Aerodynamic losses for squealer tip with different winglets

Aerodynamic loss measurements and flow visualizations have been conducted for a squealer tip with different winglets. The present results for seven winglets indicate that winglet coverage along the pressure side has a negative effect in the loss reduction, whereas winglet coverage along the suction side has a positive effect. Winglet coverage along both sides performs better than that along the pressure side but worse than that along the suction side. The upstream half of the suction-side winglet plays a crucial role in the loss reduction. Thus, this portion needs to be included in the winglet for better aerodynamic performance. The pressure-side winglet brings additional flow disturbances similar to the ones existing over the plane tip back to the tip gap flow over the squealer tip. For the suction-side winglet, however, the tip gap flow is separated from the casing in a wide range between the leading edge and mid-chord.

     

Tip gap flow and aerodynamic loss generation in a turbine cascade equipped with suction-side winglets

The tip gap flow and aerodynamic loss generation over a plane tip equipped with a “constant-width suction-side” (CWSS) winglet and a “varying-width suction-side” (VWSS) winglet have been investigated in a turbine cascade. For a fixed tip gap of h/c = 2.0%, three different winglet widths of w/p = 5.28, 10.55, and 15.83% are tested for the CWSS winglet. The VWSS winglet is designed based on flow visualization and has almost the same winglet area as the CWSS winglet of w/p = 15.83%. In general, the suction-side winglets have a role to increase aerodynamic loss in the tip leakage vortex region but reduce aerodynamic loss in the passage vortex region. For the CWSS winglet, the total-pressure loss coefficient mass-averaged all over the measurement plane has no appreciable changes with increasing w/p from 0.0 to 10.55%, but tends to decrease with further increment of w/p. The VWSS winglet performs better in reducing aerodynamic loss in the passage vortex region than the CWSS winglet of w/p = 15.83% but leads to a little bit higher aerodynamic loss in the tip leakage vortex region. The aerodynamic loss reduction by the VWSS winglet is 7.4% in comparison with the plane tip without winglet, and is about 60% lower than that by the widest CWSS winglet.     

基于源项和贴体网格CFD的翼型冠涡轮叶栅气动性能预测对比

翼型冠是控制涡轮叶片叶顶泄漏流动的一种叶顶结构。在翼型冠涡轮叶栅气动性能的数值模拟中,为降低计算成本,本文采用了一种基于源项的CFD技术。该方法无需构建翼型冠真实几何结构和生成贴体网格,只需在叶顶附近构建源项域并采用均匀网格进行离散,随后在网格点上定义材料多孔度,并在控制方程中引入与多孔度有关的源项函数。采用基于源项的数值模拟方法,首先计算了某一翼型冠涡轮平面叶栅的气动流场,并分析均匀网格尺寸和湍流模型方程源项对计算结果的影响。然后,在翼型冠源项基础上,分别增加了密封齿和叶顶喷气源项,以研究源项法在有密封齿和有叶顶喷气翼型冠叶栅性能计算中的准确性。通过与基于贴体网格(即真实结构)的数值模拟结果相对比,发现源项法计算能够较准确地评估翼型冠、密封齿和叶顶喷气对涡轮叶栅气动性能的影响。此外,降低均匀网格尺寸能提高源项法的可靠性。研究有助于发展用于模拟包含任意复杂结构流动问题的计算方法,能为基于源项法的翼型冠叶顶结构优化提供快速准确的数值模拟工具。     

叶尖小翼调控压气机叶栅间隙流场结构的试验研究*

在低速条件下,对叶尖不同位置安装小翼的压气机叶栅流场进行试验研究。通过端壁静压孔对上端壁流场进行测量,叶栅出口流场利用五孔气动探针测量,细致分析不同安装方式叶尖小翼对压气机叶栅叶尖端区流场结构、气动损失和通流能力的影响。结果表明,不同安装方式的叶尖小翼对压气机叶栅间隙流场影响不同。与无叶尖小翼的常规叶栅相比,吸力面小翼使得叶栅损失降低的同时带来了流动堵塞的降低,压力面小翼使得叶栅损失和流动堵塞同时增加,组合小翼在降低叶栅损失的同时有效降低了叶栅的流动堵塞,改善了叶栅的通流能力。通过与常规叶栅叶尖区域流场结构的详细对比分析,对不同安装方式的叶尖小翼的影响机理做出解释。     

Optimization of a high pressure turbine blade tip cavity with conjugate heat transfer analysis

