Detached-Eddy Simulation Applied to Aeroelastic Stability Analysis in a Last-Stage Steam Turbine Blade

2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tianrui Sun ◽  
Paul Petrie-Repar ◽  
Damian M. Vogt ◽  
Anping Hou
Keyword(s):  
Steam Turbine ◽  
Steam Turbines ◽  
Detached Eddy Simulation ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Aeroelastic Stability ◽  
Blade Vibration ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Eddy Simulation ◽  
Blade Flutter ◽  
Last Stage

Blade flutter in the last stage is an important design consideration for the manufacturers of steam turbines. Therefore, the accurate prediction method for blade flutter is critical. Since the majority of aerodynamic work contributing to flutter is done near the blade tip, resolving the tip leakage flow can increase the accuracy of flutter predictions. The previous research has shown that the induced vortices in the tip region can have a significant influence on the flow field near the tip. The structure of induced vortices due to the tip leakage vortex cannot be resolved by unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) simulations because of the high dissipation in turbulence models. To the best of author’s knowledge, the influence of induced vortices on flutter characteristics has not been investigated. In this paper, the results of detached-eddy simulation (DES) and URANS flutter simulations of a realistic-scale last-stage steam turbine are presented, and the influence of induced vortices on the flutter stability has been investigated. Significant differences for the predicted aerodynamic work coefficient distribution on the blade surface, especially on the rear half of the blade suction side near the tip, are observed. At the least stable interblade phase angle (IBPA), the induced vortices show a destabilizing effect on the blade aeroelastic stability. The motion of induced vortices during blade oscillation is dependent on the blade amplitude, and hence, the aerodynamic damping is also dependent on the blade vibration amplitude. In conclusion, the induced vortices can influence the predicted flutter characteristics of the steam turbine test case.

Detached-Eddy Simulation Applied to the Tip-Clearance Flow in a Last Stage Steam Turbine Blade

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tianrui Sun ◽  
Paul Petrie-Repar ◽  
Damian M. Vogt
Keyword(s):  
Steam Turbine ◽  
Flow Structure ◽  
Complex Structure ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Steam Turbines ◽  
Detached Eddy Simulation ◽  
Tip Clearance Flow ◽  
Eddy Simulation ◽  
Clearance Flow ◽  
Last Stage

Prediction of the aerodynamic stability of rotor blades at the last stage of steam turbines is of great importance and widely studied. Considering the large span and low natural frequency of these blades, flow at the tip region has a remarkable effect on blade flutter characteristics. However, the transonic tip-clearance flow in these blades has a complex structure of vortices. To obtain a deep understanding of the transonic tip-clearance flow structure in steam turbines, the Detached-Eddy Simulation (DES) is applied in this paper. DES is a hybrid LES/RANS method that activates LES in specified flow regions and applies URANS in other regions of the flow field. As far as we are aware, the tip-clearance flow structure of real-scale last stage steam turbine by high-fidelity numerical method had not been much analyzed in open literature. In this paper, the transonic tip-clearance flow structure in modern last stage of steam turbines is analyzed by both URANS and DES approaches. The open steam turbine model designed by Durham University is chosen as the research model. The flow solver applied is the commercial software ANSYS CFX. From the DES result, the tip leakage vortex and the induced vortices are presented. Based on the comparison between tip-clearance flow structure captured by the two approaches, the URANS method is not able to resolve all induced vortices. Therefore, the distribution of aerodynamic loading on the blade surface is different between URANS and DES results. The present study serves as a basis for investigating the influence of the tip-clearance flow structure on blade aeroelasticity.

scholarly journals Influence of the Tip Clearance on the Aeroelastic Characteristics of a Last Stage Steam Turbine

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 1213
Author(s):  
Tianrui Sun ◽  
Anping Hou ◽  
Mingming Zhang ◽  
Paul Petrie-Repar
Keyword(s):  
Steam Turbine ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Steam Turbines ◽  
Aeroelastic Stability ◽  
Tip Leakage Vortex ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Aerodynamic Damping ◽  
Last Stage ◽  
Gap Height

