scholarly journals Blade Loading Effects on Axial Turbine Tip Leakage Vortex Dynamics and Loss

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. C. Huang ◽  
E. M. Greitzer ◽  
C. S. Tan ◽  
E. F. Clemens ◽  
S. G. Gegg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pressure Distribution ◽  
Vortex Dynamics ◽  
Vortex Breakdown ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Pressure Rise ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Leakage Loss ◽  
Blade Loading ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Dominant Feature

Numerical simulations have been carried out to define the loss generation mechanisms associated with tip leakage in un-shrouded axial turbines. Tip clearance vortex dynamics are a dominant feature of two mechanisms important in determining this loss: (i) decreased swirl velocity due to vortex line contraction in regions of decreasing axial velocity, i.e., adverse pressure gradient and (ii) vortex breakdown and reverse flow in the vortex core. The mixing losses behave differently from the conventional view of flow exiting a turbine tip clearance. More specifically, it is shown, through both control volume arguments and computations, that as a swirling leakage flow passes through a pressure rise, such as in the aft portion of the suction side of a turbine blade, the mixed-out loss can either decrease or increase. For turbines the latter typically occurs if the deceleration is large enough to initiate vortex breakdown, and it is demonstrated that this is the case in modern turbines. The effect of blade pressure distribution on clearance losses is illustrated through computational examination of two turbine blades, one with forward loading at the tip and one with aft loading. A 15% difference in leakage loss is found between the two, due to lower clearance vortex deceleration (lower core static pressure rise) with forward loading, and hence lower vortex breakdown loss. Additional computational experiments, carried out to define the effects of blade loading, incidence, and solidity, are found to be consistent with the proposed ideas linking blade pressure distribution, vortex breakdown and turbine tip leakage loss.

Effects of Tip Clearance on Blade Loading in a Planar Cascade of Turbine Blades

1987 ◽  
Vol 109 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. A. Sjolander ◽  
K. K. Amrud
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Axial Component ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Blade Loading ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Pressure Distributions ◽  
Oil Flow ◽  
New Feature

The paper examines in detail the structure of the tip leakage flow and its effect on the blade loading in a large-scale planar cascade of turbine blades. The tip clearance was varied from 0.0 to 2.86 percent of the blade chord. One of the blades is instrumented with 14 rows of 73 static taps which allowed a very detailed picture of the loading near the tip to be obtained. In addition to the measurements, extensive flow visualization was conducted using both smoke and surface oil flow. A new feature found in the present experiment was the formation of multiple, discrete tip-leakage vortices as the clearance was increased. Their presence is clearly evident from the surface oil flow and they account for the multiple suction peaks found in the blade pressure distributions. Integration of the pressure distributions showed that for larger values of the clearance the blade loading increases as the tip is approached and only begins to decline very near the tip. The increase was found to occur primarily in the axial component of the force.

scholarly journals Effects of Tip Clearance on Blade Loading in a Planar Cascade of Turbine Blades

1986 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steen A. Sjolander ◽  
Kim K. Amrud
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Axial Component ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Blade Loading ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Pressure Distributions ◽  
Oil Flow ◽  
New Feature

The paper examines in detail the structure of the tip leakage flow and its effect on the blade loading in a large-scale planar cascade of turbine blades. The tip clearance was varied from 0.0 to 2.86% of the blade chord. One of the blades is instrumented with 14 rows of 73 static taps which allowed a very detailed picture of the loading near the tip to be obtained. In addition to the measurements, extensive flow visualization was conducted using both smoke and surface oil flow. A new feature found in the present experiment was the formation of multiple, discrete tip-leakage vortices as the clearance was increased. Their presence is clearly evident from the surface oil flow and they account for the multiple suction peaks found in the blade pressure distributions. Integration of the pressure distributions showed that for larger values of the clearance the blade loading increases as the tip is approached and only begins to decline very near the tip. The increase was found to occur primarily in the axial component of the force.

