scholarly journals Optimization Design and Experimental Study of Low-Pressure Axial Fan with Forward-Skewed Blades

2007 ◽  
Vol 2007 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Yang ◽  
Ouyang Hua ◽  
Du Zhao-Hui

This paper presents an experimental study of the optimization of blade skew in low pressure axial fan. Using back propagation (BP) neural network and genetic algorithm (GA), the optimization was performed for a radial blade. An optimized blade is obtained through blade forward skew. Measurement of the two blades was carried out in aerodynamic and aeroacoustic performance. Compared to the radial blade, the optimized blade demonstrated improvements in efficiency, total pressure ratio, stable operating range, and aerodynamic noise. Detailed flow measurement was performed in outlet flow field for investigating the responsible flow mechanisms. The optimized blade can cause a spanwise redistribution of flow toward the blade midspan and reduce tip loading. This results in reduced significantly total pressure loss near hub and shroud endwall region, despite the slight increase of total pressure loss at midspan. In addition, the measured spectrums show that the broadband noise of the impeller is dominant.

Author(s):  
P. Schuler ◽  
W. Kurz ◽  
K. Dullenkopf ◽  
H.-J. Bauer

In order to prevent hot-gas ingestion into the rotating turbo machine’s inside, rim seals are used in the cavities located between stator- and rotor-disc. The sealing flow ejected through the rim seal interacts with the boundary layer of the main gas flow, thus playing a significant role in the formation of secondary flows which are a major contributor to aerodynamic losses in turbine passages. Investigations performed in the EU project MAGPI concentrate on the interaction between the sealing flow and the main gas flow and in particular on the influence of different rim seal geometries regarding the loss-mechanism in a low-pressure turbine passage. Within the CFD work reported in this paper static simulations of one typical low-pressure turbine passage were conducted containing two different rim seal geometries, respectively. The sealing flow through the rim seal had an azimuthal velocity component and its rate has been varied between 0–1% of the main gas flow. The modular design of the computational domain provided the easy exchange of the rim seal geometry without remeshing the main gas flow. This allowed assessing the appearing effects only to the change of rim seal geometry. The results of this work agree with well-known secondary flow phenomena inside a turbine passage and reveal the impact of the different rim seal geometries on hot-gas ingestion and aerodynamic losses quantified by a total pressure loss coefficient along the turbine blade. While the simple axial gap geometry suffers considerable hot-gas ingestion upstream the blade leading edge, the compound geometry implying an axial overlapping presents a more promising prevention against hot-gas ingestion. Furthermore, the effect of rim seals on the turbine passage flow field has been identified applying adequate flow visualisation techniques. As a result of the favourable conduction of sealing flow through the compound geometry, the boundary layer is less lifted by the ejected sealing flow, thus resulting in a comparatively reduced total pressure loss coefficient over the turbine blade.


Author(s):  
Leonardo Nettis ◽  
Enzo Imparato ◽  
Lorenzo Cosi

Steam turbines are applied in production plants characterized by very large injections of low pressure steam. For this reason the design and optimization of the injection section is fundamental to obtain an adequate level of turbine efficiency and ensure uniform flow at the inlet of the low pressure stages downstream the injection. This paper illustrate the optimization performed on a Steam Turbine injection system for a unit in which injection flow is 80% of the total outlet mass flow. Optimization was performed varying the shape of the original steam guide with the twofold objective of minimizing the total pressure loss and uniform the circumferential flow distribution. The analysis has been performed using RANS 2D and 3D CFD solver. The design process has been structured in 3 different steps: i) Axisymmetric CFD screening based on DOE ii) 3D-CFD verification of the profile shape previously obtained with the additional estimation of the flow uniformity on 360° iii) 3D-CFD of the injection module including the reaction stage upstream and the first LP stage downstream, with the stator modeled on 360°. The main outcomes are presented in terms of total pressure loss and uniformity of circumferential flow, both strongly reduced with respect to the original design. Moreover in order to characterize the excitation associated with flow non-uniformity an analysis in the frequency domain of the flow distribution has been performed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 140 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Bear ◽  
Mitch Wolff ◽  
Andreas Gross ◽  
Christopher R. Marks ◽  
Rolf Sondergaard