In this paper, the tip clearance effects on the aeroelastic stability of a last-stage steam turbine model are investigated. Most of the unsteady aerodynamic work contributing to flutter of the long blades of the last-stage of a steam turbine is done near the tip of the blade. The flow in this region is transonic and sensitive to geometric parameters such as the tip clearance height. The KTH Steam Turbine Flutter Test Case was chosen as the test case, which is an open geometry with similar parameters to modern free-standing last-stage steam turbines. The energy method based on 3D URANS simulation was applied to investigate the flutter characteristics of the rotor blade with five tip gap height varying from 0–5% of the chord length. The numerical results show that the global aerodynamic damping for the least stable inter-blade phase angle (IBPA) increases with the tip gap height. Three physical mechanisms are found to cause this phenomenon. The primary cause of the variation in total aerodynamic damping is the interaction between tip clearance vortex and the trailing edge shock from the adjacent blade. Another mechanism is the acceleration of the flow near the aft side of the suction surface in the tip region due to the well-developed tip leakage vortex when the tip clearance height is greater than 2.5% of chord. This causes a stabilizing effect at the least stable IBPA. The third mechanism is the oscillation of the tip leakage vortex due to the blade vibration. This has a negative influence on the aeroelastic stability.

Investigation of Tip Clearance Flow Effects on an Open 3D Steam Turbine Flutter Test Case

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tianrui Sun ◽  
Paul Petrie-Repar ◽  
Di Qi
Keyword(s):  
Steam Turbine ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Numerical Models ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Leakage Flow ◽  
Steam Turbines ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Last Stage

Blade failure caused by flutter is a major problem in the last stage of modern steam turbines. It is because rotor at this stage always has a large scale in spanwise, which provides low structural frequency as well as supersonic tip speeds. Since most of the unsteady aerodynamic work is done in the tip region, transonic tip-leakage flow that influences the tip region flow could have a remarkable effect on the aerodynamic stability of rotor blades. However, few research had been done on the tip-leakage flow influence on flutter characteristic based on full-scale steam turbine numerical models. In this paper, an open 3D steam turbine stage model designed by Durham University was applied, which was widely analyzed and representative for the last stage of modern industrial steam turbines. The average Mach number at the rotor outlet is 1.1. URANS simulation carried by both numerical software CFX and LUFT code is applied, and the two solvers show an agreement on steady and unsteady results. The numerical results indicate that the influence of tip leakage flow on blade stability is based on two types of flow mechanisms. Both mechanisms act on the suction side of near tip region. The first type of mechanism is produced by the reduction of passage shock near the leading edge, and the other type of mechanism at the rear of blade is caused by the interaction between tip leakage vortex and trailing edge shock of the neighbor blade. In conclusion, tip leakage flow has a significant influence on steam turbine flutter boundary prediction and requires further analysis in the future.

scholarly journals Entropy Analysis of the Flat Tip Leakage Flow with Delayed Detached Eddy Simulation

Entropy ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Li ◽  
Xinrong Su ◽  
Xin Yuan
Keyword(s):  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Flow Structures ◽  
Leakage Flow ◽  
Detached Eddy Simulation ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Eddy Simulation ◽  
Delayed Detached Eddy Simulation ◽  
Passage Vortex ◽  
Unsteady Effects

In unshrouded turbine rotors, the tip leakage vortices develop and interact with the passage vortices. Such complex leakage flow causes the major loss in the turbine stage. Due to the complex turbulence characteristics of the tip leakage flow, the widely used Reynolds Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) approach may fail to accurately predict the multi-scale turbulent flow and the related loss. In order to effectively improve the turbine efficiency, more insights into the loss mechanism are required. In this work, a Delayed Detached Eddy Simulation (DDES) study is conducted to simulate the flow inside a high pressure turbine blade, with emphasis on the tip region. DDES results are in good agreement with the experiment, and the comparison with RANS results verifies the advantages of DDES in resolving detailed flow structures of leakage flow, and also in capturing the complex turbulence characteristics. The snapshot Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) method is used to extract the dominant flow features. The flow structures and the distribution of turbulent kinetic energy reveal the development of leakage flow and its interaction with the secondary flow. Meanwhile, it is found that the separation bubble (SB) is formed in tip clearance. The strong interactions between tip leakage vortex (TLV) and the up passage vortex (UPV) are the main source of unsteady effects which significantly enhance the turbulence intensity. Based on the DDES results, loss analysis of tip leakage flow is conducted based on entropy generation rates. It is found that the viscous dissipation loss is much stronger than heat transfer loss. The largest local loss occurs in the tip clearance, and the interaction between the leakage vortex and up passage vortex promotes the loss generation. The tip leakage flow vortex weakens the strength of up passage vortex, and loss of up passage flow is reduced. Comparing steady and unsteady effects to flow field, we found that unsteady effects of tip leakage flow have a large influence on flow loss distribution which cannot be ignored. To sum up, the current DDES study about the tip leakage flow provides helpful information about the loss generation mechanism and may guide the design of low-loss blade tip.

