On the Influence of Blade Aspect Ratio on Aerodynamic Damping

2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Buchwald ◽  
Aydin Farahmand ◽  
Damian M. Vogt

AbstractIn order to change the blade count (BC) of axial rotor designs, a scaling technique can be applied where the blades are scaled in axial and circumferential directions while maintaining the solidity. This technique allows to adjust the blade count without changing the steady-state aerodynamics, but the influences on the aerodynamic damping are unknown. The present study is focused on the investigation of the change in aerodynamic damping of a subsonic axial compressor rotor, if the blade count is changed between 13 and 25 blades. The investigation is focused on the first bending mode family and the influences of the hub geometry on the modes are neglected. First, a comparison between the influence coefficient (IC) method and the traveling wave mode (TWM) method is conducted, which shows that the application of the IC method in combination with harmonic balance simulations offers a fast way to compute the aerodynamic damping without introducing significant errors compared with the TWM method simulations. Regarding the aerodynamic damping of the different rotor geometries, it can be noted that the amplitude of the work per cycle influence coefficient of the center blade scales linearly with the blade scaling factor and an increase in aerodynamic damping for an increase in blade count is observed. Furthermore, a simplified analytic theory is established, which explains the phase angle change of the blade influence coefficients due to the blade scaling. In the last part of the paper, an extrapolation method is proposed for the investigated geometry and mode family, which allows for the estimation of damping S-curves for scaled rotor geometries based on only one IC method simulation.

Author(s):  
K. Vogel ◽  
A. D. Naidu ◽  
M. Fischer

The prediction of aerodynamic damping is a key step towards high fidelity forced response calculations. Without the knowledge of absolute damping values, the resulting stresses from forced response calculations are often afflicted with large uncertainties. In addition, with the knowledge of the aerodynamic damping the aeroelastic contribution to mistuning can be considered. The first section of this paper compares two methods of one-way-coupled aerodynamic damping computations on an axial turbine. Those methods are: the aerodynamic influence coefficient, and the travelling wave mode method. Excellent agreement between the two methods is found with significant differences in required computational time. The average deviation between all methods for the transonic turbine is 4%. Additionally, the use of transient blade row methods with phase lagged periodic boundaries are investigated and the influence of periodic boundaries on the aerodynamic influence coefficients are assessed. A total of 23 out of 33 passages are needed to remove all influence from the periodic boundaries for the present configuration. The second part of the paper presents the aerodynamic damping calculations for a centrifugal compressor. Simulations are predominantly performed using the aerodynamic influence coefficient approach. The influence of the periodic boundaries and the recirculation channel is investigated. All simulations are performed on a modern turbocharger turbine and centrifugal compressor using ANSYS CFX V17.0 with an inhouse pre- and post-processing procedure at ABB Turbocharging. The comparison to experimental results concludes the paper.


Author(s):  
Matthias Kniefs ◽  
Martin Lange ◽  
Ronald Mailach ◽  
Senad Iseni ◽  
Derek Micallef ◽  
...  

Circumferential grooves in the casing of an axial compressor rotor or fan are known to be beneficial by extending the operating range of the machine. The goal of this paper is to analyze, if such grooves have a significant effect on the flutter stability, too. Generally, flutter should always be avoided as these self-excited blade vibrations can lead to high-cycle fatigue and therefore may damage the blades. In the present paper, the flutter behavior of a nominal fan is analyzed by performing a unidirectional Fluid-Structure-Interaction (FSI) simulation. To model the traveling wave arising during flutter, three different possibilities are available for computational fluid dynamics (CFD): the traveling wave mode method (TWM), the Fourier transformation method (FT) and the influence coefficient method (INFC). The TWM and INFC will be used within this investigation. At first, the computed flutter stability of the commercial CFD solver ANSYS CFX is compared to the results of the academic CFD solver TBLOCK. Therefore, a MATLAB code is introduced to be able to use the very efficient INFC method in combination with ANSYS CFX. The main part of this paper deals with the examination of three different circumferential grooves. Two of them had been optimized regarding aerodynamics and aeroacoustics in a joint research project and produce a minor change in flutter behavior. The third groove is of an arbitrary chosen design and it is discussed how its axial position has an impact on the vibration characteristic of the fan. All CFD simulations are conducted for two different operating points at 100% speed and the first two eigenmodes of the fan blade.


