Tip Clearance Flows in Turbine Cascades

This article describes the effects of some factors on the tip clearance flow in axial linear turbine cascades. The measurements of the total pressure loss coefficient are made at the cascade outlets by using a five-hole probe at exit Mach numbers of 0.10, 0.14 and 0.19. At each exit Mach number, experiments are performed at the tip clearance heights of 1.0%, 1.5%, 2.0%, 2.5% and 3.0% of the blade height. The effects of the non-uniform tip clearance height of each blade in the pitchwise direction are also studied. The results show that at a given tip clearance height, generally, total pressure loss rises with exit Mach numbers proportionally. At a fixed exit Mach number, the total pressure loss augments nearly proportionally as the tip clearance height increases. The increased tip clearance heights in the tip regions of two adjacent blades are to be blame for the larger clearance loss of the center blade. Compared to the effects of the tip clearance height, the effects of the exit Mach number and the pitchwise variation of the tip clearance height on the cascade total pressure loss are so less significant to be omitted.

TOPOLOGY AND VORTEX STRUCTURES OF A CURVING TURBINE CASCADE WITH TIP CLEARANCE (Ⅰ)- EXPERIMENTAL MODEL AND TOPOLOGICAL FLOW PATTERNS ON BOTH ENDWALLS AND BLADE SURFACES

By means of ink trace visualization of the flows in conventional straight, positively curved and negatively curved cascades with tip clearance, and measurement of the aerodynamic parameters in the transverse section, and by appling topology theory, the structures on both endwalls and blade surfaces were analyzed. Compared with conventional straight cascade, blade positive curving eliminates the separation line of the upper passage vortex and leads the secondary vortex to change from close separation to open separation, while blade negative curving effects merely the positions of singular points and the intensities and scales of vortex.

TOPOLOGY AND VORTEX STRUCTURES OF A CURVING TURBINE CASCADE WITH TIP CLEARANCE (Ⅱ)- TOPOLOGICAL FLOW PATTERN AND VORTEX STRUCTURE IN THE TRANSVERSE SECTION OF A BLADE CASCADE

By means of ink trace visualization of the flows in conventional straight, positively curved and negatively curved cascades with tip clearance, and measurement of the aerodynamic parameters in transverse section, and by appling topology theory, the topological structures and vortex structure in the transverse section of a blade cascade were analyzed. Compared with conventional straight cascade, blade positive curving eliminates the separation line of the upper passage vortex, and leads the secondary vortex to change from close separation to open separation, while blade negative curving effects merely the positions of singular points and the intensities and scales of vortex.

Investigation of the Aerodynamic Character in Turbine Cascades with Aft-loaded Profile

For evaluate the aerodynamic character of the turbine cascades which have the aft-loaded profile, the experimental investigation was carried out on the low speed annular wind tunnel. And the detailed measurements of the aerodynamic parameters were made from upstream to downstream of the two type turbine cascades, the one is the conventional straight blades cascade, the other is the curved blades cascades. The static pressure distributions on the endwall and the blade surface were also carried out. The influence of the aft-loaded profile and the curved blade on the development of loss and the pressure distribution was discussed, and analyses the different flow phenomena and mechanism in two type turbine cascades.

Study on the influence of pneumatic probe on the wake flow field of transonic turbine cascade

The pneumatic probe is widely used for contact measurements in turbomachinery flow field research.However,it inevitably interferes with the original flow field,leading to additional errors,particularly in wake flow fields or transonic regions with significant pressure gradients.This study employed Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes delete and high-fidelity numerical simulation to investigate the impact of an inserted pneumatic probe on the wake flow field of a transonic turbine blade and compared it to the baseline flow field.Results indicate that the probe causes the shock waves premature occurrence in the high subsonic wake region near the turbine blade trailing edge.These shock waves affect vortex shedding by thickening the boundary layer near the trailing edge and changing the shedding pattern from high-frequency-low-energy to low-frequencyhigh-energy.In addition,the extra flow loss is incurred,and the blade's heat transfer characteristic is changed.This research provides a reference for testing experiments in complex transonic flow fields,guiding experimental researchers to minimize instrument interference with the original flow field.

