Ming Zhang, Jia Li, Xu Dong, Dakun Sun, Xiaofeng Sun
Tip clearance flow is not only the source of undesirable noise but also a potential indicator for critical operating conditions with rotating stall or surge. It can induce blade vibration, which would cause premature blade failure when the vibration is strong enough. The paper presents experimental studies on the effects of tip clearance on the stall inception process in a low-speed high-load single stage fan with different tip clearance. From the point of view of flow range, it has been proved by computations that there is an optimal gap value, and an explanation is given according to different stall mechanisms of large and small tip clearance. However, the experiment of no tip clearance is not easy to achieve. In this experiment, a wearable soft wall casing was used to achieve “zero clearance”, and an explicit conclusion was obtained. The pressure rise and efficiency are improved at small tip clearance. Instantaneous Casing Pressure Field Measurement was carried out: instantaneous casing pressure fields were measured by 9 high response pressure transducers mounted on the casing wall. At the near stall point with large tip clearance, a narrow band increase of the amplitudes in the frequency spectrum at roughly half of the blade passing frequency can be observed according to the spectrum of static pressure at points on the endwall near the leading-edge and above the rotor. This phenomenon was explained from two aspects: tip clearance flow structure and pressure signal spectrum.
{"title":"Experimental Study on Different Tip Clearance of Low-Speed Axial Fan","authors":"Ming Zhang, Jia Li, Xu Dong, Dakun Sun, Xiaofeng Sun","doi":"10.1115/gt2021-59899","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1115/gt2021-59899","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Tip clearance flow is not only the source of undesirable noise but also a potential indicator for critical operating conditions with rotating stall or surge. It can induce blade vibration, which would cause premature blade failure when the vibration is strong enough. The paper presents experimental studies on the effects of tip clearance on the stall inception process in a low-speed high-load single stage fan with different tip clearance. From the point of view of flow range, it has been proved by computations that there is an optimal gap value, and an explanation is given according to different stall mechanisms of large and small tip clearance. However, the experiment of no tip clearance is not easy to achieve. In this experiment, a wearable soft wall casing was used to achieve “zero clearance”, and an explicit conclusion was obtained. The pressure rise and efficiency are improved at small tip clearance. Instantaneous Casing Pressure Field Measurement was carried out: instantaneous casing pressure fields were measured by 9 high response pressure transducers mounted on the casing wall. At the near stall point with large tip clearance, a narrow band increase of the amplitudes in the frequency spectrum at roughly half of the blade passing frequency can be observed according to the spectrum of static pressure at points on the endwall near the leading-edge and above the rotor. This phenomenon was explained from two aspects: tip clearance flow structure and pressure signal spectrum.","PeriodicalId":257596,"journal":{"name":"Volume 2A: Turbomachinery — Axial Flow Fan and Compressor Aerodynamics","volume":"75 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132448969","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fangyuan Lou, Douglas R. Matthews, N. Kormanik, N. Key
The flow field in a compressor is circumferentially non-uniform due to geometric imperfections, inlet flow nonuniformities, and blade row interactions. Therefore, the flow field, as represented by measurements from discrete stationary instrumentation, can be skewed and contribute to uncertainties in both calculated one-dimensional performance parameters and aerodynamic forcing functions needed for aeromechanics analyses. Considering this challenge, this paper documents a continued effort to account for compressor circumferential flow nonuniformities based on discrete, under-sampled measurements. First, the total pressure field downstream of the first two stators in a three-stage axial compressor was measured across half of the annulus. The circumferential nonuniformities in the stator exit flow, including vane wake variability, were characterized. In addition, the influence of wake variation on stage performance calculations and aerodynamic forcing functions were investigated. In the present study for the compressor with an approximate pressure ratio of 1.3 at design point, the circumferential nonuniformity in total pressure yields an approximate 2.4-point variation in isentropic efficiency and 54% variation in spectral magnitudes of the fundamental forcing frequency for the embedded stage. Furthermore, the stator exit circumferential flow nonuniformity is accounted for by reconstructing the full-annulus flow using a novel multi-wavelet approximation method. Strong agreement was achieved between experiment and the reconstructed total pressure field from a small segment of measurements representing 20% coverage of the annulus. Analysis shows the wake-wake interactions from the upstream vane rows dominate the circumferentially nonuniform distributions in the total pressure field downstream of stators. The features associated with wake-wake interactions accounting for passage-to-passage variations are resolved in the reconstructed total pressure profile, yielding representative mean flow properties and aerodynamic forcing functions.
