Numerical study on flow characteristics at blade passage and tip clearance in a linear cascade of high performance turbine blade

A numerical analysis has been conducted in order to simulate the characteristics of complex flow through linear cascades of high performance turbine blade with/without tip clearance by using a pressure-correction based, generalized 3D incompressible Navier-Stokes CFD code. The development and generation of horseshoe vortex, passage vortex, leakage vortex, tip vortex within tip clearance, etc. are clearly identified through the present simulation which uses the RNG k-ε turbulent model with wall function method and a second-order linear upwind scheme for convective terms. The present simulation results are consistent with the generally known tendency that occurs in the blade passage and tip clearance. A 3D model for secondary and leakage flows through turbine cascades with/without tip clearance is also suggested from the present simulation results, including the effects of tip clearance height.     

对旋轴流风机叶顶间隙对其性能的影响

为了探究改变对旋轴流风机两级叶轮的叶顶间隙对其性能的影响，建立不同叶顶间隙下风机三维模型，利用Fluent进行数值模拟，并结合风机性能试验验证仿真的正确性。分析压升、效率、轴功率、湍流动能和叶顶泄漏涡随两级叶轮叶顶间隙的变化情况，结果表明：在相同流量下，压升、效率随间隙的增大而减小；与第一级叶轮相比，间隙对第二级叶轮的轴功率、湍流动能及泄漏涡影响更加显著；随间隙增大，叶顶泄漏涡的强度和影响区域越大。     

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.

     

COMPARISON OF TWO METHODS TO INCREASE TIP CLEARANCE AND ITS EFFECT ON PERFORMANCE OF TURBOCHARGER CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR STAGE

Tip clearance between the blade tip and casing of a centrifugal compressor can be varied through two methods:by changing the blade height(M1)or by changing the casing diameter(M2). Numerical simulations are carried out to compare these two methods and their effect on the stage and impeller performance.The impeller and diffuser are connected through rotor stator boundary using frozen rotor approach.Overall stage performance and the flow configuration have been investigated for nine tip clearance levels from no gap to 1 mm.Impeller and diffuser performances are also pre- sented separately.It has been found that the overall and impeller performance are comparatively better for M1 below tip clearance of 0.5 mm whereas M2 is found advantageous above 0.5 mm of tip clear- ance.Both M1 and M2 show performance degradation with the increase in tip clearance.Two models have been proposed for the stage total pressure ratio and efficiency,which are found to be in agree- ment with experimental results.The impeller efficiency and the pressure ratio are found to be maxi- mum at tip clearance of 0.1 mm for both the cases however minimum diffuser effectiveness is also observed at the same clearance level.Diffuser effectiveness is found to be maximum at zero gap for both cases.As it is practically impossible to have zero gap for unshrouded impellers so it is concluded that the optimum thickness is 0.5 mm onwards for M1 and 0.5 mm for M2 in terms of diffuser effec- tiveness.Mass averaged flow parameters,entropy,blade loading diagram and relative pressure fields are presented,showing the loss production within the impeller passage with tip clearance.     

Performance prediction and flow field calculation for airfoil fan with impeller inlet clearance

The performance prediction of an airfoil fan using a commerical code, STAR/CD, is verified by comparing the calculated results with measured performance data and velocity fields of an airfoil fan. The effects of inlet tip clearance on performance are investigated. The calculations overestimate the pressure rise performance by about 10–25 percent. However, the performance reduction due to tip clearance is well predicted by numerical simulations. Main source of performance decrease is not only the slip factor but also impeller efficiency. The reduction in performance is 12–16 percent for 1 percent gap of the diameter. The calculated reductions in impeller efficiency and slip factor are also linearly proportional to the gap size. The span-wise distributions of phase averaged velocity and pressure at the impeller exit are strongly influenced by the radial gap size. The radial component of velocity and the flow angle increase over the passage as the gap increases. The slip factor decreases and the loss increases with the gap size. The high velocity of leakage jet affects the impeller inlet and passage flows. With a larger clearance, the main stream moves to the impeller hub side and high loss region extends from the shroud to the hub.     