Comparison of DDES and URANS for Unsteady Tip Leakage Flow in an Axial Compressor Rotor

2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yangwei Liu ◽  
Luyang Zhong ◽  
Lipeng Lu
Keyword(s):  
Reynolds Stress ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Turbulence Modeling ◽  
Axial Compressor ◽  
Small Time ◽  
Detached Eddy Simulation ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Time Step ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Eddy Simulation

Tip leakage vortex (TLV) has a large impact on compressor performance and should be accurately predicted by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods. New approaches of turbulence modeling, such as delayed detached eddy simulation (DDES), have been proposed, the computational resources of which can be reduced much more than for large eddy simulation (LES). In this paper, the numerical simulations of the rotor in a low-speed large-scale axial compressor based on DDES and unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) are performed, thus improving our understanding of the TLV dynamic mechanisms and discrepancy of these two methods. We compared the influence of different time steps in the URANS simulation. The widely used large time-step makes the unsteadiness extremely weak. The small time-step shows a better result close to DDES. The time-step scale is related to the URANS unsteadiness and should be carefully selected. In the time-averaged flow, the TLV in DDES dissipates faster, which has a more similar structure to the experiment. Then, the time-averaged and instantaneous results are compared to divide the TLV into three parts. URANS cannot give the loss of stability and evolution details of TLV. The fluctuation velocity spectra show that the amplitude of high frequencies becomes obvious downstream from the TLV, where it becomes unstable. Last, the anisotropy of the Reynolds stress of these two methods is analyzed through the Lumley triangle to see the distinction between the methods and obtain the Reynolds stress. The results indicate that the TLV latter part in DDES is anisotropic, while in URANS it is isotropic.

Application of Detached Eddy Simulation to a Subsonic Compressor Rotor

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunwei Gu ◽  
Fan Feng ◽  
Xuesong Li ◽  
Meilan Chen
Keyword(s):  
Wake Flow ◽  
Leakage Flow ◽  
Separation Region ◽  
Detached Eddy Simulation ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Blade Loading ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Eddy Simulation ◽  
Compressor Rotor ◽  
Des Model

An attempt is made in the present paper to apply DES (Detached Eddy Simulation), which is based on S-A model of RANS, for investigating the flow field around a subsonic compressor rotor with a tip clearance of 2% blade height. Comparison of the results by DES and S-A model shows that DES model can capture more intensive vortex flow, such as tip leakage flow, double leakage flow, as well as interaction between the leakage flow and wake flow downstream of the rotor passage. DES model predicts more complicated flow at the separation region near the hub. DES simulation for different operation conditions also reveals interesting details. The shedding angle and strength of the tip leakage flow changes with the blade loading. The starting point of the leakage vortex moves towards the leading edge when the blade loading increases. Double leakage is observed only at the design and higher loading conditions, and is not at a lower loading condition. The tip leakage vortex splits into two branches downstream of the rotor blade due to interaction with the wake flow. Instantaneous results show unsteadiness of the tip leakage vortex. Alternating regions of higher and lower loss is found along the time-averaged leakage vortex trajectory. Obvious is also the unsteadiness in the separation region near the hub.

scholarly journals Unsteady flow mechanisms in the last stage of a transonic low pressure steam turbine—multistage effects and tip leakage flows

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. F4IW8S
Author(s):  
Ilias Papagiannis ◽  
Asad Raheem ◽  
Altug Basol ◽  
Anestis Kalfas ◽  
Reza Abhari ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Shock Wave ◽  
Steam Turbine ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Bow Shock ◽  
Leakage Flow ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Bow Shock Wave ◽  
Last Stage ◽  
Two Stages

