurations of tip gap with trench. The various configurations are obtained by varying the clearance, trench depth, step geometry and casing contouring. In this paper the axial compressor aerodynamics for various configurations of tip gap with trench have been studied. The leakage flow structure, vorticity features and entropy generations are analyzed using RANS based CFD. The linear compressor cascade comprises of NACA 651810 blade with clearance height varied from 0.5% to 2% blade span. Trail of the tip leakage vortex and the horseshoe vortex on the blade suction side are clearly seen for the geometries with and without casing treatments near the stalling point. Since the trench side walls are similar to forward/backing steps, a step vortex is observed near the leading edge as well as trailing edge of the blade and is not seen for the geometry without the casing treatment. Even though the size of the tip leakage vortex seams to be reduces by providing a trench to the casing wall over the blade, the presence of additional vortices like the step vortex leads to comparatively higher flow losses. An increase in overall total pressure loss due to the application of casing treatment is observed. However an increase in stall margin for the geometries with casing is noted.


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):  
Jia Li ◽  
Dakun Sun ◽  
Reize Xu ◽  
Xu Dong ◽  
Xiaofeng Sun

Abstract Foam metal is a foam-like substance made out of metal and can be used in flow control, vibration damping and acoustic absorption mainly based on their special physical properties. A kind of foam metal casing treatment is proposed and tested in this study. The impact of the foam metal casing treatment on compressor stability and noise reduction are experimentally investigated. The foam metal selected in the experiments is constructed from ferronickel and its PPI (pores per inch) is 35. The foam metal casing treatment comprises annular support casing and foam metal ring. The effect of foam metal location on stability of the test compressor are investigated by placing shims in support casing. Both time-mean and high-response instrumentation are applied to capture the steady and unsteady compressor performances with the presence of the foam metal casing treatment. 20 microphones of G.R.A.S type are used to measure in-duct acoustic level of the compressor. It is found that the SMI (stall margin improvement) is 36.1% and the efficiency loss is 1.5% at location 7. When foam metal moves to rotor leading edge, the SMI as well as the efficiency loss are getting smaller. The optimal location in the experiments is location 4 where the SMI of compressor is 14.9% and the efficiency loss is 0.1%. The interaction of foam metal with flow in the blade tip region at these locations are investigated and presented in detail. The PSD (power spectrum density) analysis is carried out to show the unsteady signal development in stall inception. The noise attenuation varies in 0.18∼1.6 dB when foam metal is at different locations. Finally, the mechanism and application of the foam metal casing treatment are also discussed.


Author(s):  
Yassine Souleimani ◽  
Huu Duc Vo ◽  
Hong Yu

The increase in compressor tip clearance over the lifespan of an aero-engine leads to a long-term degradation in its fuel consumption and operating envelope. A highly promising recent numerical study on a theoretical high-speed axial compressor rotor proposed a novel casing treatment to decrease performance and stall margin sensitivity to tip clearance increase. This paper aims to apply and analyze, through CFD simulations, this casing treatment concept to a representative production axial compressor rotor with inherently lower sensitivity to tip clearance increase and complement the explanation on the mechanism behind the reduction in sensitivity. Simulations of the baseline rotor showed that the lower span region contribute as much to the pressure ratio sensitivity as the tip region which is dominated by tip leakage flow. In contrast, the efficiency sensitivity is mainly driven by losses occurring in the tip region. The novel casing treatment was successfully applied to the baseline rotor through a design refinement. Although the casing treatment causes some penalty in nominal performance, it completely reversed the pressure ratio sensitivity (i.e. pressure ratio increases with tip clearance) and reduced the efficiency sensitivity. The reversed pressure ratio sensitivity is explained by a rotation in the core flow in the lower span region indirectly induced by the flow injection from the casing treatment. The lower efficiency sensitivity comes from a reduction in the amount of fluid that crosses the tip clearance of two adjacent blades, known as double leakage. The casing treatment’s beneficial effect on stall margin sensitivity is less obvious because of the stall inception type of the baseline rotor and its change in the presence of the casing treatment.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 2346
Author(s):  
Tien-Dung Vuong ◽  
Kwang-Yong Kim

A casing treatment using inclined oblique slots (INOS) is proposed to improve the stability of the single-stage transonic axial compressor, NASA Stage 37, during operation. The slots are installed on the casing of the rotor blades. The aerodynamic performance was estimated using three-dimensional steady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes analysis. The results showed that the slots effectively increased the stall margin of the compressor with slight reductions in the pressure ratio and adiabatic efficiency. Three geometric parameters were tested in a parametric study. A single-objective optimization to maximize the stall margin was carried out using a Genetic Algorithm coupled with a surrogate model created by a radial basis neural network. The optimized design increased the stall margin by 37.1% compared to that of the smooth casing with little impacts on the efficiency and pressure ratio.


Author(s):  
Motoyuki Kawase ◽  
Aldo Rona

The tip leakage flow over the blades of an axial compressor rotor adversely affects the axial rotor efficiency and can determine the onset of tip leakage stall. The performance of a new casing treatment concept in the shape of an axisymmetric recirculation channel is explored by steady Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) realizable k-ε modelling on the NASA Rotor 37 test case. The modelling exposed a number of attractive features. The casing treatment increased the stall margin at no penalty to the rotor isentropic efficiency over the rotor operating line. A recirculation in the casing channel self-activated and self-adjusted with the rotor loading to provide more passive flow control at higher rotor loading conditions. The nozzle-shaped recirculation channel outflow opposed the tip leakage jet, re-located the casing surface flow interface further downstream, and reduced the rotor blade tip incidence angle. This combination of features makes the new casing treatment particularly attractive for applications to high thrust-to-weight ratio engines, typical of high-performance jet aircraft.


1980 ◽  
Vol 102 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. M. Greitzer

Stall in compressors can be associated with the initiation of several types of fluid dynamic instabilities. These instabilities and the different phenomena, surge and rotating stall, which result from them, are discussed in this paper. Assessment is made of the various methods of predicting the onset of compressor and/or compression system instability, such as empirical correlations, linearized stability analyses, and numerical unsteady flow calculation procedures. Factors which affect the compressor stall point, in particular inlet flow distortion, are reviewed, and the techniques which are used to predict the loss in stall margin due to these factors are described. The influence of rotor casing treatment (grooves) on increasing compressor flow range is examined. Compressor and compression system behavior subsequent to the onset of stall is surveyed, with particular reference to the problem of engine recovery from a stalled condition. The distinction between surge and rotating stall is emphasized because of the very different consequences on recoverability. The structure of the compressor flow field during rotating stall is examined, and the prediction of compressor performance in rotating stall, including stall/unstall hysteresis, is described.


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