Author(s):  
Kirubakaran Purushothaman ◽  
Sankar Kumar Jeyaraman ◽  
Ajay Pratap ◽  
Kishore Prasad Deshkulkarni

This study discusses in detail the aeroelastic flutter investigation of a transonic axial compressor rotor using computational methods. Fluid structure interaction approach is used in this method to evaluate the unsteady aerodynamic force and work done of a vibrating blade in CFD domain. Energy method and work per cycle approach is adapted for this flutter prediction. A framework has been developed to estimate the work per cycle and aerodynamic damping ratio. Based on the aerodynamic damping ratio, occurrence of flutter is estimated for different inter blade phase angles. Initially, the baseline rotor blade design was having negative aerodynamic damping at part speed conditions. The main cause for this flutter occurrence was identified as large flow separation near blade tip region due to high incidence angles. The unsteadiness in the flow was leading to aerodynamic force fluctuation matching with natural frequency of blade, resulting in excitation of the blades. Hence axially skewed slot casing treatment was implemented to reduce the flow separation at blade tip region to alleviate the onset of flutter. By this method, the stall margin and aerodynamic damping of the test compressor was improved and flutter was avoided.


Author(s):  
Senad Iseni ◽  
Derek Micallef ◽  
Ronald Mailach

The fundamental mechanisms of blade flutter in modern aircraft engines are very complex. Flutter is a self-excited aeroelastic instability phenomenon which can finally cause material fatigue and, in the worst case, leads to blade failure within a very short time. The risk of flutter has to be considered during the design process and it is necessary to avoid that safety risk. The aeroelastic stability has to be ensured over the whole operating range especially near operating limits or typical flutter boundaries, like at stall or choke conditions. Topic of this paper are inlet distortions, which can have an additional influence on the flutter stability of the fan and the first compressor stages of jet engines. For this purpose a sinusoidal steady total pressure inlet distortion was defined. The influence of this inlet distortion on the flow field and the flutter stability of a highly loaded transonic fan rotor (NASA rotor 67) is investigated. The static deflection of the manufactured blade was considered using an accurate mesh morphing algorithm to update the fan performance characteristic considering the deformed blade structure. The fan rotor interacts with the upstream distorted flow which leads to different blade loading between the adjacent blades. A decoupled flutter stability analysis using the three-dimensional viscous flow solver TBLOCK and the open-source software package CalculiX for pre-stressed modal analyses is carried out. The flutter stability analyses with TBLOCK are performed using the so-called energy method which was introduced by Carta. In order to predict the flutter stability under clean inflow conditions, two different formulations, the Influence Coefficient Method (ICM) and Traveling Wave Mode (TWM) formulation, are taken into account, whereas both formulations are compared to each other. The influence coefficients were directly calculated from the TWM formulation to determine the required number of passages for the ICM. It can be seen that the stability curves obtained with the ICM are in a good agreement to the TWM-method. The use of ICM reduces substantially the number of unsteady CFD calculations because of the fact that only one unsteady CFD calculation is needed to reconstruct the stability curve for each eigenmode and operating point. The effect of inlet distortion on flutter stability is investigated applying the TWM formulation only. Indeed, it was established that such flow disturbances have also for specific blades, considering the operating point, eigenmode and nodal diameter a destabilising impact on their aeroelastic behavior and can cause flutter, which is mostly determined by the time-averaged stability parameter. Just in the same manner a positive effect was observed for certain blades in the blade row.