{"title":"Accounting for Circumferential Flow Nonuniformity in a Multi-Stage Axial Compressor","authors":"Fangyuan Lou, Douglas R. Matthews, N. Kormanik, N. Key","doi":"10.1115/gt2021-59968","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1115/gt2021-59968","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The flow field in a compressor is circumferentially non-uniform due to geometric imperfections, inlet flow nonuniformities, and blade row interactions. Therefore, the flow field, as represented by measurements from discrete stationary instrumentation, can be skewed and contribute to uncertainties in both calculated one-dimensional performance parameters and aerodynamic forcing functions needed for aeromechanics analyses. Considering this challenge, this paper documents a continued effort to account for compressor circumferential flow nonuniformities based on discrete, under-sampled measurements. First, the total pressure field downstream of the first two stators in a three-stage axial compressor was measured across half of the annulus. The circumferential nonuniformities in the stator exit flow, including vane wake variability, were characterized. In addition, the influence of wake variation on stage performance calculations and aerodynamic forcing functions were investigated. In the present study for the compressor with an approximate pressure ratio of 1.3 at design point, the circumferential nonuniformity in total pressure yields an approximate 2.4-point variation in isentropic efficiency and 54% variation in spectral magnitudes of the fundamental forcing frequency for the embedded stage. Furthermore, the stator exit circumferential flow nonuniformity is accounted for by reconstructing the full-annulus flow using a novel multi-wavelet approximation method. Strong agreement was achieved between experiment and the reconstructed total pressure field from a small segment of measurements representing 20% coverage of the annulus. Analysis shows the wake-wake interactions from the upstream vane rows dominate the circumferentially nonuniform distributions in the total pressure field downstream of stators. The features associated with wake-wake interactions accounting for passage-to-passage variations are resolved in the reconstructed total pressure profile, yielding representative mean flow properties and aerodynamic forcing functions.","PeriodicalId":257596,"journal":{"name":"Volume 2A: Turbomachinery — Axial Flow Fan and Compressor Aerodynamics","volume":"96 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132052282","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper describes the numerical investigation of hybrid aerofoils in a 1.5-stage low-speed compressor, which in its baseline configuration features a conventional rotor and a tandem stator. Both of these are eventually replaced by hybrid aerofoils, using the initial tandem blade profile geometry around mid-span. In this course of design investigations a pure tandem rotor was also generated and analysed as the initial geometry of the hybrid rotor. The aerodynamic design and performance of the tandem rotor and the hybrid aerofoils will be discussed in this paper. The numerical analysis is aimed at understanding the secondary flow phenomena and limiting factors of the working range of the reference stage. Based on this knowledge, the advantages of the hybrid aerofoil design will be discussed. On one hand, the origin and development of three-dimensional flow structures near the endwall regions of the rear vane of the tandem stator are investigated in detail, as they appear to play a major role at de-throttled operating conditions. On the other hand, the tip vortex leakage of the single rotor and the pure tandem rotor are considered, showing the tip vortex taking a major role in loss generation and stall inception at throttled operating conditions, and interacting with the tandem stator secondary flow phenomena at the casing. Both these performance-limiting factors can be addressed by implementing hybrid aerofoils. The paper presents and discusses the improvement of secondary flow loses and aerodynamic performance based on steady-state RANS simulations.
{"title":"Numerical Investigation of the Aerodynamic Performance of Hybrid Aerofoils in a 1.5-Stage Low-Speed Compressor","authors":"Jannik Eckel, V. Gümmer","doi":"10.1115/gt2021-58657","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1115/gt2021-58657","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This paper describes the numerical investigation of hybrid aerofoils in a 1.5-stage low-speed compressor, which in its baseline configuration features a conventional rotor and a tandem stator. Both of these are eventually replaced by hybrid aerofoils, using the initial tandem blade profile geometry around mid-span. In this course of design investigations a pure tandem rotor was also generated and analysed as the initial geometry of the hybrid rotor. The aerodynamic design and performance of the tandem rotor and the hybrid aerofoils will be discussed in this paper. The numerical analysis is aimed at understanding the secondary flow phenomena and limiting factors of the working range of the reference stage. Based on this knowledge, the advantages of the hybrid aerofoil design will be discussed. On one hand, the origin and development of three-dimensional flow structures near the endwall regions of the rear vane of the tandem stator are investigated in detail, as they appear to play a major role at de-throttled operating conditions. On the other hand, the tip vortex leakage of the single rotor and the pure tandem rotor are considered, showing the tip vortex taking a major role in loss generation and stall inception at throttled operating conditions, and interacting with the tandem stator secondary flow phenomena at the casing. Both these performance-limiting factors can be addressed by implementing hybrid aerofoils. The paper presents and discusses the improvement of secondary flow loses and aerodynamic performance based on steady-state RANS simulations.","PeriodicalId":257596,"journal":{"name":"Volume 2A: Turbomachinery — Axial Flow Fan and Compressor Aerodynamics","volume":"46 4","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"113991647","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}