The current study aims to understand the aero-thermal performance of a cooled cavity tip in a single stage transonic turbine. The squealer tip of the uncooled turbine blade was reduced to an aerodynamic loss with suppressing leakage flow. However, the aerodynamic loss study of the cooled turbine blade tip is rare. It is necessary to study the tip cavity of the cooled turbine blade. Depth, front blend radius and aft blend radius of the cavity were set as design variables, and 30 cases were chosen using design of experiments. These cases were calculated with conjugate heat transfer method. Approximation model was made using the Kriging method, and tip cavity shape was optimized with multidisciplinary design optimization. Average total pressure loss behind the trailing edge and cooling effectiveness of blade tip surface were set to the objective function. The aerodynamic optimization model decreased 1.6 % of total pressure loss, the heat transfer optimization model increased 1.3 % point of cooling effectiveness and aero-thermal optimization model were found. Volume of tip cavity becomes larger when three design variables are grown. Amount of tip leakage flow and its distribution over the tip region increases and total pressure loss and cooling effectiveness increase. In terms of heat transfer, blade tip without cavity is advantageous. Total pressure loss coefficient, however, also increases over 5 %. To improve both aero-thermal characteristics of cooled blade tip, the design using the multidisciplinary design optimization is recommended.

     

Cutting-force components in turning by tools with no cutting tip

Turning by tools that are characterized by a linear or curved cutting blade but have no cutting tip is studied experimentally. The influence of the depth and cutting speed, the supply, and the cutter inclination on the components P _z and P _y of the cutting force is investigated in inverse and direct cutting.     

A gas-discharge plasma focuser

A device is proposed for the formation of a gas-discharge plasma stream with a sinusoidal distribution of the charged-particle density over the stream cross section, which is achieved by using wavy shapes of the anode and cathode surfaces that are placed coaxially relative to each other at the distance λ _e < h < 3λ _e , where λ _e is the mean free path of an electron in the gas-discharge plasma stream. The anode is a stainless steel grid with mesh dimensions of 1 × 1 mm. The aluminum cathode is 120 mm in diameter and 50-mm thick. The device provides a discharge current of up to 0.6 А at a controlled voltage at the electrodes in the range of 0.21–0.7 kV. In this case, plasma streams propagate to a distance of up to 50λ _e beyond the limits of the electrodes.     

Effects of advance ratio on elytra-hindwing interaction in forward flying Coleopteran beetle

In the present study, numerical simulations are performed to explore the significance of elytron-hindwing interaction in the forward flying Coleopteran beetle. The study investigates the effects of hindwing stroke amplitude (A/c) and advance ratio (J), (which is defined as the ratio of the incoming air velocity to the wing flapping velocity), on the aerodynamic forces. The wing kinematics of a Coleopteran beetle is constructed by using a combination of translation and rotation motion. The elytron is modeled by using a cambered airfoil that mimics the real geometry of the beetle wing, and the hindwing is modeled by using an elliptical profile. The results indicate that the beetle cruises with a constant velocity at approximately J = 0.3 in the tandem wing arrangement. It is observed that the angle of the net force vector relative to the stroke plane tilts systematically according to the flying speed. The influence of vortex structures on the beetle aerodynamic forces is analyzed. The elytron-hindwing interaction is found to be beneficial to the vertical force generation of hindwing as well as for the elytron when J > 0.0. The vortices interaction is observed during the downstroke period, and the leading edge vortex (LEV) of the elytron is captured by LEV of the hindwing that enhances the total vertical force. During the upstroke translation phase, the combined trailing edge vortex of elytron interacts/merges with the LEV of the hindwing and increases the horizontal force.     

Model of formation of processing errors intragrinding

A model is proposed for the errors in internal grinding. It may be used in a system for optimizing the automatic cycles so as to ensure specified precision and surface quality. The model takes account of all the basic types of errors observed in internal grinding: the error in the diameter, noncircularity, radial runout, noncylindrical form, fluctuation of the longitudinal profile, and total radial runout. The margin actually removed in the internal grinding of circular and noncircular workpieces is considered. The renumbering of the radius of cross section g from which machining begins in pass i of step z is described.     

