Low Aspect Ratio Axial Flow Compressors: Why and What It Means

1989 ◽  
Vol 111 (4) ◽  
pp. 357-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. Wennerstrom

One of the more visible changes that has occurred in fans and compressors for aircraft turbine engines that have entered development since about 1970 has been a significant reduction in the aspect ratio of the blading. This has brought with it a greatly reduced engine parts count and improved ruggedness and aeroelastic stability. This paper traces the evolution of thinking concerning appropriate aspect ratios for axial flow compressors since the early years of the aircraft turbine engine. In the 1950’s, moderate aspect ratios were favored for reasons of mechanical design. As mechanical design capability became more sophisticated, several attempts were made, primarily in the 1960s, to employ very high aspect ratios to reduce engine size and weight. Four of these programs are described that were largely unsuccessful for both mechanical and aerodynamic reasons. After 1970, the pendulum swung strongly in the other direction and designs of very low aspect ratio began to emerge. This has had a significant impact on compressor design systems, and a number of the ways in which design systems have been affected are discussed. Some concluding remarks are made concerning the author’s opinion of trends in the near future in aerodynamic design technology.

Author(s):  
K. L. Lewis

In Part 1 of this paper, a repeating stage condition was shown to occur in two low aspect ratio turbines, after typically two stages. Both turbulent diffusion and convective mechanisms were responsible for spanwise transport. In this part, two scaling expressions are determined that account for the influence of these mechanisms in effecting spanwise transport. These are incorporated into a throughflow model using a diffusive term. The inclusion of spanwise transport allows the use of more realistic loss distributions by the designer as input to the throughflow model and therefore focuses attention on areas where losses are generated. In addition, modelling of spanwise transport is shown to be crucial in predicting the attenuation of a temperature profile through a turbine.


Author(s):  
Rodolfo T. Gonçalves ◽  
Dênnis M. Gambarine ◽  
Felipe P. Figueiredo ◽  
Fábio V. Amorim ◽  
André L. C. Fujarra

Experiments regarding flow-induced vibration on floating squared section cylinders with low aspect ratio were carried out in an ocean basin with rotating-arm apparatus. The floating squared section cylinders were elastically supported by a set of linear springs to provide low structural damping to the system. Three different aspect ratios were tested, namely L/D = 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0, and two different incidence angles, namely 0 and 45 degrees. The aims were to understanding the flow-induced vibration around single columns of multi-column platforms, such as semi-submersible and TLP. VIV on circular cylinders were also carried out to compare the results. The range of Reynolds number covered was 2,000 < Re < 27,000. The in-line and transverse amplitude results showed to be higher for 45-degree incidence compared with 0-degree, but the maximum amplitudes for squared section cylinders were lower compared with the circular ones. The double frequency in the in-line motion was not verified as in circular cylinders. The yaw amplitudes cannot be neglected for squared section cylinders, maximum yaw amplitudes around 10 degrees were observed for reduced velocities up to 15.


Author(s):  
Ja´nos Vad ◽  
Ali R. A. Kwedikha ◽  
Helmut Jaberg

Experimental and computational studies were carried out in order to survey the energetic aspects of forward and backward sweep in axial flow rotors of low aspect ratio blading for incompressible flow. It has been pointed out that negative sweep tends to increase the lift, the flow rate and the ideal total pressure rise in the vicinity of the endwalls. Just the opposite tendency was experienced for positive sweep. The local losses were found to develop according to combined effects of sweep near the endwalls, endwall and tip clearance losses, and profile drag influenced by re-arrangement of the axial velocity profile. The forward-swept bladed rotor showed reduced total efficiency compared to the unswept and swept-back bladed rotors. This behavior has been explained on the basis of analysis of flow details. It has been found that the swept bladings of low aspect ratio tend to retain the performance of the unswept datum rotor even in absence of sweep correction.


