Calculation of the Energy Loss for Tip Leakage Flow in Turbines

A commercial N-S solver has been employed for simulation and investigation ofthe unsteady flow field inside the tip clearance of a turbine rotor. The main objective of thispaper is to introduce a new method of energy loss calculation for the flow field in tip clearanceregion of a turbine rotor blade. This method can be easily used in all kinds of flow fields. Regionsof high viscous effects have been found to be located near the shroud rather than the blade tip. Itis shown that the time-averaged loss of energy in tip leakage flow is dissimilar for differentrotor blades. This result is a helpful hint that can be taken by blade designers to designnon-uniform rotor blades with different geometric and aerodynamic loads to minimize the energy loss.

Role of unsteady tip leakage flow in acoustic resonance inception of a multistage compressor

In previous studies,a theoretical model was developed after Acoustic Resonance(AR)was experimentally detected in a four-stage compressor,and AR inception was proposed to be triggered by an unknown sound source,which is a pressure perturbation of a specific frequency with a suitable circumferential propagation speed.The present paper,which is not dedicated to the simulation of acoustic field,aims to identify the specific sound source generated by the unsteady tip leakage flow using the unsteady Computational Fluid Mechanics(CFD)approach.After a comprehensive analysis of an Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes(URANS)simulation,a pressure perturbation of non-integer multiple of rotor frequency is found at the blade tip.Since the essence of the tip leakage flow is a jet flow driven by the pressure difference between two sides of blade,a simplified tip leakage flow model is adopted using Large Eddy Simulation(LES)in order to simulate the jet flow through a tip clearance.It is found that the convection velocity of shedding vortices fits the expected propagation speed of the sound source,the frequency is also close to one of the dominating frequencies in the URANS simulation,and the resultant combination frequency coincides with the experimentally measured AR frequency.Since such a simplified model successfully captures the key physical mechanisms,it is concluded that this paper provides a piece of unambiguous evidence on the role of unsteady tip leakage vortex in triggering the AR inception of the multistage compressor.

Simplified Numerical Models of the Unsteady Tip Leakage Flow in Compressor

Tip leakage flow(TLF)in compressors,which can cause flow blockage in blade passage and induce efficiency loss,is also a potential threat to the unsteady flow stability of modern aeroengines.This paper provides an overview of the significance of tip leakage flow research,and introduces relevant previous studies.After calculating by different methods,large eddy simulation(LES)is demonstrated again as a suitable compromise between accuracy and computational cost for the unsteady flow study.Two types of simplified tip leakage flow models using LES are adopted with a focus on the unsteady characteristics of shedding vortices in a cavity plane.This paper applies these models to study the unsteady tip leakage flow which triggers the onset of acoustic resonance in a multistage axial compressor.Compared with the detected acoustic resonance frequency of 5.22 rotational frequency(RF)in the previous experiment,the computed combination frequency in the 2-D model is equal to 5.232RF,and the simplified 3-D unsteady tip leakage flow model results in a combination frequency of 5.316RF.Therefore,based on the small relative error between model results and experimental results,the simplified numerical models are validated to be sufficiently accurate,and theoretically provide a useful basis for the subsequent research of unsteady tip leakage flow in turbomachinery.

