Effect of Tip Clearance Dimensions and Control of Unsteady Flows in a Multi-Stage High-Pressure Compressor

2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Gourdain ◽  
Fabien Wlassow ◽  
Xavier Ottavy

This paper describes the investigations performed to better understand unsteady flows that develop in a three-stage high-pressure compressor. More specifically, this study focuses on rotor-stator interactions and tip leakage flow effects on overall performance and aerodynamic stability. The investigation method is based on three-dimensional unsteady RANS simulations, considering the natural spatial periodicity of the compressor. Indeed, all information related to rotor-stator interactions can be computed. A comparison is first done with experimental measurements to outline the capacity of the numerical method to predict overall performance and unsteady flows. The results show that the simulation correctly estimates most flow features in the multistage compressor. Then numerical data obtained for three configurations of the same compressor are analyzed and compared. Configurations 1 and 2 consider two sets of tip clearance dimensions and a casing treatment based on a honeycomb design is applied for configuration 3. Detailed investigations of the flow at the same operating line show that the tip leakage flow is responsible for the loss of stability in the last stage. An increase by 30% of the tip clearance dimension dramatically reduces the stable operating range (by 40% with respect to the standard configuration). A modal analysis shows that the stall process in this case involves the perturbation of the flow in the last rotor by upstream stator wakes, leading to the development of a rotating instability. The control device designed and investigated in this study allows for reducing the sensitivity of the compressor to tip leakage flow by recovering the initial stable operating range.

Author(s):  
Julien Marty ◽  
William Riéra ◽  
Lionel Castillon

In the present study, several control devices have been investigated in the framework of a high pressure compressor rotor using RANS simulations. The analysis of performance maps and of flow predictions leads to select the injection device located up-stream of the rotor tip, at the shroud in order to control the tip leakage flow. The high loss levels are reduced and the radial and azimuthal extension of the high loss area is smaller. Then the chosen flow control technique has been simulated using URANS and ZDES with the IGV passing wakes. The injection technique reduces the loss area and level, energizing and stabilizing the tip leakage vortex thanks to high momentum. So the vortex disruption is removed or at least delayed. Moreover, the influence of IGV passing wakes is reduced.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 296-308
Author(s):  
Jan Goeing ◽  
Hendrik Seehausen ◽  
Vladislav Pak ◽  
Sebastian Lueck ◽  
Joerg R. Seume ◽  
...  

In this study, numerical models are used to analyse the influence of isolated component deterioration as well as the combination of miscellaneous deteriorated components on the transient performance of a high-bypass jet engine. For this purpose, the aerodynamic impact of major degradation effects in a high-pressure compressor (HPC) and turbine (HPT) is modelled and simulated by using 3D CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics). The impact on overall jet engine performance is then modelled using an 1D Reduced Order Model (ROM). Initially, the HPC performance is investigated with a typical level of roughness on vanes and blades and the HPT performance with an increasing tip clearance. Subsequently, the overall performance of the jet engines with the isolated and combined deteriorated domains is computed by the in-house 1D performance tool ASTOR (AircraftEngine Simulation for Transient Operation Research). Degradations have a significant influence on the system stability and transient effects. In ASTOR, a system of differential equations including the equations of motion and further ordinary differential equations is solved. Compared to common ROMs, this enables a higher degree of accuracy. The results of temperature downstream of the high-pressure compressor and low-pressure turbine as well as the specific fuel composition and the HP rotational speed are used to estimate the degree and type of engine deterioration. However, the consideration of the system stability is necessary to analyse the characterisation in more detail. Finally, a simplified model which merges two engines with individual deteriorated domains into one combined deteriorated engine, is proposed. The simplified model predicts the performance of an engine which has been simulated with combined deteriorated components.


