Numerical simulation on impact-contact between the tips of a pair of blades

To study the dynamic characteristics and damping mechanism of impact-contact between the tips of blades further more,the impact-contact between the tips of a pair of blades was studied through numerical simulation.In this paper,the dynamic equation of contact-impact between the tips was established and Newmark direct integration method was adopted in numerical simulation.The nonlinear response characteristics and damping mechanism of impact-contact system are obtained.The results of numerical simulation were obtained as follows:As the clearance between blade shrouds is smaller,the vibration amplitude is smaller.The clearance between blade shrouds has a great influence on the input energy of the aerodynamic-excitation-vibration force.As the clearance of blade shrouds increases,the input energy of the aerodynamic-excitation-vibration force increases rapidly.

Validation of actuator disc circulation distribution for unsteady virtual blades model

The actuator disc method is an engineering approach to reduce computer resources in computational fluid dynamics(CFD)simulations of helicopter rotors or aeroplane propellers.Implementation of an actuator disc based on rotor circulation distribution allows for approximations to be made while reproducing the blade tip vortices.Radial circulation distributions can be formulated according to the nonuniform Heyson-Katzoff“typical load”in hover.In forward flight,the nonuniform disk models include“azimuthal”sin and cos terms to reproduce the blade cyclic motion.The azimuthal circulation distribution for a forward flight mode corresponds to trimmed conditions for the disk rolling and pitching moments.The amplitude of the cos harmonic is analysed and compared here with presented in references data and CFD simulations results.

ANALYTICAL APPROACH TO AERODYNAMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HELICOPTER ROTOR WITH ANHEDRAL TIP SHAPE

A new analytical approach, based on a lifting surface model and a full span free wake analysis using the curved vortex element on the circular arc, is established for evaluating the aerodynamic characteristics of the helicopter rotor with an anhedral blade tip and is emphasized to be applicable to various blade tip configurations, such as the tapered, swept, anhedral and combined shapes. Sample calculations on the rotor aerodynamic characteristics for different anhedral tips in both hover and forward flight are performed. The results on the induced velocity, blade section lift distribution, tip vortex path and rotor performance are presented so that the effect of the anhedral tip on the rotor aerodynamic characteristics is fully analyzed.

Effective Estimation for UAV Propeller Performance

A new effective propeller performance estimation method is employed to calculate the propeller performance in the preliminary design of unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs).The propeller three-dimensional aerodynamic characteristics leading to the blade tip vortices are considered to improve the blade element theory.The rule of the airfoil lift coefficient is summarized to enhance the calculation speed and the universality of this method.Then,wind tunnel test data of the propellers are used to verify the correctness of the approach.The error is less than9%,which is accurate enough in the preliminary design of UAVs.Sensitivity analysis is carried out with the variable empirical parameters,and the values of which only have slight influence on the calculated results.Compared with the strip theory,the proposed method avoids a very high number of iterations and complicated integral.Furthermore,only a few measurable data are needed to get a relatively accurate result.The calculation examples demonstrate excellent effectiveness in obtaining the propeller performance to improve the design of UAVs.

Improved mechanical properties of Ni-rich Ni3Al coatings produced by EB-PVD for repairing single crystal blades

Active control of turbine blade tip clearance for aircraft engine continues to be a concern in engine opera- tion, because turbine blades are subjected to wear and therefore cause an increasing tip clearance between the rotating blades and the shroud and also reduce the engine efficiency. In this work, a Ni-rich Ni3A1 coating with γ＇/γ two-phase microstructure was deposited by electron beam physical vapor deposition （EB-PVD）, which worked as repairing the worn blade tips of single crystal blades. Nb molten pool was used to increase the molten pool tem- perature and thus to enhance the deposition rate. The microstructures and mechanical properties can be modified by the deposition temperatures and the following heat treatments. All coatings consist of γ＇ and γ phases. At deposition temperature of 600 ℃, a dense microstructure can be achieved to produce a coating with grain size of 1 μm and microhardness of -HV 477. After being heated for 4 h at a temperature of 1,100 ℃, the coatings have a more uniform microstructure, and microhardness maintains at a high level of -HV 292. Effect of Hf and Zr on EB-PVD Ni3Al repair coating will be further investigated.