Author(s):  
Christopher Fuhrer ◽  
Damian M. Vogt

The determination of the aerodynamic damping is a major task in predicting flutter stability and therefore safety margins for turbine operation. Throughout the current work the energy method is employed to predict the aerodynamic damping for a last stage rotor blade numerically. The focus is put on the prediction of the aerodynamic damping with different traveling wave mode representations and on the influence of the blade fixation at the root. The Fourier transformation-method, the influence-coefficients-method and a direct traveling wave mode calculation are employed. The investigated rotor geometry was taken from the open literature, a root was designed and an iterative process was installed to determine the cold blade geometry. It became apparent, that the influence-coefficients-method is capable of predicting the overall stability curve computationally efficient, whereas the Fourier-transformation-method showed advantages in the identification of the least stable point for a finer mesh. Nevertheless, all methods predicted a potential flutter risk for the current operating point. The influence of the additional blade root with a completely fixed support on the aerodynamic damping is minor.


Author(s):  
Zhizhong Fu ◽  
Yanrong Wang ◽  
Xianghua Jiang ◽  
Dasheng Wei

The tip clearance effects on aero-elastic stability of axial compressor blades are investigated with two independent three-dimensional (3D) flutter prediction approaches: energy method and aero-elastic eigenvalue analysis. An axial compressor rotor which has encountered broken fault caused by flutter during the test rig and flight has been analyzed for five tip gap configurations. A consistent conclusion obtained by these two independent approaches shows the variation trend of aerodynamic damping is not monotonic, but aerodynamic damping at the least stable case shows a trend of first decrease and then increase with the rising of tip gap size, which is different from the results of other researchers and can be utilized to understand the conflict between the conclusions of different research work. Apart from the results of tip clearance effects on aero-elastic stability, the employed two methods have revealed the key factors involved in the flutter occurrence from a different perspective.


Author(s):  
Yanfei Gao ◽  
Yangwei Liu ◽  
Luyang Zhong ◽  
Jiexuan Hou ◽  
Lipeng Lu

AbstractThe standard k-ε model (SKE) and the Reynolds stress model (RSM) are employed to predict the tip leakage flow (TLF) in a low-speed large-scale axial compressor rotor. Then, a new research method is adopted to “freeze” the turbulent kinetic energy and dissipation rate of the flow field derived from the RSM, and obtain the turbulent viscosity using the Boussinesq hypothesis. The Reynolds stresses and mean flow field computed on the basis of the frozen viscosity are compared with the results of the SKE and the RSM. The flow field in the tip region based on the frozen viscosity is more similar to the results of the RSM than those of the SKE, although certain differences can be observed. This finding indicates that the non-equilibrium turbulence transport nature plays an important role in predicting the TLF, as well as the turbulence anisotropy.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Zeyuan Yang ◽  
Yadong Wu ◽  
Hua Ouyang

Abstract Rotating instability (RI) and rotating stall (RS) are two types of aerodynamic instability in axial compressors. The former features the side-by-side peaks below the blade passing frequency (BPF) in frequency spectra, and the latter represents one or more stall cells rotating in the compressor. This paper presents an experimental on the nearfield pressure and farfield acoustic characteristics of RI phenomenon in a low-speed axial compressor rotor, which endures both RI and RS at several working conditions. In order to obtain the high-order modes of RI and other aerodynamic instability, a total of 9 or 20 Kulites are circumferentially mounted on the casing wall to measure the nearfield pressure fluctuation using a mode order calibration method. Meantime in the farfield 16 microphones are planted to measure the acoustic mode order using the compressive sensing method. Through calibration the experiments acquire the mode orders generated by RI and the interaction between RI and BPF, which is higher than the number of transducers. As for RS, the mode decomposition shows a mode order of 1, indicating one single stall cell rotating in the compressor. This experiment also shows that amplitude of RI modes is decreased when RS occurs, but RS modes and RI modes will both be enhanced if the flow rate is further reduced. This experiment reveals that RI experiences three stages of “strengthen-weaken-strengthen”, and hence RI may not be regarded only as “prestall” disturbance.


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