Author(s):  
Marie Pinti ◽  
Shaurya Prakash

Hybrid microfluidic and nanofluidic devices have a variety of applications including water desalination, molecular gates and DNA sieving among several other lab-on-chip uses. Most microfluidic and nanofluidic devices currently are fabricated in glass, silicon, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), or with a combination of these materials. In order to impart functionality, metals, polymers or auxiliary components are often integrated with these devices. Ultra-low aspect ratio channels have several advantages including critical dimensions on the nanoscale but increased throughput compared to higher aspect ratio channels with the same critical dimension, which is important for applications where a higher volumetric flow rate is desired. Additionally, theoretical analysis is significantly easier as ultra-low aspect ratio channels can be modeled as 1-D systems. The fabrication methods for achieving low aspect ratios (< 0.005) usually require extensive facilities with several innovative fabrication and bonding schemes being previously reported. In this paper, we report on fabrication and bonding of ultra-low aspect ratio microfluidic and nanofluidic devices with aspect ratios at 0.0005 in glass/PDMS devices in contrast to the previous best reported result of 0.005 achieved in a silica device using stamp and stick PDMS bonding. The simplicity of our approach presents a new pathway to achieving the lowest aspect ratio nanochannels ever reported for channels fabricated using an interfacial layer for bonding. Centimeter long nanochannels on a borosilicate substrate were fabricated by standard UV photolithography followed by wet etching. Surface roughness of the fabricated channels is on the same order as the roughness of the initial substrate (2–3 nm) and therefore can enable fabrication of channels with critical dimensions approaching 15 nm or less. Devices were then bonded using a second borosilicate substrate with a thin PDMS adhesion layer (∼ 2 μm). The PDMS adhesion layer allows rapid, facile, and alignment-free bonding compared to traditional fusion or anodic bonds. Successful verification of device operation and functionality was determined by verifying flow in operational devices and with scanning electron microscopy to confirm bonding for the formation of nanochannels.


Author(s):  
Rodolfo T. Gonçalves ◽  
Dennis M. Gambarine ◽  
Aline M. Momenti ◽  
Felipe P. Figueiredo ◽  
André L. C. Fujarra

Experiments regarding flow-induced vibration on floating rounded squared section cylinders with low aspect ratio were carried out in an ocean basin equipped with a rotating-arm apparatus. Floating squared section cylinders with rounded edges and aspect ratios of L/D = 2.0 were elastically supported by a set of linear springs in order to provide low structural damping to the system. Two different incidence angles were tested, namely 0 and 45 degrees. The Reynolds numbers covered the range from 2,000 to 30,000. The aim was to understand the flow-induced vibrations around single columns, gathering information for further understanding the causes for the Vortex-Induced Motions in semi-submersible and TLP platforms. Experiments on circular and squared sections cylinders (without rounded edges) were also carried out to compare the results with the rounded square section cylinders (with rounded edges). The amplitude results for in-line, transverse and yaw amplitude for 0-degree models showed to be higher for squared section cylinders compared to those for the rounded square section cylinders. No significant difference between the 45-degree models was observed. The results of ratio between frequency of motion in the transverse direction and natural frequency in still water confirmed the vortex-induced vibration behavior for the squared and rounded square section cylinders for 45-degree incidence; and also the galloping characteristics for 0-degree incidence cases. The rounded effect on the square section cylinders showed to be important only for reduced velocity larger than 8, which is probably related to the position of the separation point that changes around the rounded edge, behavior that did not occurr for the squared edge that fixed the separation point for any reduced velocity.


2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodolfo T. Gonçalves ◽  
Guilherme F. Rosetti ◽  
André L. C. Fujarra ◽  
Guilherme R. Franzini ◽  
César M. Freire ◽  
...  