Numerical analysis on noise of rotor with unconventional blade tips based on CFD/Kirchhoff method

A solver is developed aiming at efficiently predicting rotor noise in hover and forward flight. In this solver, the nonlinear near-field solutions are calculated by a hybrid approach which includes the Navier–Stokes and Euler equations based on a moving-embedded grid system and adaptive grid methodology. A combination of the third-order upwind scheme and flux-difference splitting scheme, instead of the second-order center-difference scheme which may cause larger wake dissipation, has been employed in the present computational fluid dynamics （CFD） method. The sound pressure data in the near field can be calculated directly by solving the Navier–Stokes equations, and the sound propagation can be predicted by the Kirchhoff method. A harmonic expansion approach is presented for rotor far-field noise prediction, which gives an analytical expression for the integral function in the Kirchhoff formula. As a result, the interpolation process is simplified and the efficiency and accuracy of the interpolation are improved. Then, the high-speed impulsive （HIS） noise of a helicopter rotor at different tip Mach numbers and on different observers is calculated and analyzed in hover and forward flight, which shows a highly directional characteristic of the rotor HIS noise with a maximum value in the rotor plane, and the HSI noise weakens rapidly with the increasing of the directivity angle. In order to investigate the effects of the rotor blade-tip shape on its aeroacoustic characteristics, four kinds of blade tips are designed and their noise characteristics have been simulated. At last, a new unconventional CLOR-II blade tip has been designed, and the noise characteristics of the presented CLOR-II model rotor have been simulated and measured compared to the reference rotors with a rectangular or swept-back platform blade tip. The results demonstrate that the unconventional CLOR-II blade tip can significantly reduce the HSI noise of a rotor.

Multi-probe linear fitting and time of arrival linear correction method to analyze blade vibration based on blade tip timing without once-per-revolution

Blade vibration monitoring can ensure the safe operation of aeroengine rotor blades.Among the methods of blade vibration monitoring,Blade Tip Timing(BTT)method has attracted more and more attention because of its advantages of non-contact measurement.However,it is difficult to install the Once-Per-Revolution(OPR)probe in the confined space of aeroengine,and the failure and instability of the OPR signal will reduce the reliability of the blade vibration analysis results,which directly affects the accuracy of the blade vibration parameters identification.The Multi-Probe linear fitting and Time of Arrival(ToA)Linear Correction method based on the BTT(MP-LC-BTT)without OPR is proposed to reduce the errors of single probe linear fitting method for blade vibration displacement analysis.The proposed method can also correct the calculation error of blade vibration displacement due to the nonlinear change of rotation speed,which can improve the analysis accuracy of the blade vibration displacement.A new blade vibration model conforming to the actual vibration characteristics is established,and the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by numerical simulation.Finally,the reliability and accuracy of the MP-LC-BTT method have been verified by the experiments which include two high-speed blade test-benches and an industrial axial fan.This method can be used in the actual aero-engine monitoring instead of the BTT method with OPR.

High-fidelity simulation of blade vortex interaction of helicopter rotor based upon TENO scheme

Numerical simulation methods for unsteady vortex field of helicopter rotor with high resolution and low dissipation TENO8-AA primitive variables reconstruction schemes are established based on moving-embedded grid and Navier-Stokes equations.Firstly,the Targeted Essentially Non-Oscillatory(TENO)scheme are developed by employing ENO-like candidate stencil selection strategy,and the candidate stencil is adopted with optimal weight in smooth region while it is discarded completely in discontinuous region,which reduces the dissipation and dispersion errors and approaches better spectral properties.Then,the aerodynamic characteristics of Helishape-7A model rotor in Blade Vortex Interaction(BVI)state and the flowfield of Lynx rotor in hover are simulated,which validates that the blade tip vortex trajectory with larger wake age and more details of vortex can be captured by TENO8-AA scheme with only a quarter of grid points and half time comparing to WENO-JS scheme.Moreover,the simulation accuracy of thrust coefficient is improved by up to 36%.Finally,the analyses for BVI and aeroacoustic characteristics of Operational Loads Survey(OLS)rotor are conducted,and the different forms of interaction mechanism are explored,such as oblique and parallel interactions.The results indicate that TENO scheme not only ensures the resolution of simulation in discontinuous region,but also minimizes the numerical dissipation in smooth region dominated by blade tip vortex.Therefore,the acoustic pressure peak prediction error of rotor in BVI state is significantly reduced to 5.6%and 0.8%at two microphone locations,respectively.

