Reformulation of a Three-Dimensional Inverse Design Method for Application in a High-Fidelity CFD Environment

Author(s):  
Michel van Rooij ◽  
Adam Medd

Three-dimensional inverse design has been shown to be a reliable and powerful tool for facilitating the refinement of blading design and improving stage matching, thereby providing increased aero-design quality and productivity in difficult design situations. However, inverse design has not been incorporated widely into design systems. Reasons for this may be that many inverse techniques are limited to two dimensional problems, or are highly integrated with a specific flow solver and therefore difficult to integrate with proprietary or commercial CFD methods. A reformulation of a three-dimensional inverse design method is presented here that overcomes these limitations. The new method is fully consistent with viscous flow modeling. Camber modification is performed using a blade velocity derived from the difference between prescribed and actual pressure loading. The new inverse method completely eliminates differences between analysis and inverse calculations. Moreover, the reformulation effectively decouples the inverse method from the flow solver. This makes it possible to supplement any CFD-code with the developed inverse design module, provided an interface can be created between the solver and the inverse module through which to pass information on flow and mesh. This makes inverse design available to most design offices.

Author(s):  
A. Madadi ◽  
M. J. Kermani ◽  
M. Nili-Ahmadabadi

Recently, an inverse design algorithm called ball–spine algorithm (BSA) was introduced for the design of 2D ducts. In this approach, the walls are considered as a set of virtual balls that can move freely along the straight directions called spines. In the present work, the method is developed for quasi-three-dimensional (quasi-3D) design of S-shaped ducts with a predefined width. To do so, the upper and lower lines of the S-duct symmetric section are modified under the BSA and then, the 3D S-duct geometry is obtained based on elliptic cross-sectional profiles. The target pressure distributions (TPDs) along the upper and lower lines are prescribed so that separation does not occur. Finally, the flow through the designed S-duct is numerically analyzed using a viscous flow solver with the SST turbulence model to validate the designed S-duct performance. The performance of the designed S-duct is compared to original and optimized versions of a benchmark S-duct diffuser. Results show that the present S-duct has a better performance.


Author(s):  
M Zangeneh ◽  
A Goto ◽  
H Harada

The application of a three-dimensional (3D) inverse design method in which the blade geometry is computed for a specified distribution of circulation to the design of turbomachinery blades is explored by using two examples. In the first instance the method is applied to the design of radial and mixed flow impellers to suppress secondary flows. Based on our understanding of the fluid dynamics of the flow in the impeller, simple guidelines are developed for input specification of the inverse method in order to systematically design impellers with suppressed secondary flows and a more uniform exit flow field. In the second example the method is applied to the design of a vaned diffuser. Again based on the understanding of the detailed flow field in the diffuser obtained by using 3D viscous calculations and oil flow visualizations, simple design guidelines are developed for input specification to the inverse method in order to suppress corner separation. In both cases the guidelines are verified numerically and in the case of the diffuser further experimental validation is presented.


Author(s):  
M. Zangeneh ◽  
W. R. Hawthrone

A fully three dimensional compressible inverse design method for the design of radial and mixed flow machines is described. In this method the distribution of the circumferentially averaged swirl velocity, or rV¯θ on the meridional geometry of the impeller is prescribed and the corresponding blade shape is computed iteratively. Two approaches are presented for solving the compressible flow problem. In the approximate approach, the pitchwise variation in density is neglected and as a result the algorithm is simple and efficient. In the exact approach, the velocities and density are computed throughout the three dimensional flow field by employing Fast Fourier Transform in the tangential direction. The results of the approximate and exact approach are compared for the case of a high speed (subsonic) radial-inflow turbine and it is shown that the difference between the blade shapes computed by the two methods is well within the manufacturing tolerances. The flow through the designed impeller is analysed by using three dimensional inviscid and viscous time marching programs and very good correlations between the specified and computed rV¯θ is obtained.


Author(s):  
M. P. C. van Rooij ◽  
T. Q. Dang ◽  
L. M. Larosiliere

Three-dimensional inverse design has become a reliable and powerful tool for facilitating the refinement of blading designs. Its main strength lies in the direct control offered over local aerodynamics and, when the method is based on pressure loading, net circulation. While the ability to specify pressure loading offers many advantages, it is often not obvious to a designer what loading distribution should be prescribed. Not only should a suitable blade shape be achieved, but also satisfactory performance and design constraints such as mass flow, exit flow angle distributions and compression ratio. This problem is exacerbated when applying inverse design in a multistage environment, where interactions between blade rows affect the design and the resulting flow field in ways that are often intractable. Thus, numerous revisions of the prescribed loading, with a careful examination of how changes to the prescribed loading influence the resulting design, can still be necessary before obtaining a satisfactory design. A pressure loading manager has been developed to alleviate these problems. This loading manager can automatically adjust pressure loading distributions during the inverse design process to achieve greater control over the aerodynamic design intent. In combination with a fully three-dimensional multistage viscous inverse design method, a powerful method for blading revision is obtained that offers enhanced aerodynamic matching capabilities and design point control. Increased aero-design quality and productivity in difficult design situations can be achieved. This is demonstrated with the redesign of a highly loaded 2.5-stage transonic compressor.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 4845
Author(s):  
Mohammad Hossein Noorsalehi ◽  
Mahdi Nili-Ahmadabadi ◽  
Seyed Hossein Nasrazadani ◽  
Kyung Chun Kim

The upgraded elastic surface algorithm (UESA) is a physical inverse design method that was recently developed for a compressor cascade with double-circular-arc blades. In this method, the blade walls are modeled as elastic Timoshenko beams that smoothly deform because of the difference between the target and current pressure distributions. Nevertheless, the UESA is completely unstable for a compressor cascade with an intense normal shock, which causes a divergence due to the high pressure difference near the shock and the displacement of shock during the geometry corrections. In this study, the UESA was stabilized for the inverse design of a compressor cascade with normal shock, with no geometrical filtration. In the new version of this method, a distribution for the elastic modulus along the Timoshenko beam was chosen to increase its stiffness near the normal shock and to control the high deformations and oscillations in this region. Furthermore, to prevent surface oscillations, nodes need to be constrained to move perpendicularly to the chord line. With these modifications, the instability and oscillation were removed through the shape modification process. Two design cases were examined to evaluate the method for a transonic cascade with normal shock. The method was also capable of finding a physical pressure distribution that was nearest to the target one.


Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 3210
Author(s):  
Wei Yang ◽  
Benqing Liu ◽  
Ruofu Xiao

Hydraulic machinery with high performance is of great significance for energy saving. Its design is a very challenging job for designers, and the inverse design method is a competitive way to do the job. The three-dimensional inverse design method and its applications to hydraulic machinery are herein reviewed. The flow is calculated based on potential flow theory, and the blade shape is calculated based on flow-tangency condition according to the calculated flow velocity. We also explain flow control theory by suppression of secondary flow and cavitation based on careful tailoring of the blade loading distribution and stacking condition in the inverse design of hydraulic machinery. Suggestions about the main challenge and future prospective of the inverse design method are given.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (10) ◽  
pp. eaax4769 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Zhan ◽  
Ricky Gibson ◽  
James Whitehead ◽  
Evan Smith ◽  
Joshua R. Hendrickson ◽  
...  

Controlling the propagation of optical fields in three dimensions using arrays of discrete dielectric scatterers is an active area of research. These arrays can create optical elements with functionalities unrealizable in conventional optics. Here, we present an inverse design method based on the inverse Mie scattering problem for producing three-dimensional optical field patterns. Using this method, we demonstrate a device that focuses 1.55-μm light into a depth-variant discrete helical pattern. The reported device is fabricated using two-photon lithography and has a footprint of 144 μm by 144 μm, the largest of any inverse-designed photonic structure to date. This inverse design method constitutes an important step toward designer free-space optics, where unique optical elements are produced for user-specified functionalities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 143 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Luying Zhang ◽  
Gabriel Davila ◽  
Mehrdad Zangeneh

Abstract This paper presents three different multiobjective optimization strategies for a high specific speed centrifugal volute pump design. The objectives of the optimization consist of maximizing the efficiency and minimizing the cavitation while maintaining the Euler head. The first two optimization strategies use a three-dimensional (3D) inverse design method to parametrize the blade geometry. Both meridional shape and 3D blade geometry are changed during the optimization. In the first approach, design of experiment (DOE) method is used and the pump efficiency is obtained from computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, while cavitation is evaluated by using minimum pressure on blade surface predicted by 3D inverse design method. The design matrix is then used to create a surrogate model where optimization is run to find the best tradeoff between cavitation and efficiency. This optimized geometry is manufactured and tested and is found to be 3.9% more efficient than the baseline with reduced cavitation at high flow. In the second approach, only the 3D inverse design method output is used to compute the efficiency and cavitation parameters and this leads to considerable reduction to the computational time. The resulting optimized geometry is found to be similar to the computationally more expensive solution based on 3D CFD results. In order to compare the inverse design based optimization to the conventional optimization, an equivalent optimization is carried out by parametrizing the blade angle and meridional shape.


Author(s):  
Yujie Zhu ◽  
Yaping Ju ◽  
Chuhua Zhang

Most of the inverse design methods of turbomachinery experience the shortcoming where the target aerodynamic parameters need to be manually specified depending on the designers’ experience and insight, making the design result aleatory and even deviated from the real optimal solution. To tackle this problem, an experience-independent inverse design optimization method is proposed and applied to the redesign of a compressor cascade airfoil in this study. The experience-independent inverse design optimization method can automatically obtain the target pressure distribution along the cascade airfoil through the genetic algorithm, rather than through the manual specification approach. The shape of cascade airfoil is then solved by the adjoint method. The effectiveness of the experience-independent inverse design optimization method is demonstrated by two inverse design cases of the compressor cascade airfoil, i.e. the inverse design of only the suction surface and the inverse design of both the suction and pressure surfaces. The results show that the proposed inverse design method is capable of significantly improving the aerodynamic performance of the compressor cascade. At the examined flow condition, a thin airfoil profile is beneficial to flow accelerations near the leading edge and flow separation avoidance near the trailing edge. The proposed inverse design method is quite generic and can be extended to the three-dimensional inverse design of advanced compressor blades.


2002 ◽  
Vol 124 (2) ◽  
pp. 319-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akira Goto ◽  
Mehrdad Zangeneh

A new approach to optimizing a pump diffuser is presented, based on a three-dimensional inverse design method and a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) technique. The blade shape of the diffuser was designed for a specified distribution of circulation and a given meridional geometry at a low specific speed of 0.109 (non-dimensional) or 280 (m3/min, m, rpm). To optimize the three-dimensional pressure fields and the secondary flow behavior inside the flow passage, the diffuser blade was more fore-loaded at the hub side as compared with the casing side. Numerical calculations, using a stage version of Dawes three-dimensional Navier-Stokes code, showed that such a loading distribution can suppress flow separation at the corner region between the hub and the blade suction surface, which was commonly observed with conventional designs having a compact bowl size (small outer diameter). The improvements in stage efficiency were confirmed experimentally over the corresponding conventional pump stage. The application of multi-color oil-film flow visualization confirmed that the large area of the corner separation was completely eliminated in the inverse design diffuser.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document