Effect of Tip Flange on Tip Leakage Flow of Small Axial Flow Fans

Aerodynamic performance of an axial flow fan is closely related to its tip clearance leakage flow. In this paper, the hot-wire anemometer is used to measure the three dimensional mean velocity near the blade tips. Moreover, the filtered N-S equations with finite volume method and RNG k-s turbulence model are adopted to carry out the steady simulation calculation of several fans that differ only in tip flange shape and number. The large eddy simulation and the FW-H noise models are adopted to carry out the unsteady numerical calculation and aerodynamic noise prediction. The results of simulation calculation agree roughly with that of tests, which proves the numerical calculation method is feasible.The effects of tip flange shapes and numbers on the blade tip vortex structure and the characteristics are analyzed. The results show that tip flange of the fan has a certain influence on the characteristics of the fan. The maximum efficiencies for the fans with tip flanges are shifted towards partial flow with respect to the design point of the dattun fan. Furthermore, the noise characteristics for the fans with tip flanges have become more deteriorated than that for the datum fan. Tip flange contributes to forming tip vortex shedding and the effect of the half-cylinder tip flange on tip vortex shedding is obvious. There is a distinct rela- tionship between the characteristics of the fan and tip vortex shedding.The research results provide the profitable reference for the internal flow mechanism of the performance optimization of small axial flow fans.

Blade Lean and Tip Leakage Flows in Highly Loaded Compressor Cascades

Blade lean has been intensively utilized in axial compressors.In this study,three families of highly loaded compressor cascades featuring different aspect ratios(AR)with different levels of blade lean were designed and simulated with and without tip clearance.The influences of blade lean on corner separation and tip leakage flow(TLF)were investigated.Results show that blade lean can exert spanwise pressure gradient confined to the fore part,spanwise mass flow rate re-distribution exhibiting differently at fore and rear part of blade,and stage reaction variations.AR has a significant influence on blade lean.With the increase of AR,corner separation grows significantly and requires a higher lean level to be controlled.TLF eliminates corner separation of linear cascades but also increases the loss of leaned cascades;blade lean introduces 22%higher tip leakage mass flow,but exhibits 43%(blade M)and 38%(blade E)lower tip leakage loss.The flow mechanism can be mainly accounted by the reduction of bulk flow velocity,tip leakage velocity and the velocity difference near leading edge(LE).High AR cascade induces re-distribution of TLF along blade chord and reduces leakage loss compared with low AR counterpart.

Experimental and Numerical Investigation of the Unsteady Tip Leakage Flow in Axial Compressor Cascade

For convenience of both measurement and adjusting the clearance size and incidence, the current research is mainly conducted by experiments on an axial compressor linear cascade. The characteristics and the condition under which the unsteadiness of tip leakage flow would occur were investigated by dynamic measuring in different clearances, inlet velocities and incidences. From the experiment it is found that increasing tip clearance size or reducing rotor tip incidence can affect the strength of the tip clearance flow. Then the experimental results also indicate the tip leakage shows instability in certain conditions, and the frequency of unsteadiness is great influenced by inflow angle. The condition of occurrence of tip leakage flow unsteadiness is when the leakage flow is strong enough to reach the pressure side of the adjacent blade. The main cause of tip leakage flow unsteadiness is the tip blade loading.

The Self-induced Unsteadiness of Tip Leakage Flow in an Axial Low-Speed Compressor with Single Circumferential Casing Groove

Numerical investigation on the self-induced unsteadiness of tip leakage flow(TLF) for an axial low-speed compressor with smooth wall and six single grooved casings are presented. A ten-passage numerical scheme is used to solve the unsteady Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes(URANS) equations. It is found that the single grooves at various axial locations could have a large impact on the self-induced unsteadiness and the stall margin improvement(SMI) of compressor. The trend of SMI with groove center location demonstrates that the groove located near the mid of blade tip chord generates the best SMI. The worst groove is located about 20% Cax after the blade leading edge. The root-mean-squre of static pressure(RMSP) contours at 99.5% span and fast Fourier transform for the static pressure traces recorded in the tip clearance region for each casing are analyzed. The results demonstrate that the single groove location not only affects the oscillating strength but also the frequency of the unsteady tip leakage flow. At the near-stall point of smooth casing, the self-induced unsteadiness of TLF is enhanced most by the best grooved casing for SMI. While, the self-induced unsteadiness disappears when the worst groove for SMI is added. The characteristic frequency of TLF is about 0.55 blade passing frequency(BPF) with smooth casing. The frequency components become complicated as the single groove moves from the leading edge to the trailing edge of the blade.