Influences of Tip Leakage Flows Discharged From Main and Splitter Blades on Flow Field in Transonic Centrifugal Compressor Stage

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masanao Kaneko ◽  
Hoshio Tsujita
Keyword(s):  
Flow Field ◽  
Centrifugal Compressor ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Blade Loading ◽  
Tip Leakage Vortex ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Leakage Flows ◽  
Transonic Centrifugal Compressor ◽  
Tip Leakage Flows

A transonic centrifugal compressor impeller is generally composed of the main and the splitter blades which are different in chord length. As a result, the tip leakage flows from the main and the splitter blades interact with each other and then complicate the flow field in the compressor. In this study, in order to clarify the individual influences of these leakage flows on the flow field in the transonic centrifugal compressor stage at near-choke to near-stall condition, the flows in the compressor at four conditions prescribed by the presence and the absence of the tip clearances were analyzed numerically. The computed results clarified the following noticeable phenomena. The tip clearance of the main blade induces the tip leakage vortex from the leading edge of the main blade. This vortex decreases the blade loading of the main blade to the negative value by the increase of the flow acceleration along the suction surface of the splitter blade, and consequently induces the tip leakage vortex caused by the negative blade loading of the main blade at any operating points. These phenomena decline the impeller efficiency. On the other hand, the tip clearance of the splitter blade decreases the afore mentioned acceleration by the formation of the tip leakage vortex from the leading edge of the splitter blade and the decrease of the incidence angle for the splitter blade caused by the suction of the flow into the tip clearance. These phenomena reduce the loss generated by the negative blade loading of the main blade and consequently reduce the decline of the impeller efficiency. Moreover, the tip clearances enlarge the flow separation around the diffuser inlet and then decline the diffuser performance independently of the operating points.

Characteristics of the Tip Leakage Vortex in a Low-Speed Axial Compressor With Different Rotor Tip Gaps

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhibo Zhang ◽  
Xianjun Yu ◽  
Baojie Liu
Keyword(s):  
Axial Compressor ◽  
Pressure Rise ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Stereoscopic Particle Image Velocimetry ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Test Facility ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Tip Leakage Vortex ◽  
Low Speed ◽  
Tip Leakage

The detailed evolutionary processes of the tip leakage flow/vortex inside the rotor passage are still not very clear for the difficulties of investigating of them by both experimental and numerical methods. In this paper, the flow fields near the rotor tip region inside the blade passage with two tip gaps, 0.5% and 1.5% blade height respectively, were measured by using stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (SPIV) in a large-scale low speed axial compressor test facility. The measurements are conducted at four different operating conditions, including the design, middle, maximum static pressure rise and near stall conditions. In order to analyze the variations of the characteristics of the tip leakage vortex (TLV), the trajectory, concentration, size, streamwise velocity, and the blockage parameters are extracted from the ensemble-averaged results and compared at different compressor operating conditions and tip gaps. The results show that the formation of the TLV is delayed with large tip clearance, however, its trajectory moves much faster in an approximately linear way from the blade suction side to pressure side. In the tested compressor, the size of the tip gap has little effects on the scale of the TLV in the spanwise direction, on the contrary, its effects on the pitch-wise direction is very prominent. Breakdown of the TLV were both found at the near-stall condition with different tip gaps. The location of the initiation of the TLV breakdown moves downstream from the 60% chord to 70% chord as the tip gap increases. After the TLV breakdown occurs, the flow blockage near the rotor tip region increases abruptly. The peak value of the blockage effects caused by the TLV breakdown is doubled with the tip gap size increasing from 0.5% to 1.5% blade span.

Numerical Investigation of Relation Between Unsteady Behavior of Tip Leakage Vortex and Rotating Disturbance in a Transonic Axial Compressor Rotor

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Yamada ◽  
K. Funazaki ◽  
H. Sasaki
Keyword(s):  
Vortex Breakdown ◽  
Axial Compressor ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Tip Leakage Vortex ◽  
Tip Clearance Flow ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Compressor Rotor ◽  
Clearance Flow ◽  
Transonic Axial Compressor ◽  
Rotating Instability

The purpose of this study is to have a better understanding of the unsteady behavior of tip clearance flow at near-stall condition from a multi-passage simulation and to clarify the relation between such unsteadiness and rotating disturbance. This study is motivated by the following concern. A single passage simulation has revealed the occurrence of the tip leakage vortex breakdown at near-stall condition in a transonic axial compressor rotor, leading to the unsteadiness of the tip clearance flow field in the rotor passage. These unsteady flow phenomena were similar to those in the rotating instability, which is classified in one of the rotating disturbances. In other words it is possible that the tip leakage vortex breakdown produces a rotating disturbance such as the rotating instability. Three-dimensional unsteady RANS calculation was conducted to simulate the rotating disturbance in a transonic axial compressor rotor (NASA Rotor 37). The four-passage simulation was performed so as to capture a short length scale disturbance like the rotating instability and the spike-type stall inception. The simulation demonstrated that the unsteadiness of tip leakage vortex, which was derived from the vortex breakdown at near-stall condition, invoked the rotating disturbance in the rotor, which is similar to the rotating instability.