Effects of Ribbed-Cavity Tip on the Blade Tip Aerothermal Performance in a High Pressure Turbine Stage

For unshrouded blade tip,the high-temperature gas flows through the tip clearance by force of the lateral pressure difference.Thereby,the blade tip endures increasing thermal load.Furthermore,the conventional blade tip treatment cannot continuously provide protection for the deteriorating service environment.In the present study,aerothermal characteristics of the squealer blade tip with staggered ribs,partial squealer rim and different partial squealer rim thickness were investigated to explore the influences of ribbed-cavity tip on the tip heat transfer,leakage flow and turbine stage efficiency.The numerical results indicate that the ribbed-cavity tips are beneficial for the reduction of the blade tip thermal load and leakage flow.Among the present six blade tip designs,the minimal area-averaged heat transfer coefficient is obtained by the case with the staggered ribs and a deeper squealer rim,which is reduced by 31.41%relative to the squealer tip.Plus,the blade tip modification closer to leading edge or tip mid-chord region performs better than trailing edge in reducing the tip leakage flow.

Improved minimum variance distortionless response spectrum method for efficient and robust non-uniform undersampled frequency identification in blade tip timing

The noncontact blade tip timing(BTT)measurement has been an attractive technology for blade health monitoring(BHM).However,the severe undersampled BTT signal causes a significant challenge for blade vibration parameter identification and fault feature extraction.This study proposes a novel method based on the minimum variance distortionless response(MVDR)of the direction of arrival(DoA)estimation for blade natural frequency estimation from the non-uniformly undersampled BTT signals.First,based on the similarity between the general data acquisition model for BTT and the antenna array model in DoA estimation,the circumferentially arranged probes on the casing can be regarded as a non-uniform linear array.Thus,BTT signal reconstruction is converted into the DoA estimation problem of the non-uniform linear array signal.Second,MVDR is employed to address the severe undersampling issue and recover the BTT undersampled signal.In particular,spatial smoothing is innovatively utilized to enhance the estimation of covariance matrix of the BTT signal to avoid ill-condition or singularity,while improving efficiency and robustness.Lastly,numerical simulation and experimental testing are employed to verify the validity of the proposed method.Monte Carlo simulation results suggest that the proposed method behaves better than conventional methods,especially under a lower signal-to-noise ratio condition.Experimental results indicate that the proposed method can effectively overcome the severe undersampling problem of BTT signal induced by physical limitations,and has a strong potential in the field of BHM.

An experimental method for squealer tip flow field considering relative casing motion

Squealer tip is widely used in turbines to reduce tip leakage loss.In typical turbine environment,the squealer tip leakage flow is affected by multiple factors such as the relative casing motion and the wide range of variable incidence angles.The development of experimental methods which can accurately model the real turbine environment and influencing factors is of great significance to study the squealer tip leakage flow mechanism.In the present paper,a low-speed turbine cascade test facility which can model the relative casing motion and wide range of variable incidence angles(-25°to 55°)is built.Based on the similarity criteria,a high-low speed similarity transformation method of the turbine cascade is established by considering the thickness of the turbine blade.A combined testing method of Particle Image Velocimetry(PIV)and local pressure measurement is proposed to obtain the complex flow structures within the tip cavity.The results show that the experimental method can successfully model the relative casing motion and the wide range of variable incidence angles.The low-speed cascade obtained by the similarity transformation can model the high-speed flow accurately.The measurement technique developed can obtain the complex flow field and successfully capture the scraping vortex within the squealer tip.

A novel none once per revolution blade tip timing based blade vibration parameters identification method

The vibration caused blade High Cycle Fatigue(HCF)is seriously affects the safety operation of turbomachinery especially for aero-engine.Thus,it is crucial important to identify the blade vibration parameters and then evaluate the dynamic stress amplitude.Blade Tip Timing(BTT)method is one of the promising method to solve these problems.While,it need a high resolution Once Per Revolution(OPR)signal which is difficult to get for the aero-engine.Here,a Coupled Vibration Analysis(CVA)method for identifying blade vibration parameters by a none OPR BTT is proposed.The method assumes that every real blade has its own vibration performance at a given speed.Whereby,it can take any blade as the reference blade,and the other blades using the reference blade as the OPR for vibration displacement calculating and further parameter identifying.The proposed method is validated by numerical model.Also,experimental studies are carried out on a straight blade and a twisted three dimensional blade test rig as well as a large industrial axial compressor respectively.The results show that the proposed method can accurately identify the blade synchronous vibration parameters and quantitatively evaluate the mistuning in bladed disks,which lays a foundation for the reliability improvement of aero-engine.