Experimental and Simulation Studies on Cold Welding Sealing Process of Heat Pipes

Sealing quality strongly affects heat pipe performance, but few studies focus on the process of heat pipe sealing. Cold welding sealing technology based on a stamping process is applied for heat pipe sealing. The bonding mechanism of the cold welding sealing process (CWSP) is investigated and compared with the experimental results obtained from the bonding interface analysis. An orthogonal experiment is conducted to observe the effects of various parameters, including the sealing gap, sealing length, sealing diameter, and sealing velocity on bonding strength. A method with the utilization of saturated vapor pressure inside a copper tube is proposed to evaluate bonding strength. A corresponding finite element model is developed to investigate the effects of sealing gap and sealing velocity on plastic deformation during the cold welding process. Effects of various parameters on the bonding strength are determined and it is found that the sealing gap is the most critical factor and that the sealing velocity contributes the least effect. The best parameter combination (A ₁ B ₃ C ₁ D ₃, with a 0.5 mm sealing gap, 6 mm sealing length, 3.8 mm sealing diameter, and 50 mm/s sealing velocity) is derived within the experimental parameters. Plastic deformation results derived from the finite element model are consistent with those from the experiment. The instruction for the CWSP of heat pipes and the design of sealing dies of heat pipes are provided.     

Centrifugal compressor tip clearance and impeller flow

Compressors consume a considerable portion of the electricity used in the industrial sector. Hence, improvements in compressor efficiency lead to energy savings and reduce environmental impacts. The efficiency of an unshrouded centrifugal compressor suffers from leakage flow over the blade tips. The effect of tip leakage flow on the passage flow differs between the full and splitter blade passages. In this study, the differences in the flow fields between the full and splitter blade passages were studied numerically in detail. An industrial high-speed compressor with a design pressure ratio of 1.78 was modelled. Numerical studies were conducted with six different tip clearances and three different diffuser widths. The results show that increasing tip clearance considerably increases the reversed flow into the impeller with an unpinched diffuser. The reversed flow then partly mixes into the flow in the same blade passage it entered the impeller and the rest migrates over the blade, mixing with the tip clearance flow. Furthermore, as the reversed and clearance flow mix into the wake, the wake is weakened. As pinch reduces both the reversed flow and clearance flow, the passage wakes are stronger with pinches. However, the pinch is beneficial as the losses at the impeller outlet decrease.

     

Experimental and numerical investigation of the wake structure and aerodynamic loss of trailing edge jet

The influence of the velocity ratio (VR) between the jet and main flow on the wake structure and aerodynamic loss of the trailing edge jet is studied using particle image velocimetry and numerical simulations. Three different velocity ratios, namely, VR = 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, are chosen for this comparative study. The Reynolds number (Re _h ) based on the slot height (h) and the mainstream velocity (U₀) are 3380. Results show that the influence of jet on wake structure is significant such that the wake region shrinks and the turbulent kinetic energy is enhanced as the velocity ratio increases. The distribution area of strong vorticity is enlarged with increasing velocity ratio. By using proper orthogonal decomposition and fast Fourier transfer analysis, the variation of velocity ratio demonstrates significant impact on vortex shedding and turbulent kinetic energy. The aerodynamic loss coefficient is nearly constant between VR = 0.5 and 1.0, but increases by 3.25 % as the velocity ratio increases from 1.0 to 1.5.     

Numerical Prediction of Tip Vortex Cavitation for Marine Propellers in Non-uniform Wake

Tip vortex cavitation is the first type of cavitation to take place around most marine propellers.But the numerical prediction of tip vortex cavitation is one of the challenges for propeller wake because of turbulence dissipation during the numerical simulation.Several parameters of computational mesh and numerical algorithm are tested by mean of the predicted length of tip vortex cavtiation to validate a developed method.The predicted length of tip vortex cavtiation is on the increase about 0.4propeller diameters using the developed numerical method.The predicted length of tip vortex cavtiation by RNG k–e model is about 3 times of that by SST k–x model.Therefore,based on the validation of the present approach,the cavitating flows generated by two rotating propellers under a non-uniform inflow are calculated further.The distributions of axial velocity,total pressure and vapor volume fraction in the transversal planes across tip vortex region are shown to be useful in analyzing the feature of the cavitating flow.The strongest kernel of tip vortex cavitation is not at the position most close to blade tip but slightly far away from the region.During the growth of tip vortex cavitation extension,it appears short and thick,and then it becomes long and thin.The pressure fluctuations at the positions inside tip vortex region also validates the conclusion.A key finding of the study is that the grids constructed especially for tip vortex flows by using separated computational domain is capable of decreasing the turbulence dissipation and correctly capturing the feature of propeller tip vortex cavitation under uniform and non-uniform inflows.The turbulence model and advanced grids is important to predict tip vortex cavitation.     