半开式复合叶轮离心泵不同叶顶间隙的水力特性分析

 针对服务于航天低温循环系统的半开式复合叶轮离心泵效能利用率低的问题,研讨了其内流场在3种不同叶顶间隙下的工作情况。应用ANSYSY-Fluent软件对3种不同叶顶间隙的流场进行三维定常全流场数值模拟,得出3种叶顶间隙对离心泵内流特性的影响规律。通过对实物泵的水力特性试验以及试验结果与数值模拟结果对比分析,得出叶顶间隙是半开式离心泵存在能量损耗原因之一,减小叶顶间隙有利于提高效能利用率,并确认了试验数值模拟的可靠性。     

叶顶间隙对离心叶轮性能影响的数值模拟

对5个不同叶顶间隙下离心叶轮通道中的流动情况进行了数值模拟,得到了不同间隙时叶轮的效率、压比随质量流量变化的性能曲线,分析了间隙对叶轮性能的影响。     

叶顶间隙对低比转速混流泵性能及内部流场影响的数值研究

为了解叶顶间隙对低比转速混流泵性能及内部流场的影响,选取无叶顶间隙和叶顶间隙δ分别为0.25 mm、0.75 mm和1 mm共四种方案,基于ANSYS-CFX对一比转速为149的混流泵进行了全流道数值模拟。计算域采用ICEM-CFD和TurboGrid进行结构化网格划分。利用Tecplot对计算结果进行处理,得到叶顶间隙对外特性参数、轮缘泄漏、流道中心S2流面流场等的影响。结果显示,叶顶间隙对大流量工况（1.25Q_d和1.5Q_d）下性能参数的影响大于小流量工况（0.5Q_d和0.75Q_d）,且效率减小量与叶顶间隙变化量的比值（Δη/Δδ）和相对流量m之间近似呈二次抛物线关系;当间隙为0.75 mm时,随着流量的增加,在叶轮流道进口附近形成的旋涡逐渐向出口方向移动,且旋涡强度及其对主流的影响范围均增大;当间隙进一步增大到1 mm时,泄漏流和主流之间发生了更为严重的卷吸效应。     

基于ANSYS的离心风机叶轮结构优化研究

叶轮是离心风机的核心部件,由于叶轮是高速旋转的部件,动静之间不能有接触,同时动静之间的间隙通过泄漏损失和二次流损失直接影响风机的效率。为有效地控制叶轮和形环之间的间隙,本文提出在叶轮轮盘侧添加凸台结构,采用4种改进设计方案。利用通用有限元分析软件ANSYS进行计算分析[1-3],综合考虑叶轮应力、应变等因素,最终得到了在新型设计方法下的最优设计方案。结果表明,新型设计改进方案有效地减小了叶轮的轴向位移量和径向位移量,为叶轮和形环之间的间隙设计提供了依据,进而可以最大限度地减少漏气损失和二次流损失。     

Influence of tip clearance on pressure fluctuations in an axial flow pump

Rotor-stator interaction in axial pumps can produce pressure fluctuations and further vibrations even damage to the pump system in some extreme case. In this paper, the influence of tip clearance on pressure fluctuations in an axial flow water pump has been investigated by numerical method. Three-dimensional unsteady flow in the axial flow water pump has been simulated with different tip clearances between the impeller blade tip and the casing wall. In addition to monitoring pressure fluctuations at some typical points, a new method based on pressure statistics was proposed to determine pressure fluctuations at all grid nodes inside the whole pump. The comparison shows that the existence of impeller tip clearance magnifies the pressure fluctuations in the impeller region, from the hub to shroud. However, the effect on pressure fluctuation in the diffuser region is not evident. Furthermore, the tip clearance vortex has also been examined under different tip clearances.     