Behavior of Tip Leakage Flow in an Axial Flow Compressor Rotor

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanhui Wu ◽  
Wuli Chu ◽  
Xingen Lu ◽  
Junqiang Zhu
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Vortex Breakdown ◽  
Axial Flow ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Leakage Flow ◽  
Pressure Side ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Compressor Rotor ◽  
Flow Compressor

The current paper reports on investigations with an aim to advance the understanding of the flow field near the casing of a small-scale high-speed axial flow compressor rotor. Steady three dimensional viscous flow calculations are applied to obtain flow fields at various operating conditions. To demonstrate the validity of the computation, the numerical results are first compared with available measured data. Then, the numerically obtained flow fields are analyzed to identify the behavior of tip leakage flow, and the mechanism of blockage generation arising from flow interactions between the tip clearance flow, the blade/casing wall boundary layers, and non-uniform main flow. The current investigation indicates that the “breakdown” of the tip leakage vortex occurs inside the rotor passage at the near stall condition. The vortex “breakdown” results in the low-energy fluid accumulating on the casing wall spreads out remarkably, which causes a sudden growth of the casing wall boundary layer having a large blockage effect. A low-velocity region develops along the tip clearance vortex at the near stall condition due to the vortex “breakdown”. As the mass flow rate is further decreased, this area builds up rapidly and moves upstream. This area prevents incoming flow from passing through the pressure side of the passage and forces the tip leakage flow to spill into the adjacent blade passage from the pressure side at the leading edge. It is found that the tip leakage flow exerts little influence on the development of the blade suction surface boundary layer even at the near stall condition.

scholarly journals On Scaling Method to Investigate High-Speed Over-Tip-Leakage Flow at Low-Speed Condition

2018 ◽  
Vol 140 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongmei Jiang ◽  
Li He ◽  
Qiang Zhang ◽  
Lipo Wang
Keyword(s):  
High Speed ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Flow Distribution ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Leakage Flow ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Scaling Method ◽  
Low Speed ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Speed Condition

Modern high-pressure turbine blades operate at high-speed conditions. The over-tip-leakage (OTL) flow can be high-subsonic or even transonic. From the consideration of problem simplification and cost reduction, the OTL flow has been studied extensively in low-speed experiments. It has been assumed a redesigned low-speed blade profile with a matched blade loading should be sufficient to scale the high-speed OTL flow down to the low-speed condition. In this paper, the validity of this conventional scaling approach is computationally examined. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methodology was first validated by experimental data conducted in both high- and low-speed conditions. Detailed analyses on the OTL flows at high- and low-speed conditions indicate that, only matching the loading distribution with a redesigned blade cannot ensure the match of the aerodynamic performance at the low-speed condition with that at the high-speed condition. Specifically, the discrepancy in the peak tip leakage mass flux can be as high as 22%, and the total pressure loss at the low-speed condition is 6% higher than the high-speed case. An improved scaling method is proposed hereof. As an additional dimension variable, the tip clearance can also be “scaled” down from the high-speed to low-speed case to match the cross-tip pressure gradient between pressure and suction surfaces. The similarity in terms of the overall aerodynamic loss and local leakage flow distribution can be improved by adjusting the tip clearance, either uniformly or locally.

scholarly journals The Role of Tip Leakage Vortex Breakdown in Compressor Rotor Aerodynamics

1998 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masato Furukawa ◽  
Masahiro Inoue ◽  
Kazuhisa Saiki ◽  
Kazutoyo Yamada
Keyword(s):  
Flow Rate ◽  
Peak Pressure ◽  
Vortex Breakdown ◽  
Pressure Rise ◽  
Suction Surface ◽  
Tip Leakage Vortex ◽  
Rotor Aerodynamics ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Compressor Rotor ◽  
Breakdown Region