Vortex-induced motion (VIM) is a specific way for naming the vortex-induced vibration (VIV) acting on floating units. The VIM phenomenon can occur in monocolumn production, storage and offloading system (MPSO) and spar platforms, structures presenting aspect ratio lower than 4 and unity mass ratio, i.e., structural mass equal to the displaced fluid mass. These platforms can experience motion amplitudes of approximately their characteristic diameters, and therefore, the fatigue life of mooring lines and risers can be greatly affected. Two degrees-of-freedom VIV model tests based on cylinders with low aspect ratio and small mass ratio have been carried out at the recirculating water channel facility available at NDF-EPUSP in order to better understand this hydro-elastic phenomenon. The tests have considered three circular cylinders of mass ratio equal to one and different aspect ratios, respectively L/D = 1.0, 1.7, and 2.0, as well as a fourth cylinder of mass ratio equal to 2.62 and aspect ratio of 2.0. The Reynolds number covered the range from 10 000 to 50 000, corresponding to reduced velocities from 1 to approximately 12. The results of amplitude and frequency in the transverse and in-line directions were analyzed by means of the Hilbert-Huang transform method (HHT) and then compared to those obtained from works found in the literature. The comparisons have shown similar maxima amplitudes for all aspect ratios and small mass ratio, featuring a decrease as the aspect ratio decreases. Moreover, some changes in the Strouhal number have been indirectly observed as a consequence of the decrease in the aspect ratio. In conclusion, it is shown that comparing results of small-scale platforms with those from bare cylinders, all of them presenting low aspect ratio and small mass ratio, the laboratory experiments may well be used in practical investigation, including those concerning the VIM phenomenon acting on platforms.


Author(s):  
Rodolfo T. Gonçalves ◽  
André L. C. Fujarra

Experiments regarding vortex-induced vibration on floating circular cylinders with low aspect ratio were carried out in a recirculation water channel. The floating circular cylinders were elastic supported by a set of linear springs to provide low structural damping on the system. Eight different aspect ratios were tested, namely L/D = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0. These aspect ratios were selected to cover the aspect ratio range of the main offshore circular platforms, such as spar and monocolumn. The aims were understanding the VIM of such platforms; due to this, the cylinders were floating, or m* = 1. The range of Reynolds number covered 2,800 < Re < 55,400. The amplitude results showed a decrease in amplitude with decreasing aspect ratio in both directions. The frequency results confirm a different behavior for cylinders with L/D ≤ 0.5; in these cases, the cylinder free-end effects were predominant. The resonant behaviour was no longer observed for L/D ≤ 0.2. The decrease in Strouhal number with decreasing aspect ratio is also verified. All the results presented here complement the work presented previously for stationary circular cylinder with low aspect ratio presented by Gonçalves et al. (2013), Experimental Study on Flow around Circular Cylinders with Low Aspect Ratio, OMAE2013-10454.


1970 ◽  
Vol 92 (4) ◽  
pp. 390-398
Author(s):  
H. F. L. Griepentrog

This paper describes a method for the prediction of the transonic flow field in a high solidity, high turning cascade, suitable for use as stator of a shock-in-rotor supersonic compressor stage. Effects of shock boundary layer interaction is taken into account by empirical correlation, valid for blade aspect ratios below unity. Use of partial slots for reduction of the secondary flows is briefly discussed and a correlation on slot efficiency is presented.


1981 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Sreenivasamurthy ◽  
V Ramamurti

The Coriolis effect on the first bending and first torsional frequencies of flat rotating low aspect ratio cantilever plates has been investigated using finite element method. The cantilever plate has been modelled using plane triangular shell elements with three nodes and eighteen degrees of freedom. Three typical skew angles (0, 45, and 90 degrees) and two aspect ratios (1 and 2) are considered in the analysis. In addition to the Coriolis effect other effects, namely the geometric stiffness and the supplementary stiffness, have been considered. The mass and stiffness matrices have been derived using area coordinates. It has been found that the effect of including Coriolis effect is to lower the first two frequencies. This effect is negligible when the skew angle is 90 degrees. In the other two cases, skew of 0 and 45 degrees, there is a noticeable effect on the first torsional mode frequency when the aspect ratio is unity and on the first bending mode frequency when the aspect ratio is 2. An increase in the Coriolis effect is observed when the aspect ratio is increased from 1 to 2, with the skew angles of 0 and 45 degrees and a decrease when the skew angle is 90 degrees. The difference between the two frequencies (with and without Coriolis effect) becomes more and more noticeable as the rotational speed increases.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document