Numerical Investigation on the Self-Induced Unsteadiness in Tip Leakage Flow of a Micro-Axial Fan Rotor

The self-induced unsteadiness in tip leakage flow(TLF)of a micro-axial fan rotor is numerically studied by solving Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations.The micro-axial fan,which is widely used in cooling systems of electronic devices,has a tip clearance of 6%of the axial chord length of the blade.At the design rotation speed,four cases near the peak efficiency point(PEP)with self-induced unsteadiness and four steady cases which have much weaker pressure fluctuations are investigated.Using the"interface"separating the incoming main flow and the TLF defined by Duet al.[1],an explanation based on the propagation of the low energy spot and its multi-passing through the high gradient zone of the relative total pressure,is proposed to clarify the originating mechanism of the unsteadiness.At the operating points near the PEP,the main flow is weaker than the TLF and the interface moves upstream.The low energy spot which propagates along in the close behind of the interface has opportunity to circulate in the circumferential direction and passes through the sensitive interfaces several times,a slight perturbation therefore may be magnified significantly and develops into the self-induced unsteadiness.The explanation is demonstrated by numerical results.

Circumferential Propagation of Tip Leakage Flow Unsteadiness for a Low-Speed Axial Compressor

Full-annulus three-dimensional unsteady numerical simulations were conducted for a low-speed isolated axialcompressor rotor, intending to identify the behavior of self-induced unsteady tip leakage flow within multi-bladepassages. There is a critical mass flow rate near stall point, below it, the self-induced unsteadiness of tip leakageflow can propagate circumferentially and thus initiates two circumferential waves. Otherwise, the self-inducedunsteady tip leakage flow oscillates synchronously in each single blade passage. The major findings are: 1) whilethe self-induced unsteadiness of tip leakage flow is a single-passage phenomenon, there exist phase shifts amongblade passages in multi-passage environments then evolving into the first short length wave propagating at abouttwo times of rotor rotation speed after the transient period ends; and 2) the time traces of the pseudo sensors locatedon the rotor blade tips reveal another much longer length-scale wave modulated with the first wave due tophase shift propagating at about half of rotor rotation speed. Features of the short and long length-scale circumferentialwaves are similar to those of rotating instability and modal wave, respectively.

VR helicity density and its application in turbomachinery tip leakage flows

Helicity is an important quantity that represents the topological interpretation of vortices;however,helicity is not a Galilean invariant.In this study,VR helicity density(HVR)is derived via taking the dot product of vorticity with the unit real eigen vector of the velocity gradient tensor when the complex eigenvalues exist.The analytical solution of HVR is derived to resolve it in a local pointwise manner,and the Galilean invariance of HVR is proved.Tip leakage flow structures in a direct numerical simulation of a tip leakage flow model and a delayed detached eddy simulation of a low-speed large-scale axial compressor rotor are extracted using helicity,eigen helicity density and HVR methods.Results show that the utilization of HVR permits the identification and accentuation of concentrated vortices.Vortices identified by HVR appear in more connective states.As in the case of helicity,the sign of HVR distinguishes between primary and secondary vortices,while eigen helicity density fails.The normalized HVR is superior to the normalized helicity density in locating the vortex axis,especially for the induced vortex structures.Hence,HVR is a strong candidate to replace the helicity density,especially when Galilean invariance is required.

