Experimental Evaluation of the Effects of a Blunt Leading Edge on the Performance of a Transonic Rotor

1973 ◽  
Vol 95 (3) ◽  
pp. 199-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Reid ◽  
D. C. Urasek

A rotor designed for a tip relative Mach number of 1.4 and a pressure ratio of 1.8 was tested with two different leading edge configurations, to evaluate experimentally the effects of leading edge thickness on the performance of a transonic rotor. The rotor was first tested with a leading edge thickness that resulted in a normal blade gap blockage of approximately 3 percent at the rotor tip and increased to about 4 percent at the rotor hub. The rotor leading edge was then cut back to produce a leading edge thickness which resulted in a normal blade gap blockage of about 6 percent at the tip and the hub remained at about 4 percent. The increased leading edge thickness resulted in a decrease in the rotor overall peak efficiency of 3.5 points at design speed. The major portion of this loss in efficiency occurred in the outer 30 percent of the blade span. At 90 and 70 percent of design speed, the increased leading edge thickness had a relatively small effect on rotor efficiency.

Author(s):  
P A Eynon ◽  
A Whitfield

The design of low-solidity diffuser vanes and the effect on the performance of a turbo-charger compressor is discussed. The effect of vane number and turning angle was investigated while maintaining a basic design with a solidity of 0.69 and a leading edge angle of 75°. This large leading edge angle was specifically chosen so that the vane would be aligned with the low flowrates close to surge. Tests were initially conducted with six, eight and ten vanes and a turning angle of 10°. Based on these results the ten-vane design was selected for further investigation with 15 and 20° of vane turning; this led to vane exit angles of 60 and 55° respectively. All results are compared with those obtained with the standard vaneless diffuser configuration and it was shown that all designs increased and shifted the peak pressure ratio to reduced flowrates. The peak efficiency was reduced relative to that obtained with the vaneless diffuser. Despite the low-solidity configuration none of the vane designs provided a broad operating range without the use of a variable geometry configuration. This was attributed to the selection of a large leading edge vane angle.


Author(s):  
D. Wittrock ◽  
M. Junker ◽  
M. Beversdorff ◽  
A. Peters ◽  
E. Nicke

Abstract In the last decades major improvements in transonic centrifugal compressor design have been achieved. The further exploration of design space is enabled by recent progress in structural mechanics and manufacturing. A challenging task of inducer design especially in terms of transonic inflow conditions is to provide a wide flow range and reduced losses due to a sufficient shock control. The use of so called multidisciplinary design optimization with an extensive amount of free parameters leads finally to complex designs. DLR’s latest Fast Rotating Centrifugal Compressor (SRV5) operates at a design speed of Mu2 = 1.72 and a total pressure ratio of 5.72. This compressor design is characterized by an S-shaped leading edge and free-form blade surfaces. Due to the complex design the key design features are difficult to explore. Therefore, non-intrusive measurements are conducted on the highly loaded SRV5. The Laser-2-Focus (L2F) approach that is used in addition with the Doppler Global Velocimetry (DGV) delivers a three dimensional velocity field. Besides the impeller inflow the ouflow is also part of the experimental and numerical verification of the advanced compressor design. Experimental results are compared with the numerical analysis of the compressor using DLR’s RANS Flow Solver TRACE. The deep insight of the inflow leads to a better understanding of the operating behavior of such impeller designs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Weilin Yi ◽  
Hongliang Cheng

The optimization of high-pressure ratio impeller with splitter blades is difficult because of large-scale design parameters, high time cost, and complex flow field. So few relative works are published. In this paper, an engineering-applied centrifugal impeller with ultrahigh pressure ratio 9 was selected as datum geometry. One kind of advanced optimization strategy including the parameterization of impeller with 41 parameters, high-quality CFD simulation, deep machine learning model based on SVR (Support Vector Machine), random forest, and multipoint genetic algorithm (MPGA) were set up based on the combination of commercial software and in-house python code. The optimization objective is to maximize the peak efficiency with the constraints of pressure-ratio at near stall point and choked mass flow. Results show that the peak efficiency increases by 1.24% and the overall performance is improved simultaneously. By comparing the details of the flow field, it is found that the weakening of the strength of shock wave, reduction of tip leakage flow rate near the leading edge, separation region near the root of leading edge, and more homogenous outlet flow distributions are the main reasons for performance improvement. It verified the reliability of the SVR-MPGA model for multiparameter optimization of high aerodynamic loading impeller and revealed the probable performance improvement pattern.