Modal Analysis and Vortex Trajectory Description for Tip Leakage Flow of a Transonic Turbine Cascade

Tip leakage vortex(TLV),which develops from the clearance between the turbine blade and casing,has been studied for decades.Nevertheless,some associated phenomena,such as its unsteady behaviors,are still not well understood.In the present work,an unsteady simulation of a transonic turbine cascade was conducted by using a validated unsteady Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes(URANS)technique with the k-ωshear stress transport(SST)turbulence model.Typical three-dimensional vortical topology in the tip region of this transonic turbine blade was depicted based on the vortex and shock wave identification.Afterwards,quantitative descriptions of TLV transient parameters,including core position,radius,intensity,wandering motion amplitude and their statistical analysis were also provided via an ellipse fitting method.Combined with the turbulent parameters in the tip region,it is recognized that the breakdown of TLV does not occur upstream of the trailing edge,and the TLV wandering,especially the spanwise motion is a dominant unsteady feature as migrating downstream.To mathematically extract underlying flow features of tip leakage flow(TLF),two data-driven modal analysis techniques,namely proper orthogonal decomposition(POD)and dynamic mode decomposition(DMD),are presented to complement one another to reveal underlying flow feature.Observation of modes distribution allowed qualitative identification of shockwaves,vortical cluster and corresponding transient interaction.Results of POD show that the dominant unsteady structures in the tip region exhibit various morphology with moving downstream.In the front part near the leading edge,the oscillation of separation bubble and bifurcation of passage vortex paly a dominant role;while in the middle part of the tip region,the corresponding factors are the wandering of TLV and unsteady interaction between shock waves and TLF/TLV.In the vicinity of the trailing edge,the instability induced by the mixing of large-scale vortices serves as the main factor in the context of flow unsteadiness.Both the POD and DMD methods can decompose the dominant frequency of TLV evolution and its harmonic frequencies;however,the DMD method presents a superiority in segregating the high-frequency components and their corresponding unsteady structures.

Experimental Study of Effects of Tip Geometry on the Flow Field in a Turbine Cascade Passage

This study investigates the effects of blade tip geometry on the flow field of a turbine cascade at the incidence angle of 0 degree experimentally. The tests were performed in a low-speed turbine cascade wind tunnel. The Reynolds number based on the blade chord was about 172300 at the exit. Traverses of the exit flow field were made in order to measure the overall performance. The effects of using fiat tip and grooved tip with a chord-wise channel were studied. The case with the flat tip is referenced as the baseline. The tip clearances are all 1 mm measuring 0.84 percent of the blade span. The depth of channel is 2mm.The flow field at 10% chord downstream from the cascade trailing edge was measured at 38 span-wise positions and 26 pitch-wise positions using a mini five-hole pressure probe. The static pressure distribution on the tip end wall is measured at 16 pitch-wise stations and 17 chord-wise stations. Results show that there exists great pressure gradient in the pressure side for the fiat tip and the pressure side squealer tip, which means strong leakage flow. The pressure gradient from the pressure side to the suction side is greatly decreased for the grooved tip, and the resulting leakage flow is weaker. The core of the leakage vortex moves closer to the suction side for the pressure side squealer tip and farther away from the suction side for the suction side squealer tip. The pressure side squealer has little advantages over the fiat tip in improving the flow capacity and reducing the overall losses. The suction side squealer tip and grooved tip can effectively decrease the intensity of the tip leakage vortex, improve the flow capacity and reduce loss of the turbine cascade passage and the grooved tip performs the best.

Experimental Studies on The Mechanism and Control of Secondary Flow Losses in Turbine Cascades

This paper summarizes the results of the authors' 4 year experimental studies on the secondary flow losses in turbine cascades. Cascade wind tunnel experiments were carried out concerning the influence of aspect ratios, incidence, turning angles and outer endwall divergent angles in order to unveil the evolution mechanism of secondary flow losses in turbine cascades without end clearance. Some methods for controlling the secondary flows are investigated including the blade leaning, blade cambering, endwall convergence and leading edge extension at two ends of the blade.

Topology and Vortex Structures of Turbine Cascade with Different Tip Clearances

This paper uses the topology theory to analyze the surface flowspectrums of straight, positively curved and negatively curvedcascades with relative tip clearances of 0.023 and 0.036, findsapparent differences of topology and vortex structures in the bladetip and the suction side wall corner of single type of cascade withthis two clearances, and studies the mechanism of the differenceformation as well as their effects o the energy loss.

Aerodynamic Optimum Design of Transonic Turbine Cascades Using Genetic Algorithms

This paper presents an aerodynamic optimum design method for transonic turbine cascades based on the Genetic Algorithms coupled to the inviscid flow Euler solver and the boundary-layer calculation.The Genetic Algorithms control the evolution of a population of cascades towards an optimum design.The fitness value of each string is evaluated using the flow solver. The design procedur6 has been developed and the behavior of the genetic algorithms has been tested. The objective functions of the design examples are the minimum mean-square deviation between the aimed pressure and computed pressure and the minimum amount of user expertise.