Effect of Squealer Tip with Deep Scale Depth on the Aero-thermodynamic Characteristics of Tip Leakage Flow

In this paper,the aero-thermal performance of squealer tips with deep-scale depth is numerically investigated in an axial flow turbine,which is compared with the squealer tip with traditional cavity depth.Numerical methods were validated with experimental data.The effect of cavity depth and tip clearance was considered.The numerical results show that for the squealer tip with conventional cavity depth,the size of the reflux vortex enlarges as the cavity depth increases.The velocity and uniformity of high entropy production rate(EPR)inside the cavity reduce obviously with the cavity developing into deep-scale.However,the increase of depth 10%of the blade span(H)leads to enlargement of cavity volume,which increases the total entropy production rate.And the overall dimensionless entropy production rate(DEPR)of gap and cavity obtains a maximum increase of 43.54%in contrast to the case with 1%H depth cavity.As a result,the relative leakage mass flow rate reduces by 20.6%as the cavity depth increases from 1%to 10%.Given the heat transfer,as the cavity significantly increases to 10%H,the enhanced cavity volume results in a more enormous cavity vortex with low velocity covering the floor,which weakens the convective heat transfer intensity and reduces the area of high heat transfer.The normalized average heat transfer coefficient at the cavity bottom reduces by 40.26%compared to the cavity depth of 1%H.In addition,the deep-scale cavity is more effective in inhibiting leakage flow at smaller tip clearance.The reduction amplitude of normalized average heat transfer coefficient at the squealer floor decreases as tip clearance increases,which reduces at most by about 72.6%for the tip clearance of 1%H.

Experiment on Effect of Tip Clearance Leakage Flow on Heat Transfer of Turbine Outer Ring

The cascade model was tested using transient liquid crystal temperature measurement technology.The effects of main flow Reynolds number,blowing ratio and tip clearance height on the convective heat transfer coefficient of the turbine outer ring were studied.Two feature lines were marked on the turbine outer ring corresponding to the position of the blade.The conclusions are as follows:The tip clearance leakage flow has a great influence on the convective heat transfer coefficient of the turbine outer ring.When the clearance height and the blowing ratio are kept constant,gradually increasing the main flow Reynolds number will result in an increase in the convective heat transfer coefficient of the turbine outer ring.When the clearance height and the main flow Reynolds number are kept constant and the blowing ratio is gradually increased,the convective heat transfer coefficient of the turbine outer ring is almost constant.The heat transfer coefficient of the turbine outer ring surface is little affected by the blowing ratio;The clearance height has great influence on the heat transfer characteristics of the turbine outer ring.Under the typical working condition in this paper,when the tip clearance height ratio is 1.6%,the convective heat transfer coefficient of the outer surface of the turbine is the highest.

COMPUTATIONAL AND EXPERI-MENTAL STUDY ON TIP LEAKAGE VORTEX OF CIRCUMFERENTIAL SKEWED BLADES

In the steady operation condition, the experiments and the numerical simulations are used to investigate the tip leakage flow fields in three low pressure axial flow fans with three kinds of circumferential skewed rotors, including the radial rotor, the forward-skewed rotor and the back- ward-skewed rotor. The three-dimensional viscous flow fields of the fans are computed. In the experiments, the two-dimensional plane particle image velocimetry （PIV） system is used to measure the flow fields in the tip region of three different pitchwise positions of each fan. The results show that the computational results agree well with the experimental data in the flow field of the tip region of each fan. The tip leakage vortex core segments based on method of the eigenmode analysis can display clearly some characteristics of the tip leakage vortex, such as the origination position of tip leak- age vortex, the development of vortex strength, and so on. Compared with the radial rotor, the other two skewed rotors can increase the stability of the tip leakage vortex and the increment in the forward-skewed rotor is more than that in the backward-skewed one. Among the tip leakage vortices of the three rotors, the velocity of the vortex in the forward-skewed rotor is th6 highest in the circumferential direction and the lowest in the axial direction.