Improvements in turbine design methods have resulted in the development of blade profiles with both high lift and good Reynolds lapse characteristics. An increase in aerodynamic loading of blades in the low-pressure turbine (LPT) section of aircraft gas turbine engines has the potential to reduce engine weight or increase power extraction. Increased blade loading means larger pressure gradients and increased secondary losses near the endwall. Prior work has emphasized the importance of reducing these losses if highly loaded blades are to be utilized. The present study analyzes the secondary flow field of the front-loaded low-pressure turbine blade designated L2F with and without blade profile contouring at the junction of the blade and endwall. The current work explores the loss production mechanisms inside the LPT cascade. Stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (SPIV) data and total pressure loss data are used to describe the secondary flow field. The flow is analyzed in terms of total pressure loss, vorticity, Q-Criterion, turbulent kinetic energy, and turbulence production. The flow description is then expanded upon using an implicit large eddy simulation (ILES) of the flow field. The Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) momentum equations contain terms with pressure derivatives. With some manipulation, these equations can be rearranged to form an equation for the change in total pressure along a streamline as a function of velocity only. After simplifying for the flow field in question, the equation can be interpreted as the total pressure transport along a streamline. A comparison of the total pressure transport calculated from the velocity components and the total pressure loss is presented and discussed. Peak values of total pressure transport overlap peak values of total pressure loss through and downstream of the passage suggesting that the total pressure transport is a useful tool for localizing and predicting loss origins and loss development using velocity data which can be obtained nonintrusively.


Author(s):  
A. Asghar ◽  
W. D. E. Allan ◽  
M. LaViolette ◽  
R. Woodason

This paper addresses the issue of aerodynamic performance of a novel 3D leading edge modification to a reference low pressure turbine blade. An analysis of tubercles found in nature and used in some engineering applications was employed to synthesize new leading edge geometry. A sinusoidal wave-like geometry characterized by wavelength and amplitude was used to modify the leading edge along the span of a 2D profile, rendering a 3D blade shape. The rationale behind using the sinusoidal leading edge was that they induce streamwise vortices at the leading edge which influence the separation behaviour downstream. Surface pressure and total pressure measurements were made in experiments on a cascade rig. These were complemented with computational fluid dynamics studies where flow visualization was also made from numerical results. The tests were carried out at low Reynolds number of 5.5 × 104 on a well-researched profile representative of conventional low pressure turbine profiles. The performance of the new 3D leading edge geometries was compared against the reference blade revealing a downstream shift in separated flow for the LE tubercle blades; however, total pressure loss reduction was not conclusively substantiated for the blade with leading edge tubercles when compared with the performance of the baseline blade. Factors contributing to the total pressure loss are discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (394) ◽  
pp. 121-128
Author(s):  
Nikolay N. Ponomarev

Object and purpose of research. The object of this work is gas turbine outlet consisting of axial-radial diffuser with the struts and the volute. The purpose is to create a methodology for engineering calculations, taking into account the mutual influence of the diffuser and the volute. Materials and methods. Experimental study of the flow in the models of outlets by measuring total and static pressure in characteristic sections. Calculation of integral and averaged flow parameters in measurement sections. Visualization of boundary flows. Based on the experimental results, development of regression models for the correction factors to be applied in the theoretical model, with selection of relevant factors. Main results. An experimental study of 23 variants of models with a total volume of 112 experimental points (modes) was carried out. On the basis of the experiment, methodology and program for engineering calculation of total pressure losses in the outlets were developed. It was found that the installation of guide blades and radial ribs in the diffuser in order to reduce local expansion angles with the ultimate purpose of mitigating total pressure losses actually does not lead to this result due to the because the flow in the diffuser becomes asymmetric due to its interaction with the volute. Visualization of boundary flows in the diffusers and the volutes has been performed, which makes it possible to identify the locations of separations causing increased pressure losses. Conclusion. An engineering method for calculating the total pressure loss in gas turbine outlet has been developed. The technique makes it possible, taking size restrictions into account, to select the geometry of the flow section that ensures minimum total pressure loss.