Experimental Investigations of the Three-DimensionalFlow in a Large Deflection Turbine Cascade with Tip Clearance

Results obtained from an experbontal study of the threedimensional flow survey within and exit of a large defiection linear turbine cascade are presented for a tip clearance levels of 0.08, 1.5, 3.0 percent of chord and compared with the help of boundary layer probes and that within and exit of a blade passage was done with a miniaturised five hole probe. End wall and blade tip surface static pressures were also obtained, in addition to flow visualisation studies. A strong horse-shoe vortex forms in front of the leading edge for zero clearance whereas this vortex does not appear for 3 percent clearance indicating that for large clearance the pressure forces have dominating infiuence than the viscous forces. In addition to normally known clearance vortex, a small tip separation vortex was noticed on the blade tip surface inside the tip gap. Due to the area contraction caused by the tip separation vortex, the fluid movign towards the tip gap from the pressure side is accelerated. Downstream of the vortex, the endwall pressure increases due to flow mixing. Both vortices increase in size and strength along the chord. The miring is incomplete in the aft portion of the blade. The tip gap velocity profiles exhibit wak like characteristics especially at axial positions where the mixing is incomplete. The passage vortex in the present investigations did not diminish with increase in clearance. The discharge coefhcient and the total pressure loss coefficient within the tip gap show similar tendency with lower values near the leading and trailing edge regions.

Aerodynamic inverse design optimization for turbine cascades based on control theory

Based on control theory,adjoint system for the general problem of turbomachinery aerodynamic optimization was studied and developed in the present paper by using the variation technique in the grid node coordinates combined with Jacobian Matrics of flow fluxes.Then the adjoint system for aerodynamic design optimization of turbine cascade governed by compressible Navier-Stokes equations was derived in detail.With the purpose of saving computation resources,the mathematic method presented in this paper avoids the coordinate system transforming in the traditional derivation process of the adjoint system and makes the adjoint system much more sententious.Given the general expression of objective functions consisting of both boundary integral and field integral,the adjoint equations and their boundary conditions were derived,and the final expression of the objective function gradient including only boundary integrals was formulated to reduce the CPU cost,especially for the complex 3D configurations.The adjoint system was solved numerically by using the finite volume method with an explicit 5-step Runge-Kutta scheme and Riemann approximate solution of Roe's scheme combined with multi-grid technique and local time step to accelerate the convergence procedure.Finally,based on the aerodynamic optimization theory in the present work,2D and 3D inviscid and viscous inverse design programs of axial turbomachinery cascade for both pressure distribution and isentropic Mach number distribution on the blade wall were developed,and several design optimization cases were performed successfully to demonstrate the ability and economy of the present optimization system.

Investigation of Internal Flow in Ultra - Highly Loaded Turbine Cascade by PIV Method

The highly loaded turbine blades are able to reduce both the number of blades and the stages of turbojet-engines. In this study, PIV(Particle Image Velocimetry) method is used for the measurements of the secondary flow in ultra-highly loaded turbine blade cascades. The results obtained by the PIV method clearly show the complicated behavior of the secondary flow in the cascade. The horseshoe vortex and the passage vortex are observed inside the cascade. Moreover, the wake generated by the accumulation of the low energy fluid by the passage vortex near the suction side and that discharged toward downstream of the trailing edge has been recognized.

Influences of Incidence Angle on 2D-Flow and Secondary Flow Structure in Ultra-Highly Loaded Turbine Cascade

An increase of turbine blade loading can reduce the numbers of blade and stage of gas turbines. However, an increase of blade loading makes the secondary flow much stronger because of the steep pitch-wise pressure gradient in the cascade passage, and consequently deteriorates the turbine efficiency. In this study, the computations were performed for the flow in an ultra-highly loaded turbine cascade with high turning angle in order to clarify the effects of the incidence angle on the two dimensional flow and the secondary flow in the cascade passage, which cause the profile loss and the secondary loss, respectively. The computed results showed good agreement with the experimental surface oil flow visualizations and the blade surface static pressure at mid-span of the blade. The profile loss was strongly increased by the increase of incidence angle especially in the positive range. Moreover, the positive incidences not only strengthened the horseshoe vortex and the passage vortex but also induced a new vortex on the end-wall. Moreover, the newly formed vortex influenced the formation of the pressure side leg of horseshoe vortex.

MULTI-OBJECTIVE OPTIMIZATION DESIGN FOR TRANSONIC TURBINE CASCADES USING SIMULATED ANNEALING ALGORITHM

On the basis of computational of transonic viscid flow, the simulated annealing algorithm, used in statistical mechanics to study solid cooling process, is adaptedfor soving multi-objective cascades design problem. The simulated annealing algorithmdraws an analogy between the energy minimization in physical system and the objectivefunction in the real design problem, To model the multi-objective functions, a minimumdeviation method is used. In this paper, the loss and work are considered as the objectivefunctions. Simulated results indicate that this algorithm can be effectively applied to theimprovement of the design for transonic turbine cascades.