The breakdown of tip leakage vortex has been investigated on a low-speed axial compressor rotor with moderate blade loading. Effects of the breakdown on the rotor aerodynamics are elucidated by Navier-Stokes flow simulations and visualization techniques for identifying the breakdown. The simulations show that the leakage vortex breakdown occurs inside the rotor at a lower flow rate than the peak pressure rise operating condition. The breakdown is characterized by the existence of the stagnation point followed by a bubble-like recirculation region. The onset of breakdown causes significant changes in the nature of the tip leakage vortex: large expansion of the vortex and disappearance of the streamwise vorticity concentrated in the vortex. The expansion has an extremely large blockage effect extending to the upstream of the leading edge. The disappearance of the concentrated vorticity results in no rolling-up of the vortex downstream of the rotor and the disappearance of the pressure trough on the casing. The leakage flow field downstream of the rotor is dominated by the outward radial flow resulting from the contraction of the bubble-like structure of the breakdown region. It is found that the leakage vortex breakdown plays a major role in characteristic of rotor performance at near-stall conditions. As the flow rate is decreased from the peak pressure rise operating condition, the breakdown region grows rapidly in the streamwise, spanwise and pitchwise directions. The growth of the breakdown causes the blockage and the loss to increase drastically. Then, the interaction of the breakdown region with the blade suction surface gives rise to the three-dimensional separation of the suction surface boundary layer, thus leading to a sudden drop in the total pressure rise across the rotor.

Effect of Endwall Motion on Blade Tip Heat Transfer

2003 ◽  
Vol 125 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Srinivasan ◽  
R. J. Goldstein
Keyword(s):  
Mass Transfer ◽  
Suction Side ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Pressure Gradients ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Blade Loading ◽  
Linear Cascade ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Blade Tip ◽  
Wind Tunnel Data

Local mass transfer measurements were conducted on the tip of a turbine blade in a five-blade linear cascade with a blade-centered configuration. The tip clearance levels ranged from 0.6 to 6.9% of blade chord. The effect of relative motion between the casing and the blade tip was simulated using a moving endwall made of neoprene mounted on the top of the wind tunnel. Data were obtained for a single Reynolds number of 2.7×105 based on cascade exit velocity and blade chord. Pressure measurements indicate that the effect of endwall motion on blade loading at a clearance of 0.6% of blade chord is to reduce the pressure gradients driving the tip leakage flow. With the introduction of endwall motion, there is a reduction of about 9% in mass transfer levels at a clearance of 0.6% of chord. This is presumably due to the tip leakage vortex coming closer to the suction side of the blade and ‘blocking the flow,’ leading to reduced tip gap velocities and hence lower mass transfer.

Comparative Study on Tip Clearance Flow Fields in Two Types of Transonic Centrifugal Compressor Impeller With Splitter Blades

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazutoyo Yamada ◽  
Yusuke Tamagawa ◽  
Hisataka Fukushima ◽  
Masato Furukawa ◽  
Seiichi Ibaraki ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Leading Edge ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Low Velocity ◽  
Blade Loading ◽  
Tip Clearance Flow ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Transonic Centrifugal Compressor ◽  
Compressor Impeller ◽  
Clearance Flow ◽  
Velocity Region

Two types of transonic centrifugal compressor impeller with splitter blades, which are different in blade count, have been investigated in this study. RANS (Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes) simulations were carried out for several operating conditions to clarify differences in aerodynamic performance characteristic and tip clearance flow field between the two compressors. The simulation shows that basically similar flow events happen in both compressors. A low velocity region is generated near the tip at low flow rate conditions, which results from an expansion of the tip leakage vortex. The low velocity region expands as the flow rate is decreased, and interacts with the pressure surface of the splitter blade near the leading edge. This causes a descent of the blade loading near the tip of the leading edge, and an accumulation of high entropy fluid near the casing-suction corner. Moreover, the tip clearance flow spills ahead of the leading edge of the splitter blade at near stall condition, and eventually the spillage happens at the full blade at stall condition. However, the major difference in solidity influences tip clearance flow/blade interaction, which leads to changes in the performance characteristics. In the impeller with low solidity, the tip leakage vortex breaks down with a large blockage effect because of high blade loading at the tip, which decreases the pressure ratio. The impeller with high solidity is subject to the spillage, which results in an early and large-scale stall that decreases the efficiency.

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