Investigation of the homogeneity of a high-power ion beam formed by a diode with a closed electron drift

The results of an investigation of the energy-density distribution over the cross section of a pulsed ion beam formed with a passive-anode diode in the mode of magnetic insulation and a closed electron drift in the anode–cathode gap are presented. Diodes of two types are studied: with external magnetic insulation (B_r diode) on the BIPPAB-450 accelerator (400 kV, 80 ns) and self-magnetic insulation of electrons (spiral diode) on the TEMP-4M accelerator (250 kV, 120 ns). In the investigated diodes, various processes are used to form anode plasma: a breakdown over the surface of a dielectric coating on the anode and ionization of the anode surface with accelerated electrons (B_r diode), as well as explosive emission of electrons (spiral diode). To analyze the ion-beam energy density, thermal-imaging diagnostics is used with a spatial resolution of 1–2 mm. The energy-density is calculated from the one-dimensional Child–Langmuir relationship. It is shown that a continuous plasma layer is efficiently formed on the working anode surface for all the investigated diodes. The anode-plasma concentration is rather high, and the beam-energy density is limited by the space charge of ions, but not by the plasma concentration. It is found that, when the magnetic field in the Br-diode anode–cathode gap decreases or the electron current in the spiral diode increases, the energy density of the high-power ion beam rises significantly, but the beam homogeneity decreases.     

Error analysis and regression mode of the V‐grooved sample in the atomic force microscope simulation measurement mode by the molecular mechanics

Based on the molecular mechanics, this study uses the two‐body potential energy function to construct a trapezoidal cantilever nano‐scale simulation measurement model of contact mode atomic force microscopy (AFM) under the constant force mode to simulate the measurement the nano‐scale V‐grooved standard sample. We investigate the error of offset distance of the cross‐section profile when using the probes with different trapezoidal cantilever probe tip radii (9.5, 8.5, and 7.5 Å) to scan the peak of the V‐grooved standard sample being reduced to one‐tenth (1/10) of its size, and use the offset error to inversely find out the regression equation. We analyze how the tip apex as well as the profile of the tip edge oblique angle and the oblique edge angle affects the offset distance. Furthermore, a probe with a larger radius of 9.5 nm is used to simulate and measure the offset error of scan curve, and acquire the regression equation. By the conversion proportion coefficient of size (ω), and revising the size‐reduced regression equation during the small size scale, a revised regression equation of a larger size scale can be acquired. The error is then reduced, further enhancing the accuracy of the AFM scanning and measurement. SCANNING 31: 147–159, 2009. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Aerodynamic performance analysis of partial admission dual row control stage at different working conditions

Aerodynamic performance of partial admission dual row control stage at the rated and off-designed operating conditions was numerically investigated using three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) and k -ε turbulence model. The full scale computational model includes the four nozzle boxes, full first and second row rotor blade, as well as two admission guided vanes with consideration of the rotor tip clearance and stator diaphragm gland. The numerical results of the mass flow rate, power output and aerodynamic efficiency of the dual row control stage at the rated and off-designed conditions are well in agreement with the experimental data. The obtained results at rated condition show that the blocking segmental arc of guided vane increased the exit pressure of the upstream nozzle, which reduced the mass flow rate and changed the aerodynamic performance of the nozzle. The circumferential non-uniformity of aerodynamic parameters and partial admission losses increases with the decrease in the admission degree for the computed three operating conditions. The analysis of axial steam velocity shows that the trailing shedding vortex and the complex flow vortex in flow passages have a significant impact on the magnitude and direction of the axial steam velocity. Furthermore, the partial admission degree changed the proportions of the power output of two rotor blade rows. The lower partial admission degree leads to a larger proportion of the power output of the first rotating blade row. The detailed flow pattern in the partial admissions dual row control stage at different operating conditions is also illustrated.     

A Plane Parallel Chamber Used as a Stopped Muon Detector for the Active Target of the FAMILON Project

The performance characteristics of a plane parallel chamber were investigated on beams of slow muons and positrons, as well as on an electron beam from a ¹⁰⁶Ru β source. The chamber was filled with CO₂ or a gas mixture of Ar (30%) + CO₂(70%) at atmospheric pressure. The amplitude spectra of charged particles and the efficiency of their detection were measured. The muon and positron momenta were ∼27 MeV/c. It was shown that the muon detection efficiency of the plane parallel chamber with a 1-mm gas gap and CO₂ (100%) used as a working gas was as high as 99%, while that of the chamber with a 0.4-mm gas gap and a working gas mixture of Ar(30%) + CO₂(70%) was 88%. This result, along with the detector's high response speed, allows the plane parallel chamber to be used as an active target being developed for a future experiment (FAMILON) on searching for neutrinoless muon decay with the release of a scalar Goldstone's boson (μ → eα). __________ Translated from Pribory i Tekhnika Eksperimenta, No. 5, 2005, pp. 29–35. Original Russian Text Copyright ? 2005 by Vorobyev, Gordeev, Zhdanov, Elkin, Ivochkin, Komarov, Kosianenko, Scheglov, Scherbakov.     