Numerical Investigation on Wet Steam Non-equilibrium Condensation Flow in Turbine Cascade

Based on the two-phase wet steam flow with spontaneous condensation, experimental verification and flow analysis on nozzle and 2D cascade are carried out. The 3D Reynolds-Averaged gas-liquid two-phase flow control equation solver is explored with k-e-kp turbulence model. Furthermore, 3D flow numerical simulation on the last stage stator of the steam turbine is carried out. The results show that a sudden pressure rise on blade suction surface is mainly caused by the droplet growth in condensation flow. The more backward the condensation position is in cascade passage, the less the sudden pressure rise from condensation is, and the larger the nucleation rate is, the maximum under-cooling and the number of droplets per unit volume are. Interaction of condensation wave and shock wave has imposed greater influence on the parameters of the blade cascade outlet.

NEW MULTIOBJECTIVE SIMULATED ANNEALING ALGORITHM AND ITS APPLICATION TO TURBINE CASCADES’ DESIGN

A new kind of multiobjective simulated annealing algorithm is proposed,in which the concept of non dominated character is introduced and a new multiobjective acceptance criterion is set up.The optimization example of a typical mathematical problem with two minimum objective functions indicates that all of the solutions contract to the set of the non dominated points,and the variation trend of the optimal solutions is verified to be identical with that obtained using Genetic Algor thms.The new developed algorithm is then applied to the multiobjective optimization design of turbine cascades,in which it is coupled with the aerodynamics computation of the cascade flow fields and performance and the calculated loss coefficient and work potential of the cascade are considered as the objective functions,thus setting up a technique to the engineering optimization design for the cascades.The optimization results,by the view of a group of optimal solutions,show that the algorithm is superior to the traditional technique of multiobjective optimization design and can be applied to more than two objective optimization cascade design problem or other engineering multiobjective optimization designs.

Studies of stability of blade cascade suction surface boundary layer

Compressible boundary layers stability on blade cascade suction surface was discussed by wind tunnel experiment and numerical solution. Three dimensional disturbance wave Parabolized Stability Equations (PSE) of orthogonal Curvilinear Coordinates in compressible flow was deducted. The surface pressure of blade in wind tunnel experiment was measured. The Falkner-Skan equation was solved under the boundary conditions of experiment result, and velocity, pressure and temperature of average flow were obtained. Substituted this result for discretization of the PSE Eigenvalue Problem, the stability problem can be solved.

Optimization of operating conditions in the steam turbine blade cascade using the black-box method

Water droplets cause corrosion and erosion,condensation loss,and thermal efficiency reduction in low-pressure steam turbines.In this study,multi-objective optimization was carried out using the black-box method through the automatic linking of a genetic algorithm(GA)and a computational fluid dynamics(CFD)code to find the optimal values of two design variables(inlet stagnation temperature and cascade pressure ratio)to reduce wetness in the last stages of turbines.The wet steam flow numerical model was used to calculate the optimization parameters,including wetness fraction rate,mean droplet radius,erosion rate,condensation loss rate,kinetic energy rate,and mass flow rate.Examining the validation results showed a good agreement between the experimental data and the numerical outcomes.According to the optimization results,the inlet stagnation temperature and the cascade pressure ratio were proposed to be 388.67(K)and 0.55(-),respectively.In particular,the suggested optimaltemperature and pressure ratio improved the liquid mass fraction and mean droplet radius by about 32%and 29%,respectively.Also,in the identified optimal operating state,the ratios of erosion,condensation loss,and kinetic energy fell by 76%,32.7%,and 15.85%,respectively,while the mass flow rate ratio rose by 0.68%.

Effect of Streamwise Fences on Secondary Flows and Losses in a Twodimensional Turbine Rotor Cascade

To control secondary flows, streamwise fences were attached to end wall of a linear turbine rotor cascade. The cascade had 8 blades of 400 mm long and 175 mm chord. The blades deflected the flow by 120°. The fences were made out of 0.7 mm thick brass sheet and the heights of the fences were 14 mm, 18 mm respectively. The curvature of the fences was the same as that of the blade camber line. The fences were fixed normal to the end wall and at half pitch away from the blades. The experimental program consists of total pressure, static pressure measurements at the inlet and outlet of the cascade, by using five-hole probe. In addition, static pressure on the blade suction surface and pressure surface was also obtained. Fences are effective in preventing the movement of the pressure side leg of the horseshoe vortex. Consequently the accumulation of low energy fluid on the suction surface is minimised. End wall losses are reduced by the fences due to weakening of the end wall cross flow.