Complicated flow in tip flow field of a compressor tandem cascade using delayed detached eddy simulation

The complex flow characteristics in the tip region of a tandem cascade with tip clearance have been calculated and analyzed using Delayed Detached Eddy Simulation(DDES).The coherent mechanism of the vortex structures near the blade tip was discussed,and the unsteady behaviors and features in the tip flow field were analyzed.Additionally,the interaction between the tip leakage flow and the gap jet was revealed.The results show that,compared to the datum cascade,the blade tip load of the rear blade increases while that of the front blade decreases.Unsteady fluctuations of the tandem cascade are mainly caused by the interaction between the tip leakage flow and gap jet,and by the mixing of the vortex structures,but there is no essential change in the spectrum feature of the tip leakage flow.Finally,a detailed analysis of the development of vortices in the tip region is conducted by the topological structures of the flow field.Combined with the three-dimensional vortex structures,the schematic diagram of the vortex system of the datum single-row cascade and tandem cascade is summarized.

Understanding of tip clearance flow structure in high speed mixed flow compressor

This paper addresses the necessity to make a physical interpretation of a highly complex three-dimensional tip clearance flow field study for high-speed mixed-flow compressor having stage exit static pressure to inlet total pressure ratio of 3.8 with 39,836 rpm rotor speed.The four different tip configurations namely the constant(l Z 0.016 and 0.019)and variable(l Z 0.011(inlet)-0.019(exit)and 0.019(inlet)-0.022(exit))tip clearances were numerically analysed using available experimental data-set.The numerical investigation reveals that in contrast to the classic jet-wake pattern,two anomalous velocity profiles formed at the impeller exit which results in pressure losses in the vaneless diffuser.Near the impeller inlet,the tip leakage flow rolls up to discrete tip leakage vortex structure for each tip clearance configuration.This results in the formation of a region of momentum deficit,recirculation zone,which gets weakened as it moves downstream.The tip clearance configuration is observed to profoundly influence the extent and vorticity of the tip leakage vortex.In the splitter blade passage,the tip leakage flow and Coriolis flow interact with passage flow,resulting in the formation of two secondary passage vortices that move downstream along the pressure and suction surface of the splitter blade.The tip clearance configuration directly influences the impeller exit jetwake pattern by modulating the secondary passage vortices trajectory and vorticity.Moreover,off-design analysis for tip clearances l Z 0.016 and l Z 0.019,depict distinctive tip leakage vortex characteristics.When operating near the stall conditions(80%of design mass flow rate),l Z 0.019 exhibits bubble shape tip leakage vortex breakdown occurring near the impeller inlet.This result in a substantial change in the tip leakage vortex nature;expansion of the recirculation zone and early weakening of the vorticity in the tip leakage vortex.It is observed that vortex breakdown plays a vital role in characteristics of the passage flow field structure and compressor performance near the stall conditions.

A novelapproachforsuppressingleakage flow throughturbinebladetipgaps

Tip clearance leakage flow of the turbine bade is an important factor limiting the augment of the high pressure turbine efficiency,which should be suppressed utilizing certain methods.However,the passive control method with the traditional structure is more and more difficult to satisfy the suppressing ability of the advanced turbine demand.In the present paper,a synergetic suppressing method by combining the approach of blade shape modification and spontaneous injection is adopted,to construct a novel tip structure.The aerodynamic characteristics of the tip leakage flow(TLF)with different blade tip configurations,such as the squealer,squealer-winglet(SW)and squealer-winglet-spontaneous injection holes(SWS)composite configurations,are numerically investigated.The impacts of several key geometric parameters,such as the winglet width and the space ng of spontaneous injection holes,are also discussed.Due to the adjustment of the winglet,the SW tip configuration can get better suppressing effect on TLF than the squealer tip.The SWS synergetic suppression tip decrease the leakage flow rate and the leakage mixing loss on the basis of the SW tip due to the blocking effect of the spontaneous injection flow.The key geometric parameters study shows that the suppressing effect of the TLF can be improved by reasonably increasing the winglet width and reducing the spacing between spontaneous injection holes.