Effect of blade tip winglet on the performance of a highly loaded transonic compressor rotor

The tip leakage flow has an important influence on the performance of transonic com- pressor. Blade tip winglet has been proved to be an effective method to control the tip leakage flow in compressor, while the physical mechanisms of blade tip winglet have been poorly understood. A numerical study for a highly loaded transonic compressor rotor has been conducted to understand the effect of varying the location of blade tip wing]et on the performance of the rotor. Two kinds of tip winglet were designed and investigated. The effects of blade tip winglet on the compressor over- all performance, stability and tip flow structure were presented and discussed, It is found that the interaction of the tip winglet with the flow in the tip region is different when the winglet is located at suction-side or pressure-side of the blade tip. Results indicate that the suction-side winglet （SW） is ineffective to improve the performance of compressor rotor. In addition, a significant stall range extension equivalent to 33.74% with a very small penalty in efficiency can be obtained by the pressure-side winglet （PW）. An attempt has been made to explain the fundamental mechanisms of blade tip winglet in detail.

Research Progress of Tip Winglet Technology in Compressor

In the present study,the research progress of tip winglets that control tip clearance leakage flow in compressors is reviewed.Firstly,the effects of tip leakage flow on the aerodynamic performance of the compressor are presented.Subsequently,the development of tip winglet technology is reviewed.Next,a series of studies on compressor tip winglet technology are conducted.Besides,the effects of tip winglets on the aerodynamic performance of rectangular cascades of low-speed and high-subsonic compressors,subsonic compressor rotor and transonic compressor rotor are discussed,respectively,and the control effect of tip winglet technology combined with tip groove design on tip leakage is investigated.Lastly,the subsequent development direction and research prospect of compressor tip winglet technology are presented.

Variable Clearance Characteristics of High Subsonic Compressor Cascades with Blade Tip Winglets

The gas turbine is the main power equipment for naval ship and special civil ship,while the compressor is one of the core structures of the gas turbine.The existing tip clearance could prevent the compressor blade and casing collision.Therefore,the flow loss in the tip region caused by the tip clearance will degrade the performance of the compressor.To improve the variable clearance characteristics of the high subsonic compressor cascades,the cascades with tip clearances of 1%,2%and 3%chord length are studied through experimental measurements and numerical calculations.The research results prove that the pressure surface tip winglet can cause a significant improvement effect under most working conditions.If the blade tip clearance size is gradually increasing within a reasonable range,the improvement effect becomes more remarkable,and the optimal tip winglet case changes.When tip clearance is 1%chord length,the PTW1.0 case(the width of the pressure surface tip winglet is 1.0 time of the original tip)reduces the flow loss by 3.09%compared with the NTW case(No Tip Winglet).When tip clearance is 2%chord length,the flow loss of PTW1.5 case(the width of the pressure surface tip winglet is 1.5 times of the original tip)is reduced by 3.46%.When tip clearance is 3%chord length,all alternative tip winglets reduce the total pressure loss,and PTW2.0 case(the width of the pressure surface tip winglet is 2.0 times of the original tip)is the best choice,which has a 6.53%degree of improvement.

Effects of Width Variation of Pressure-Side Winglet on Tip Flow Structure in a Transonic Rotor

Tip leakage flow has become one of the major triggers for rotating stall in tip region of high loading transonic compressor rotors.Comparing with active flow control method,it’s wise to use blade tip modification to enlarge the stable operating range of rotor.Therefore,three pressure-side winglets with the maximum width of 2.0,2.5 and 3.0 times of the baseline rotor,are designed and surrounded the blade tip of NASA rotor 37,and the three new rotors are named as RPW1,RPW2,and RPW3 respectively.The numerical results show that the width of pressure-side winglet has significant influence on the stall margin and the minimum throttling massflow of rotor,while it produces less effect on the choking massflow and the peak efficiency of new rotors.As the width of the pressure-side winglet increases from new rotor RPW1 to RPW3,the strength of leakage massflow has been attenuated dramatically and a reduction of 20%in leakage massflow rate has appeared in the new rotor RPW3.By contrast,the extended blade tip caused by winglet has not introduced much more aerodynamic losses in tip region of rotor,and the new rotors with different width of pressure-side winglet have the similar peak efficiency to the baseline.The new shape of the leakage channel over blade tip which replaces of the static pressure difference near blade tip has dominated the behavior of the leakage flow in tip gap.As both the new aerodynamic boundary and throat in tip gap have reshaped by the low-velocity flow near the solid wall of extended blade tip,the discharging velocity and massflow rate of leakage flow have been suppressed obviously in new rotors.In addition,the increasing inlet axial velocity at the entrance of new rotor has increased slightly as well,which is attributed to the less blockage in the tip region of new rotor.In consideration of the increased inlet axial velocity and the weakened leakage flow,the new rotor presents an appropriately linear increase of the stall margin when the width of pressure-side winglet increases,and has a nearly 15%increase in new rotor RPW3.