Author(s):  
Haohao Zhang ◽  
Haowan Zhuang ◽  
Jinfang Teng ◽  
Mingmin Zhu ◽  
Xiaoqing Qiang

A steady and unsteady numerical research is carried out to explore some effects of a specific non-axisymmetric tip clearance layout on the overall performance and stability of an axial compressor stage. For a 4-stage low-speed research compressor (LSRC) in Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), one-eighth annulus of the inlet guide vane and the first stage rotor was modeled for this study. After the validation for the uniform tip clearance case, a specific non-axisymmetric tip clearance layout is chosen from several random cases generated by the Gaussian Probabilistic Density Function method. Unsteady time-averaged results at the near stall condition show that the chosen non-axisymmetric layout can improve the isentropic efficiency by 1.3% and extend the stall margin by 4%. Detailed analyses on flow fields are carried out to interpret the performance improvement. Due to the circumferential layout of clearance sizes, the inlet mass flow and incidence are redistributed in both the radial and circumferential directions. It leads to blade loading and tip leakage flow varying with the tip clearance size. The quantification of blockage manifests that the blockage arising from the tip leakage flow is significantly alleviated in the non-axisymmetric layout, which leads to improvements in overall performance and stall margin. Transient flow fields at the rotor tip are also analyzed at the near stall condition. For the non-axisymmetric layout, low-momentum regions originating from larger clearance sizes oscillate and develop downstream in one blade passage period.


2004 ◽  
Vol 126 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingo Wilke ◽  
Hans-Peter Kau

This paper describes the impact of axial slots on the flow field in a transonic rotor blade row. The presented results are completely based on time-accurate three-dimensional numerical simulations of a high pressure compressor front stage with and without casing treatment. Two different axial positions of a casing treatment consisting of axial slots were tested for their impact on flow stability and efficiency. The first tested position (configuration 1) was chosen in a conventional way. The slots extend approximately from the leading up to the trailing edge of the rotor blades. As expected, the simulations of the compressor stage with this configuration showed a significant increase in flow stability near surge compared to the solid wall case. However, a non-negligible decrease in efficiency is also observed. Analyses of flow interactions between casing treatment and rotor blade rows under transonic conditions lead to the general conclusion that the stabilizing effect of circumferential grooves or axial slots mainly results from their impact on the tip leakage flow and its resulting vortex. A characteristic vortex inside the slots is observed in the simulations with the conventionally positioned casing treatment. This vortex removes fluid out of downstream parts of the blade passage and feeds it back into the main flow further upstream. The resulting impact on the tip leakage flow is responsible for the increased flow stability. However, the interaction between the configuration 1 casing treatment flow and the blade passage flow results in a significant relocation of the blade passage shock in the downstream direction. This fact is a main explanation for the observed decrease in compressor efficiency. A second slot position (configuration 2) was tested with the objective to improve compressor efficiency. The casing treatment was shifted upstream, so that only 25% of the blade chord remained under the slots. The simulations carried out demonstrate that this shift positively affects the resulting efficiency, but maintains the increased level of flow stability. A time-accurate analysis of the flow shows clearly that the modified casing treatment stabilizes the tip leakage vortex and reduces the influence on the flow inside the blade passage.


Author(s):  
J. Marty ◽  
H. Gaible ◽  
H. Bézard

The main design objectives of a high pressure compressor are the aerodynamic efficiency and the operating range (e.g. the surge margin). Those quantities are impacted by secondary and leakage flows occurring in the blade passage such as corner separation or stall and tip leakage flows. The turbulence modeling influences strongly the prediction of the overall performances. The aims of the present study were (i) the validation of the combination of the SAS approach with the DRSM turbulence model by comparison to experimental data, especially to laser measurements in the tip of a rotor of a high pressure compressor and (ii) the discussion of the flow prediction improvements with respect to turbulence approaches classically used in CFD and industry: URANS simulations and standard SAS simulation i.e. combined with SST turbulence model. The SAS results are compared to experimental data and to URANS results (SST and DRSM). Only the simulations with IGV wakes predict the velocity fluctuations near tip gap, from the leading edge. Concerning the time-averaged performances, the stagnation pressure losses are slightly overestimated by SAS, especially with DRSM model. This is due to an amplification of the hub corner separation. Moreover, the isentropic efficiency is very sensitive to the SAS approach and to the turbulence model. The spectral analysis shows that the prediction of the amplitude and frequencies of the power spectral density of static pressure is improved using the SAS approach instead of URANS one. The SAS approach leads to PSD similar to ZDES, especially with the DRSM model. Thus, the SAS-DRSM is able to well predict the tip leakage flow with the fine mesh. Nevertheless, this approach amplifies the hub corner separation leading to a strong underestimation of overall performances.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (14) ◽  
pp. 4168
Author(s):  
Botao Zhang ◽  
Xiaochen Mao ◽  
Xiaoxiong Wu ◽  
Bo Liu