Abstract In this paper, an unsteady investigation of the last two stages of a low-pressure steam turbine with supersonic airfoils near the tip of the last stage’s rotor blade is presented. Goal is the investigation of multistage effects and tip leakage flow in the last stage of the turbine and to provide insight on the stator-rotor flow interaction in the presence of a bow-shock wave. This study is unique in a sense of combining experimental data for code validation and comparison with a numerical simulation of the last two stages of a real steam turbine, including tip-cavity paths and seals, steam modelling and experimental data used as inlet and outlet boundary conditions. Analysis of results shows high unsteadiness close to the tip of the last stage, due to the presence of a bow-shock wave upstream of the rotor blade leading edge and its interaction with the upstream stator blades, but no boundary layer separation on stator is detected at any instant in time. The intensity of the shock wave is weakest, when the axial distance of the rotor leading edge from the upstream stator trailing edge is largest, since it has more space available to weaken. However, a phase shift between the maximum values of static pressure along the suction side of the stator blade is identified, due to the shock wave moving with the rotor blades. Additionally, the bow-shock wave interacts with the blade shroud and the tip leakage flow. Despite the interaction with the incoming flow, the total tip leakage mass flow ingested in the tip-cavity shows a steady behaviour with extremely low fluctuations in time. Finally, traces of upstream stage’s leakage flow have been identified in the last stage, contributing to entropy generation in inlet and outlet of last stage’s stator blade, highlighting the importance of performing multistage simulations.

Detached Eddy Simulation: Recent Development and Application to Compressor Tip Leakage Flow

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-400
Author(s):  
Xiao He ◽  
Fanzhou Zhao ◽  
Mehdi Vahdati
Keyword(s):  
Flow Field ◽  
Model Development ◽  
Main Flow ◽  
Transition To Turbulence ◽  
Leakage Flow ◽  
Detached Eddy Simulation ◽  
Grid Spacing ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Eddy Simulation

Abstract Detached Eddy Simulation (DES) and its variants are emerging tools for turbomachinery simulations. In this paper, the state-of-the-art upgrades of DES are reviewed, and their capabilities in predicting compressor tip leakage flow are discussed. The upgrade with the best potential is identified as the Delayed DES (DDES) method with the grid spacing FKHΔhyb, which unlocks the physics of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in compressor tip leakage flow. The upgraded grid spacing FKHΔhyb is compared against the widely used default one Δmax in a backward-facing step and a low-speed axial compressor rotor. Results show that the DDES method with FKHΔhyb predicts both the main flow field and the turbulence field with reasonably good accuracy. However, the original DDES method with Δmax predicts a delayed transition to turbulence, which leads to an inaccurate prediction of the main flow field when using a coarse mesh. The findings in this paper highlight the future opportunities for using the DDES-FKHΔhyb method to predict tip-driven compressor stall and generate a turbulence database for turbulence model development.

scholarly journals Unsteadiness of Tip Leakage Flow in the Detached-Eddy Simulation on a Transonic Rotor with Vortex Breakdown Phenomenon

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 954 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiangyu Su ◽  
Xiaodong Ren ◽  
Xuesong Li ◽  
Chunwei Gu
Keyword(s):  
Vortex Breakdown ◽  
Leakage Flow ◽  
Angle Distribution ◽  
Detached Eddy Simulation ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Flow Angle ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Transonic Compressor ◽  
Eddy Simulation ◽  
Compressor Rotor

Tip leakage vortex (TLV) in a transonic compressor rotor was investigated numerically using detached-eddy simulation (DES) method at different working conditions. Strong unsteadiness was found at the tip region, causing a considerable fluctuation in total pressure distribution and flow angle distribution above 80% span. The unsteadiness at near choke point and peak efficiency point is not obvious. DES method can resolve more detailed flow patterns than RANS (Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes) results, and detailed structures of the tip leakage flow were captured. A spiral-type breakdown structure of the TLV was successfully observed at the near stall point when the TLV passed through the bow shock. The breakdown of TLV contributed to the unsteadiness and the blockage effect at the tip region.

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