Investigation of the Accuracy of RANS Models to Predict the Flow Through a Low-Pressure Turbine

2016 ◽  
Vol 138 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Pichler ◽  
R. D. Sandberg ◽  
V. Michelassi ◽  
R. Bhaskaran

In the present paper, direct numerical simulation (DNS) data of a low-pressure turbine (LPT) are investigated in light of turbulence modeling. Many compressible turbulence models use Favre-averaged transport equations of the conservative variables and turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) along with other modeling equations. First, a general discussion on the turbulence modeling error propagation prescribed by transport equations is presented, leading to the terms that are considered to be of interest for turbulence model improvement. In order to give turbulence modelers means of validating their models, the terms appearing in the Favre-averaged momentum equations are presented along pitchwise profiles at three axial positions. These three positions have been chosen such that they represent regions with different flow characteristics. General trends indicate that terms related with thermodynamic fluctuations and Favre fluctuations are small and can be neglected for most of the flow field. The largest errors arise close to the trailing edge (TE) region where vortex shedding occurs. Finally, linear models and the scope for their improvement are discussed in terms of a priori testing. Using locally optimized turbulence viscosities, the improvement potential of widely used models is shown. On the other hand, this study also highlights the danger of pure local optimization.

Author(s):  
R. Pichler ◽  
R. D. Sandberg ◽  
V. Michelassi ◽  
R. Bhaskaran

In the present paper direct numerical simulation data of a low pressure turbine is investigated in light of turbulence modelling. Many compressible turbulence models use Favre average transport equations of the conservative variables and turbulent kinetic energy along with other modelling equation. First a general discussion on the turbulence modelling error propagation prescribed by transport equations is presented, leading to the terms that are considered to be of interest for turbulence model improvement. In order to give turbulence modellers means of validating their models the terms appearing in the Favre averaged momentum equations are presented along pitchwise profiles at three axial position. These three positions have been chosen such that they represent regions with different flow characteristics. General trends indicate that terms related with thermodynamic fluctuations and Favre fluctuations are small and can be neglected for most of the flow field. The largest errors arise close to the trailing edge region where vortex shedding occurs. Finally, linear models and the scope for their improvement are discussed. Using locally optimized turbulence viscosities, the improvement potential of state of the art models is shown. On the other hand this study also highlights the danger of pure local optimization.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Ernesto Casartelli ◽  
Luca Mangani ◽  
David Roos Launchbury ◽  
Armando Del Rio

Abstract The current trend in turbomachinery towards broader operating characteristics requires that operating points in the off-design region can be captured accordingly from the simulation models. Complex processes like separation and vortex formation/dissipation occur under these conditions. Linear two equation models are often not able to represent these effects correctly since their derivation is based on over-simplifications, such as the Boussinesq hypothesis, which makes it impossible to capture anisotropic turbulence. Advanced RANS models are usually not considered in the design process of turbomachines because (1) they are usually more delicate with regards to stability and convergence behavior and (2) require additional computational effort. To make the usage of advanced RANS models more applicable for complex turbomachinery simulations a selected group of models were implemented into a robust framework of a pressure-based fully coupled solver. To further enhance stability, coupling terms between the turbulent transport equations were derived for several models. Anisotropic turbulence is introduced by computing an algebraic expression or by solving the transport equations for the Reynolds stress components. The evaluation of the models is performed on the RWTH Aachen “Radiver” centrifugal compressor case with vaned diffuser. For design conditions and operation points near the stability limit, all investigated turbulence models predict the compressor characteristic. Operation points in the choking region on the other hand are only predicted well by anisotropic models. The good results and improved convergence behavior of the advanced RANS models clearly indicates their applicability in the design process of turbomachines.


2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
H. D. Akolekar ◽  
J. Weatheritt ◽  
N. Hutchins ◽  
R. D. Sandberg ◽  
G. Laskowski ◽  
...  

Nonlinear turbulence closures were developed that improve the prediction accuracy of wake mixing in low-pressure turbine (LPT) flows. First, Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) calculations using five linear turbulence closures were performed for the T106A LPT profile at isentropic exit Reynolds numbers 60,000 and 100,000. None of these RANS models were able to accurately reproduce wake loss profiles, a crucial parameter in LPT design, from direct numerical simulation (DNS) reference data. However, the recently proposed kv2¯ω transition model was found to produce the best agreement with DNS data in terms of blade loading and boundary layer behavior and thus was selected as baseline model for turbulence closure development. Analysis of the DNS data revealed that the linear stress–strain coupling constitutes one of the main model form errors. Hence, a gene-expression programming (GEP) based machine-learning technique was applied to the high-fidelity DNS data to train nonlinear explicit algebraic Reynolds stress models (EARSM), using different training regions. The trained models were first assessed in an a priori sense (without running any RANS calculations) and showed much improved alignment of the trained models in the region of training. Additional RANS calculations were then performed using the trained models. Importantly, to assess their robustness, the trained models were tested both on the cases they were trained for and on testing, i.e., previously not seen, cases with different flow features. The developed models improved prediction of the Reynolds stress, turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) production, wake-loss profiles, and wake maturity, across all cases.