对旋轴流风机叶顶形态对其性能的影响

为了探究改变叶顶结构对风机性能的影响，采用Fluent对不同叶顶形态的对旋轴流风机性能进行数值模拟。分析了不同叶顶形态对风机效率、全压、叶顶泄漏流和泄漏涡的影响。结果表明：风机效率随叶顶开槽长度的增加而增大。在开槽长度和深度相同时，与第一级叶轮相比，改变第二级叶轮的叶顶形态对风机性能的改善更加显著。与后缘相比，在叶顶前缘开槽对风机性能改善更大。叶顶开槽后，间隙处形成泄漏涡，且叶顶泄漏流入口处涡流强度明显提高，可有效削弱叶顶泄漏流的发展，改善风机性能。     

Numerical evaluation of flow and performance of turbo pump inducers

Steady state flow calculations are executed for turbo-pump inducers of modern design to validate the performance of Tascflow code. Hydrodynamic performance of inducers is evaluated and structure of the passage flow and leading edge recirculation are also investigated. Calculated results show good coincidence with experimental data of static pressure performance and velocity profiles over the leading edge. Upstream recirculation, tip leakage and vortex flow at the blade tip and near leading edge are main sources of pressure loss. Amount of pressure loss from the upstream to the leading edge corresponds to that of whole pressure loss through the blade passage. The viscous loss is considerably large due to the strong secondary flow. There appears more stronger leading edge recirculation for the backswept inducer. and this increases the pressure loss. However, blade loading near the leading edge is considerably reduced and cavitation inception delayed.     

Numerical study on unsteadiness of tip clearance flow and performance prediction of axial compressor

Numerical calculations were performed to investigate unsteady features of tip clearance leakage flow in an axial compressor. The first stage rotor of a low speed axial compressor with a large tip clearance was examined. It was confirmed that the numerically calculated performance data were in good agreement with the experimentally measured performance data. Using frequency analysis, the flow characteristic near the casing induced by tip clearance leakage flow was found to be not associated with the rotating speed of the rotor. This characteristic is called rotating instability or self-induced unsteadiness. We found that the circumferential length scale of the rotating instability of the compressor was longer than a pitch of a blade passage; therefore, a multi-blade passage was adopted to study the flow structure more precisely. The flow characteristic was described by the frequency, the circumferential length, and the phase velocity, and was changed by operating points toward stall. The behavior of the flow was characterized by circumferentially traveling waves. Hence, the mechanism governing the development of the unsteady feature was further examined in terms of the rotating wave pattern of the pressure distribution. Furthermore, the unsteady feature of the tip clearance leakage flow affected the prediction of compressor performance by altering blockage, flow turning, and loss near the casing.     

Effect of meridional shape on performance of axial-flow fan

In this study, the effect of impeller meridional shape on the performance of axial-flow fan is investigated by CFD method. Three axialflow fan impellers with different meridional shapes are designed. The blade angle, blade stacking condition and other structure factors of the impellers are all remained consistent. The performance curves of the three impellers are calculated and compared. In almost all the interested flowrate range, the impeller W3 with an inverted-isosceles-trapezoid meridional shape and the longer blade camber achieves both the higher pressure rise and the higher efficiency than the other two impellers. A two-stage axial-flow fan designed on basis of W3 is manufactured and tested. Test results show good agreement with the calculated performance curves. Further, analyses of the CFD results are conducted to reveal the reasons for the different performance. A newly-defined Local Euler head (LEH) is introduced to represent the distribution of the major Euler work in the axial-flow fan. And the LEH distributions in the three impellers are obtained. W3 achieves the highest LEH at blade Trailing edge (TE), because it could perform the most Euler work to the fluid with the longest blade camber. Then losses in the impellers are analyzed by means of the entropy generation. Among the losses in impeller, the tip leakage loss and endwall friction loss are dominated at design flowrate. The generation condition of the tip leakage loss shows significant differences among the three impellers. And the whole power loss in impeller of W3 is slightly higher than those of the other two models. However, the power loss difference among the three impellers is negligible. And due to the highest shaft power, the efficiency loss of W3 is the lowest of all.     