Author(s):  
Xinyi Zhang ◽  
Xiaoqing Qiang ◽  
Jinfang Teng ◽  
Wensheng Yu

The paper presents an advanced parametric method of blade stacking lines in terms of sweep and lean based on controlled curvature. To the knowledge of the authors, there is no related approach reported in open literature that uses Bezier spline as the radial curvature distribution to improve the smoothness of the blade surface; most previous studies ignored the discontinuous slopes of curvature of the parametric curves. The parametric method called curvature-controlled stacking-line method (CCSLM) is performed by changing the magnitude of the sweep or lean. A fourth Bezier spline is adopted to define the curvature of spanwise stacking line directly ensuring surface smoothness. Then, the redesign cascades are created by sectional profiles stacked along the radial stacking lines which are obtained by twice integrating the Bezier spline. Then, the advanced method is conducted to optimize a high-subsonic controlled diffusion airfoil at design point, where the blade shape is generated in terms of lean. A single-objective optimization is performed using Kriging model and genetic algorithm to optimize total pressure loss, and the optimized geometry is obtained. The optimization results show that the blade design CCSLM has significant effects on the endwall flow vortex as well as radial loading distribution. The reduction of total pressure loss and secondary flow is also observed, and the aerodynamic performance is well improved compared with the original cascade.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2011.49 (0) ◽  
pp. 339-340
Author(s):  
Tsuyoshi YASUNOBU ◽  
Yoshiaki MIYAZATO ◽  
Hideki YAMAMOTO ◽  
Kazuyasu MATSUO

Author(s):  
Mohammad Mojaddam ◽  
Ali Hajilouy-Benisi ◽  
Mohammad Reza Movahhedy

In this research the design methods of radial flow compressor volutes are reviewed and the main criterions in volute primary designs are recognized and most effective ones are selected. The effective parameters i.e. spiral cross section area, circumferential area distribution, exit cone and tongue area of the compressor volute are parametrically studied to identifythe optimum values. A numerical model is prepared and verified through experimental data which are obtained from the designed turbocharger test rig. Different volutes are modeled and numerically evaluated using the same impeller and vane-less diffuser. For each model, the volute total pressure ratio, static pressure recovery and total pressure loss coefficients and the radial force on the impeller are calculated for different mass flow rates at design point and off-design conditions. The volute which shows better performanceand causes lower the net radial force on the impeller, at desiredmass flow rates is selected as an optimal one. The results show the volute design approach differences at the design point and off-design conditions. Improving the pressure ratio and reducing total pressure loss at design point, may result inthe worse conditions at off-design conditions as well as increasing radial force on the impeller.


2012 ◽  
Vol 135 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart I. Benton ◽  
Jeffrey P. Bons ◽  
Rolf Sondergaard

Efforts to increase individual blade loading in the low pressure turbine have resulted in blade geometries optimized for midspan performance. Many researchers have shown that increased blade loading and a front-loaded pressure distribution each separately contribute to increased losses in the endwall region. A detailed investigation of the baseline endwall flow of the L2F profile, which is a high-lift front loaded profile, is performed. In-plane velocity vectors and total pressure loss maps are obtained in five planes oriented normal to the blade surface for three Reynolds numbers. A row of pitched and skewed jets are introduced near the endwall on the suction surface of the blade. The flow control method is evaluated for four momentum coefficients at the high Reynolds number, with a maximum reduction of 42% in the area averaged total pressure loss coefficient. The same blade is also fitted with midspan vortex-generator jets and is tested at a Reynolds number of 20,000, resulting in a 21% reduction in the area averaged total pressure loss.


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