2019 ◽  
Vol 130 ◽  
pp. 01013
Author(s):  
Hariyo Priambudi Setyo Pratomo ◽  
Fandi Dwiputra Suprianto ◽  
Teng Sutrisno

Turbulence simulation remains one of the active research activities in computational engineering. Along with the increase in computing power and the prime motivation of improving the accuracy of statistical turbulence modeling approaches and reducing the expensive computational cost of both direct numerical and large turbulence scale- resolving simulations, various hybrid turbulence models being capable of capturing unsteadiness in the turbulence are now accessible. Nevertheless this introduces the daunting task to select an appropriate method for different cases as one can not know a priori the inherent nature of the turbulence. It is the aim of this paper to address recent progresses and further researches within a branch of the hybrid RANS-LES models examined by the first author as simple test cases but generating complex turbulent flows are available from experimentation. In particular, failure of a seamless hybrid formulation not explicitly dependent on the grid scale is discussed. From the literature, it is practical that at least one can go on with confidence when choosing a potential hybrid model by intuitively distinguishing between strongly and weakly unstable turbulent flows.


2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Philipp Heners ◽  
Damian M. Vogt ◽  
Christian Frey ◽  
Graham Ashcroft

Abstract The impact of the unsteadiness in the considered turbulence quantities on the numerical prediction of the aeroelastic behavior of a low-pressure turbine (LPT) rotor blade is evaluated by means of a numerical study. In this context, one of the main objectives of this work is to compare different nonlinear harmonic balance (HB) approaches—one neglecting and one considering the unsteadiness in the employed turbulence models—with a conventional nonlinear solver of the unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) equations in the time domain. In order to avoid unphysical oscillations in the turbulence quantities caused by the Gibbs phenomenon in the chosen HB approach, a filter method based on the Lanczos filter is developed. The developed filter method is applied in the course of the HB simulations considering the unsteadiness in the underlying turbulence model. Furthermore, the impact of its application on the solution of the flow field and on the unsteady surface pressure of the rotor blade, in particular, is discussed in the context of this work.


Author(s):  
Johan Hja¨rne ◽  
Jonas Larsson ◽  
Lennart Lo¨fdahl

This paper presents 2D and 3D-numerical simulations compared with experimental data from a linear Low Pressure Turbine/Outlet Guide Vane (LPT/OGV) cascade at Chalmers in Sweden. Various performance characteristics for both on and off design cases were investigated, including; pressure distributions, total pressure losses and turning. The numerical simulations were performed with the goal to validate simulation methods and create best-practice guidelines for how to accurately and reliably predict performance and off-design characteristics for an LPT/OGV. The numerical part of the paper presents results using different turbulence models and levels of mesh refinement in order to assess what is the most appropriate simulation approach. From these results it can be concluded that the k-ε Realizable model predicts both losses and turning most accurately for both on and off design conditions.


2004 ◽  
Vol 128 (3) ◽  
pp. 423-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. B. Langtry ◽  
F. R. Menter ◽  
S. R. Likki ◽  
Y. B. Suzen ◽  
P. G. Huang ◽  
...  

A new correlation-based transition model has been developed, which is built strictly on local variables. As a result, the transition model is compatible with modern computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods using unstructured grids and massive parallel execution. The model is based on two transport equations, one for the intermittency and one for the transition onset criteria in terms of momentum thickness Reynolds number. The proposed transport equations do not attempt to model the physics of the transition process (unlike, e.g., turbulence models), but form a framework for the implementation of correlation-based models into general-purpose CFD methods. Part I of this paper (Menter, F. R., Langtry, R. B., Likki, S. R., Suzen, Y. B., Huang, P. G., and Völker, S., 2006, ASME J. Turbomach., 128(3), pp. 413–422) gives a detailed description of the mathematical formulation of the model and some of the basic test cases used for model validation. Part II (this part) details a significant number of test cases that have been used to validate the transition model for turbomachinery and aerodynamic applications, including the drag crisis of a cylinder, separation-induced transition on a circular leading edge, and natural transition on a wind turbine airfoil. Turbomachinery test cases include a highly loaded compressor cascade, a low-pressure turbine blade, a transonic turbine guide vane, a 3D annular compressor cascade, and unsteady transition due to wake impingement. In addition, predictions are shown for an actual industrial application, namely, a GE low-pressure turbine vane. In all cases, good agreement with the experiments could be achieved and the authors believe that the current model is a significant step forward in engineering transition modeling.


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