Tip-leakage flow loss reduction in a two-stage turbine using axisymmetric-casing contouring

In order to reduce the losses caused by tip-leakage flow, axisymmetric contouring is applied to the casing of a two-stage unshrouded high pressure turbine（HPT） of aero-engine in this paper. This investigation focuses on the effects of contoured axisymmetric-casing on the blade tipleakage flow. While the size of tip clearance remains the same as the original design, the rotor casing and the blade tip are obtained with the same contoured arc shape. Numerical calculation results show that a promotion of 0.14% to the overall efficiency is achieved. Detailed analysis indicates that it reduces the entropy generation rate caused by the complex vortex structure in the rotor tip region, especially in the tip-leakage vortex. The low velocity region in the leading edge（LE） part of the tip gap is enlarged and the pressure side/tip junction separation bubble extends much further away from the leading edge in the clearance. So the blocking effect of pressure side/tip junction separation bubble on clearance flow prevents more flow on the tip pressure side from leaking to the suction side, which results in weaker leakage vortex and less associated losses.

Effect of Honeycomb Seals on Loss Characteristics in Shroud Cavities of an Axial Turbine

The loss in efficiency due to shroud leakage or tip clearance flow accounts for a substantial part of the overall losses in turbomachinery. It is important to identify the leakage loss characteristics in order to optimize turbomachinery. At present, little information is available in the open literature concerning the effect of honeycomb seals on the loss characteristics in shroud cavities of an axial turbine, despite of the widespread use of the honeycomb seals. Therefore, interaction between rotor labyrinth seal leakage flow with and without honeycomb facings and main flow is investigated to provide the loss characteristics of the mixing process of the re-entering leakage flow into the main flow. The effects of honeycomb seals on the flow in shroud cavities and interaction with the main flow are analyzed. An additional study on the impact of subtle shroud cavity exit geometry is also presented. The investigation results indicate that the honeycomb seal affects the over tip leakage flow and reduces mixing losses when compared to the solid labyrinth seal. The leakage flow interactions with the main flow have considerably changed the flow fields in the endwall regions. The proposed research reveals the effects of honeycomb seals on the loss characteristics in shroud cavities and the impact of subtle shroud cavity exit geometry, and it is helpful for the design optimization of turbomachinery.

Numerical Simulation on the Effect of Tip Clearance Size on Unsteadiness in Tip Clearance Flow

Unsteadiness of tip clearance flow with three different tip clearance sizes is numerically investigated in this paper. NASA Rotor 67 is chosen as the computational model. It is found that among all the simulated cases, the un- steadiness exists when the size of the tip clearance is equal to or larger than design tip clearance size. The relative total pressure coefficient contours indicate that region of influence by tip leakage flow augments with the increase of tip clearance size at a fixed mass flow rate. Root Mean Square contours of static pressure distribution in the rotor tip region are provided to illustrate that for design tip clearance （1.1% tip chord） the strongest fluctuating region is located on pressure side of blade near leading edge, while for the larger tip clearance （2.2% tip chord）, it is in the region of the interaction between the shock wave and the tip leakage flow.

Evolution of Unsteady Flow near Rotor Tip during Stall Inception

Previously the features of circumferential propagation of self-induced tip leakage flow unsteadiness for a low speed isolated axial compressor rotor in the authors' laboratory were discovered and investigated via numerical simulation,which only occurs below a critical stable flow point that is close to but not yet at the stall limit.Further in this paper,the detailed investigation on evolution of tip leakage flow during the throttling process into spike rotating stall was conducted by adopting the valve-throttling model.During this process,the development of the circumferential propagation of tip leakage flow unsteadiness was especially focused on.According to the unsteady characteristics of pressure signals,the evolvement of compressor flow field can be classified into four stages.As compressor throttled,the oscillation frequency of self-induced unsteady tip leakage flow decreased gradually,and thus resulted in the decrease of its circumferential propagation speed.The circumferential propagation of self-induced tip leakage flow unsteadiness is closely related with rotating instability.When the forward spillage of tip leakage flow at the leading edge occurred,the spike type rotating stall was initiated.Its flow struc-tures were given in the paper.