Author(s):  
Shan Ma ◽  
Wuli Chu ◽  
Haoguang Zhang ◽  
Jinhua Lang ◽  
Haiyang Kuang

The performance of axial compressor is considerably influenced by secondary flow, like corner separation between wall and blade in a compressor stage. An extensive experimental study of vortex generator (VG) applied on axial compressor was conducted by many scholars, in order to control these effects and improve the aerodynamic performance. According to their size, they are classified as traditional VGs (h/δ>0.5) and Micro-vortex generators (MVGs, h/δ = 0.1∼0.5).MVGs is one of the hot spots of present research to restrain the secondary flow. In order to investigate the effect of MVGs used in rotor, this study was carried out on Northwestern Polytecnical University rotor (NPU rotor), which is a subsonic axial flow compressor rotor. The Vane-MVGs were placed at a distance of 11% chord length ahead of the leading edge on the end-wall. The characteristic line of 54% (8130RPM), 71% (10792RPM) and 84% (12768RPM) design speed were calculated by steady 3D RANS simulations with Spalart-Allmar turbulence model and compared with the corresponding MVGs cases, respectively. Results show that the stall margins of the 3 speeds with MVGs were larger than baseline, but the efficiency and pressure ratio were reduced in different degrees. In this paper, the flow characteristics at 54% (8130RPM) design speed and the development process of vortex generated by MVGs are analyzed in detail. The influence of MVGs height and stagger angle on rotor performance is also discussed. Moreover, flow simulation of MVGs used on axial compressor single rotor’s hub offered a guideline to future research.


1982 ◽  
Vol 104 (2) ◽  
pp. 394-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. P. Sarathy

A three-dimensional inviscid time-marching calculation solving the unsteady Euler equations in a coordinate system rotating with the blade row has been developed, based on the Denton flow solver. This calculation was used to compute the flow field through the rotor of a transonic axial compressor and compared to measurements made with an advanced laser velocimeter at DFVLR. The comparison is made at design speed at pressure ratio corresponding to peak efficiency. Comparisons of the calculated and experimentally determined Mach number contours indicate excellent agreement in the entrance region where the viscous blockage effects are small. The methodology of the analysis is also described in this paper.


Author(s):  
Jonathan Everitt ◽  
Zoltán Spakovszky ◽  
Daniel Rusch ◽  
Jürg Schiffman

Highly-loaded impellers, typically used in turbocharger and gas turbine applications, exhaust an unsteady, transonic flow that is non-uniform across the span and pitch and swirling at angles approaching tangential. With the exception of the flow angle, conflicting data exist regarding whether these attributes have substantial influence on the performance of the downstream diffuser. This paper quantifies the relative importance of the flow angle, Mach number, non-uniformity and unsteadiness on diffuser performance, through diffuser experiments in a compressor stage and in a rotating swirling flow test rig. This is combined with steady and unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes computations. The test article is a pressure ratio 5 turbocharger compressor with an airfoil vaned diffuser. The swirling flow rig is able to generate rotor outflow conditions representative of the compressor except for the periodic pitchwise unsteadiness, and fits a 0.86 scale diffuser and volute. In both rigs, the time-mean impeller outflow is mapped across a diffuser pitch using miniaturized traversing probes developed for the purpose. Across approximately two-thirds of the stage operating range, diffuser performance is well correlated to the average impeller outflow angle when the metric used is effectiveness, which describes the pressure recovery obtained relative to the maximum possible given the average inflow angle and Mach number and the vane exit metal angle. Utilizing effectiveness captures density changes through the diffuser at higher Mach numbers; a 10% increase in pressure recovery is observed as the inlet Mach number is increased from 0.5 to 1. Further, effectiveness is shown to be largely independent of the time-averaged spanwise and unsteady pitchwise non-uniformity from the rotor; this independence is reflective of the strong mixing processes that occur in the diffuser inlet region. The observed exception is for operating points with high time-averaged vane incidence. Here, it is hypothesized that temporary excursions into high-loss flow regimes cause a nonlinear increase in loss as large unsteady angle variations pass by from the rotor. Given that straight-channel diffuser design charts typically used in preliminary radial vaned diffuser design capture neither streamtube area changes from impeller exit to the diffuser throat nor vane incidence effects, their utility is limited. An alternative approach, utilizing effectiveness and vane leading edge incidence, is proposed.