叶顶间隙变化对轴流风扇性能影响的数值研究

运用三维粘性流动计算软件,对某含叶顶间隙的直叶片轴流风扇进行数值模拟。叶顶间隙按相对间隙进行取值,其大小分别为0、0.5%、1.0%、1.5%和2.0%,其它计算参数不变。通过对计算结果的对比分析,研究叶顶间隙变化对总体性能的影响。结果表明,叶顶间隙变化对轴流风扇性能有较大影响,随着叶顶间隙的增大,其效率、全压减小。     

齿顶间隙对双圆弧螺旋齿轮泵泄漏及空化特性的影响

为了研究在高速高压工况下双圆弧螺旋齿轮泵齿顶间隙对齿轮泵泄漏及空化特性的影响,建立了双圆弧螺旋齿轮泵最佳齿顶间隙数学模型,计算出最佳齿顶间隙。利用PumpLinx对考虑空化后不同齿顶间隙的齿轮泵内部流场进行数值模拟,结果表明:当齿顶间隙为0.02 mm,齿轮泵的流量脉动和压力脉动相对较小,流量输出品质好,与理论分析最佳齿顶间隙为0.0207 mm基本一致,验证了最佳齿顶间隙模型建立的正确性;齿顶间隙会影响齿轮泵内部流场的空化程度和泄漏量,齿轮泵内部的空化程度随着齿顶间隙的增大而减小,齿顶间隙处的泄漏会随齿顶间隙的增大而增大;齿轮泵齿顶间隙处的空化具有密封作用,可以减小齿顶间隙泄漏。研究结果对双圆弧螺旋齿轮泵结构优化及应用具有一定的参考价值。     

考虑间隙的压气机转子内部流动的数值模拟

采用时间推进法求解三维N-S方程，开发了一种用于计算考虑顶部间隙的压气机转子内部流场的三维粘性程序。对某压气机转子顶部间隙内的流动进行了详细的数值模拟，计算结果与试验结果吻合良好。通过分析可以发现，动叶顶部问隙的流动将引起叶片顶部气流的欠偏转，从而降低了转子附近相当大区域内的做功能力。同时，对于间隙内细微的流动结构也进行了较为深入的分析。     

小迷宫密封间隙对离心制冷压缩机性能的影响

为探讨小迷宫密封间隙设计条件下离心制冷压缩机性能变化规律,以离心制冷压缩机为研究对象,通过CFD方法对压缩机叶轮和迷宫密封内的流动进行模拟.研究结果表明:迷宫密封内的流体压力近似呈阶梯状降低;在叶轮入口流量相同时,随密封间隙增大,泄漏量和泄漏损失系数在小流量工况下增大的幅度较大;在同一密封间隙下,随着压缩机叶轮入口流量...     

叶顶间隙对轴流式叶轮机械性能及噪声的影响研究进展

在轴流式叶轮机械中转子与机壳之间存在一定的间隙,该间隙的大小对叶轮机械的全压、效率和噪声等均有很大影响。结合近年来在叶顶间隙领域开展的研究,详细综述了国内外在叶顶间隙对轴流式叶轮机械性能及噪声的影响等方面的研究进展,并对叶顶间隙在今后的发展方向进行了展望,为叶轮性能的优化提供参考。     

EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF TIP CLEARANCE FLOW FOR AN AXIAL FLOW FAN ROTOR

The flow field in the tip region of an axial ventilation fan is investigated with a particle image velocimeter (PIV) system at the design condition. Flow fields with three different tip clearances are surveyed on three different circumferential planes, respectively. The phase-locked average method is used to investigate the generation and the development of a tip leakage vortex. The result from PIV system is compared with that from a particle dynamics anemometer(PDA) system. Both data are in good agreement and the structure of the tip leakage vortex for the rotor is illustrated. The characteristic of a leakage vortex is described in both velocity vectors and vortical contours. The unsteadiness of the leakage vortex and the position of the vortex are surveyed in detail, which interprets the discrepancy between the numerical simulation and PDA experimental results to a certain extent. The center loci of tip leakage vortex at different times and the mean center loci of the leakage vortex are displayed particularly. Finally, the trajectories of the tip leakage vortex by the experimental measurement are compared with predictions from the existing models for high speed and high-pressure compressors and turbines when appropriately interpreted. A good agreement is obtained.