To explain the effect of tip leakage flow on the performance of an axial-flow transonic compressor, the compressors with different rotor tip clearances were studied numerically. The results show that as the rotor tip clearance increases, the leakage flow intensity is increased, the shock wave position is moved backward, and the interaction between the tip leakage vortex and shock wave is intensified, while that between the boundary layer and shock wave is weakened. Most of all, the stall mechanisms of the compressors with varying rotor tip clearances are different. The clearance leakage flow is the main cause of the rotating stall under large rotor tip clearance. However, the stall form for the compressor with half of the designed tip clearance is caused by the joint action of the rotor tip stall caused by the leakage flow spillage at the blade leading edge and the whole blade span stall caused by the separation of the boundary layer of the rotor and the stator passage. Within the investigated varied range, when the rotor tip clearance size is half of the design, the compressor performance is improved best, and the peak efficiency and stall margin are increased by 0.2% and 3.5%, respectively.


Author(s):  
Rubén Bruno Díaz ◽  
Jesuino Takachi Tomita ◽  
Cleverson Bringhenti ◽  
Francisco Carlos Elizio de Paula ◽  
Luiz Henrique Lindquist Whitacker

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.


Author(s):  
Wei Li ◽  
Wei-Yang Qiao ◽  
Kai-Fu Xu ◽  
Hua-Ling Luo

The tip leakage flow has significant effects on turbine in loss production, aerodynamic efficiency, etc. Then it’s important to minimize these effects for a better performance by adopting corresponding flow control. The active turbine tip clearance flow control with injection from the tip platform is given in Part-1 of this paper. This paper is Part-2 of the two-part papers focusing on the effect of five different passive turbine tip clearance flow control methods on the tip clearance flow physics, which consists of a partial suction side squealer tip (Partial SS Squealer), a double squealer tip (Double Side Squealer), a pressure side tip shelf with inclined squealer tip on a double squealer tip (Improved PS Squealer), a tip platform extension edge in pressure side (PS Extension) and in suction side (SS Extension) respectively. Combined with the turbine rotor and the numerical method mentioned in Part 1, the effects of passive turbine tip clearance flow controls on the tip clearance flow were sequentially simulated. The detailed tip clearance flow fields with different squealer rims were described with the streamline and the velocity vector in various planes parallel to the tip platform or normal to the tip leakage vortex core. Accordingly, the mechanisms of five passive controls were put in evidence; the effects of the passive controls on the turbine efficiency and the tip clearance flow field were highlighted. The results show that the secondary flow loss near the outer casing including the tip leakage flow and the casing boundary layer can be reduced in all the five passive control methods. Comparing the active control with the passive control, the effect brought by the active injection control on the tip leakage flow is evident. The turbine rotor efficiency could be increased via the rational passive turbine tip clearance flow control. The Improved PS Squealer had the best effect on turbine rotor efficiency, and it increased by 0.215%.


1993 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Kang ◽  
C. Hirsch

Tip leakage flow in a linear compressor cascade of NACA 65-1810 profiles is investigated, for tip clearance levels of 1.0, 2.0 and 3.25 percent of chord at design and off-design flow conditions. Data, velocity and pressures, are collected from three transverse sections inside tip clearance and sixteen sections within flow passage. Tip separation vortex influence is identified from the data. Leakage flow mixing is clearly present inside the clearance and has a significant influence on the internal loss.


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