1998 ◽  
Vol 120 (2) ◽  
pp. 224-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Durali ◽  
J. L. Kerrebrock

The structure and behavior of wakes from a transonic compressor rotor and their effect on the loading and performance of the downstream stator have been investigated experimentally. The rotor was 23.25 inches in diameter with a measured tip Mach number of 1.23 and a pressure ratio of 1.66. Time and space-resolved measurements have been completed of the rotor and stator outflow, as well of the pressure distribution on the surface of the stator blades. It was found that the wakes from this rotor have large flow angle and flow Mach number variations from the mean flow, significant pressure fluctuations, and a large degree of variation from hub to tip. There was a significant total pressure defect and practically no static pressure variation associated with the stator wakes. Wakes from the rotor exist nearly undiminished in the exit flow of the stator and decay in the annular duct behind the stator. The pressure at all points along the chord over each of the stator blades’ surfaces fluctuated nearly in phase in response to the rotor wakes, that is the unsteady chordwise pressure distribution is determined mainly by the change in angle of incidence to the blade and not by the local velocity fluctuations within the passage. The unsteady forces on the stator blades, induced by the rotor wakes, were as high as 25 percent of the steady forces, and lagged the incidence of the wakes on the leading edge by approximately 180 deg at most radii.


Author(s):  
Brian J. Schuler ◽  
Jack L. Kerrebrock ◽  
Ali A. Merchant ◽  
Mark Drela ◽  
John Adamczyk

A fan stage designed by means of a MISES-based quasi-3D approach (Youngren and Drela, 1991), for a pressure ratio of 1.6 at a tip Mach number of 0.7, has been analyzed by viscous 3D CFD, fabricated and tested in the MIT Blowdown Compressor. The design incorporates a rotor tip shroud and boundary layer removal on the suction surfaces of the rotor and stator and at other critical locations. The fully viscous 3D analysis enabled final detailing of the design. In tests, the stage has met its design objectives, producing the design pressure ratio of 1.6 at design speed. The mass flow removed totaled 4.7%, approximately 1.0% through slots on the suction surface of the rotor and stator, and the remainder distributed over the rotor shroud and stator hub. The measured adiabatic efficiency of the rotor for the throughflow was 96% at the design point and that for the stage was 90%. This paper presents the design, the results of the analysis and the experimental stage performance both at design and at some off-design conditions.


2014 ◽  
Vol 490-491 ◽  
pp. 550-555
Author(s):  
Chuan Lei Yang ◽  
Guang Jun Wang ◽  
Wen Jiang Xu ◽  
Chun Yu Wu

Numerical simulation method is adopted to simulate and research Self-Recirculation Casing Treatment (SRCT) on expanding the scope of steady work of high-pressure-ratio centrifugal compressor, and increase the compressor surge margin. Contrast the influences which are caused by structure sizes of the SRCT on the performance of compressor. The results showed that SRCT make the compressor stable operating range average broaden more than 13% on all kinds of speed, the surge margin increased by 11% at most. During the structure sizes, the distance between the bleed slot and the splitter blade has the largest affect on the performance of centrifugal compressor, followed by the bleed slot width, others have less affect. SRCT make the distribution of the compressor impeller inlet relative Mach number is more uniform, weaken the phenomenon of blade leading edge local high Mach number. It is also decrease the blade inlet positive incidence, inhibit separation of the blade surface boundary layer.


2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Wittrock ◽  
Martin Junker ◽  
Manfred Beversdorff ◽  
Andreas Peters ◽  
Eberhard Nicke

Abstract In the last decades, major improvements in transonic centrifugal compressor design have been achieved. The further exploration of design space is enabled by recent progress in structural mechanics and manufacturing. A challenging task of inducer design especially in terms of transonic inflow conditions is to provide a wide flow range and reduced losses due to a sufficient shock control. The use of so-called multidisciplinary design optimization with an extensive amount of free parameters leads finally to complex designs. DLR’s latest fast rotating centrifugal compressor (SRV5) operates at a design speed of Mu2 = 1.72 and a total pressure ratio of 5.72. This compressor design is characterized by an S-shaped leading edge and free-form blade surfaces. Due to the complex design, the key design features are difficult to explore. Therefore, nonintrusive measurements are conducted on the highly loaded SRV5. The laser-2-focus (L2F) approach that is used in addition with the doppler-global-velocimetry (DGV) delivers a three-dimensional velocity field. Besides the impeller inflow, the outflow is also part of the experimental and numerical verification of the advanced compressor design. Experimental results are compared with the numerical analysis of the compressor using DLR’s Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes Flow Solver TRACE. The deep insight of the inflow leads to a better understanding of the operating behavior of such impeller designs.


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