Improvement of grinding performance and investigation of cutting parameters using a grinding mechanism with secondary rotational axis

“Grinding Mechanism having Advanced Secondary Rotational Axis” (GMASRA) is one of the newer plane surface grinding methods that have an uncommon abrasion mechanism. Unlike conventional methods, in GMASRA, there are two rotations of a wheel. The first rotation is the same as in conventional grinding methods, which is the circumferential rotation. The other rotation is the newly developed axial rotation, where the wheel rotates around itself perpendicular to its radial axis. In this study, the effects of certain cutting parameters on arithmetical mean deviation of the assessed profile (the R_a parameter) were investigated. Particularly, the effects of cutting parameters on R_a in the GMASRA grinding process were examined. The selected cutting parameters were the depth of cut, the number of axial revolutions of the wheel, and the stepover distance of the wheel. Five wheels with different properties were chosen. Additionally, GMASRA was modeled using the Taguchi orthogonal test design. In this orthogonal design, the depth of cut, the spindle speed, and the type of grinding wheel were chosen as the control factors. The effect of the specified control factors on the surface roughness was demonstrated using an analysis of variance (ANOVA) test. Results show that GMASRA produced better R_a values than the conventional method. R_a values were very close to each other in every part of the ground workpieces. According to the modeling results, the spindle speed had the highest effect on R_a, followed by the depth of cut and the type of grinding wheel. GMASRA is also very cost effective and can be adapted to most milling machines and CNC milling machines.     

Numerical study on the effect of the tip clearance of a 100 HP axial fan on the aerodynamic performance and unsteady stall characteristics

In this study, a numerical analysis was conducted to investigate the effect of the tip clearance on the aerodynamic performance, internal flow characteristics, and stall region characteristics of an axial fan. Three-dimensional steady and unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) calculations were conducted with a shear stress transport (SST) turbulence model. Tip clearance ratios of 0, 0.01, and 0.02 were applied to the impeller. As the tip clearance ratio increased, the aerodynamic performance of the axial fan decreased at both the design and the off-design conditions. The correlation between the tip leakage vortex (TLV) and the flow angle of the velocity triangle was presented for the difference in the tip clearance and flow rate. As the flow rate increased, the differences in the aerodynamic performance induced by the tip clearance ratio decreased. As the tip clearance ratio increased, the size of the TLV increased and gradually moved in the circumferential direction to interfere with the main flow at the low flow rate. Meanwhile, the size of the TLV was similar and gradually moved in the axial direction even if the tip clearance ratio increased at the high flow rate. The pressure fluctuations were observed by the fast Fourier transformation (FFT) analysis to compare and analyze internal flow characteristics at the stall region and design point. The static pressure was converted to the appropriate magnitude. The locations of the highest magnitude were shown to be different at the stall region and the design point, respectively.

     

Comparative study of tip leakage vortex trajectory and cavitation in an axial flow pump with various tip clearances

In order to analyze the effect of blade tip-gap size on the tip leakage vortex (TLV) dynamics and TLV-induced cavitation, a scaled axial flow pump model was created and numerically studied by the combination of an improved SST k-w turbulence model and a homogeneous cavitation model. The trajectories of TLV core was obtained by using the swirling strength method at different tip-gap sizes vary significantly. The scale of TLV increases as the tip-gap size increases, and the starting point of TLV is sliding further downstream along the blade chord. The angle between the blade suction surface and the TLV also presented an increasing trend with the tip-gap size. The statistics of the velocity normal to the tip chord, as well as the turbulent kinetic energy (KTE) distributions were employed to illustrate a more disordered flow field, which was generated in the tip clearance in a larger amount of leaking flow due to the increased tip-gap size. The in-plain static pressure and vapor volume fraction distributions at different blade chord sections, coupled with three-dimensional cavitation patterns among three tip gaps, are further analyzed to verify the wandering motion of TLV, which shows good agreement with the visualization experiment. Considering the adverse effect of the TLV cavitation, a small tip gap is recommended for improving the axial flow pump performance.