STUDY ON TRANSONIC CASCADE PERFORMANCE BY USE OF NEWLY BUILT FACILITY

Progress in computational fluid dynamics in the field of turbomachine cascades has increased recently the importance of the study by cascade wind tunnels to verify various newly introduced concepts. A transonic cascade wind tunnel test facility has been built for this purpose in the Department of Aeronautics, University of Tokyo. The system and operation of this facility will be explained in detail. The tunnel is of blowdown type, and can be run repeatedly at a short interval. Experimental cascade performances obtained by this facility as well as numerical results for cascades designed along new concepts are discussed.

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.

Experimental and Numerical Investigations of Shock-Wave Boundary Layer Interactions in a Highly Loaded Transonic Compressor Cascade

Experimental and numerical investigations were conducted to investigate the variations of shock-wave boundary layer interaction(SBLI) phenomena in a highly loaded transonic compressor cascade with Mach numbers.The schlieren technique was used to observe the shock structure in the cascade and the pressure tap method to measure the pressure distribution on the blade surface.The unsteady pressure distribution on blade surface was measured with the fast-response pressure-sensitive paint(PSP) technique to obtain the unsteady pressure distribution on the whole blade surface and to capture the shock oscillation characteristics caused by SBLI.In addition,the Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes simulations were used to compute the three-dimensional steady flow field in the transonic cascade.It was found that the shock wave patterns and behaviors are affected evidently with the increase in incoming Mach number at the design flow angle,especially with the presence of the separation bubble caused by SBLI.The time-averaged pressure distribution on the blade surface measured by PSP technique showed a symmetric pressure filed at Mach numbers of 0.85,while the pressure field on the blade surface was an asymmetric one at Mach numbers of 0.90 and 0.95.The oscillation of the shock wave was closely with the flow separation bubble on the blade surface and could transverse over nearly one interval of the pressure taps.The oscillation of the shock wave may smear the pressure jump phenomenon measured by the pressure taps.

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.

Performance-Driven Multi-Objective Optimization Method for DLR Transonic Tandem Cascade Shape Design

Transonic tandem cascades can effectively increase the working load,and this feature conforms with the requirement of the large loads and pressure ratios of modern axial compressors.This paper presents an optimization strategy for a German Aerospace Center(DLR)transonic tandem cascade,with one front blade and two rear blades,at the inlet Mach number of 1.051.The tandem cascade profile was parameterized using 19 control parameters.Non-dominated sorting Genetic algorithm(NSGA-II)was used to drive the optimization evolution,with the computational fluid dynamics(CFD)-based cascade performances correction added for each generation.Inside the automatic optimization system,a pressure boundary condition iterative algorithm was developed for simulating the cascade performance with a constant supersonic inlet Mach number.The optimization results of the cascade showed that the deflection of the subsonic blade changed evidently.The shock wave intensity of the first blade row was weakened because of the reduced curvatures of the optimized pressure and suction sides of the front blade part and the downstream moved maximum thickness position.The total pressure losses decreased by 15.6%,20.9%and 19.9%with a corresponding increase in cascade static pressure ratio by 1.3%,1.8%and 1.7%,for the three cascade shapes in the Pareto solution sets under the near choke,the design and near stall conditions,respectively.

Experimental Investigation of the Transonic Shock Oscillation Characteristics in a Heavy-Duty Gas Turbine Compressor Cascade

This paper presents an experimental study of the self-sustained transonic shock oscillating behaviors in a heavy-duty gas turbine compressor cascade under the inlet Mach number of 0.85,0.90 and 0.95.The transonic shock patterns and the surface flow structures are captured by schlieren imaging and oil flow visualization.The time-averaged and instantaneous transonic shock oscillating behaviors at the near choke point and the near stall point are investigated by the Anodized Aluminum Pressure-Sensitive Paint(AA-PSP)surface pressure measurement.The normal passage shock dominant pattern and the detached bow shock dominant pattern at the near choke point and the near stall point are experimental characterized,respectively.The passage shock oscillation behaviors at the near choke point have been observed to undergo periodic pressure perturbations of the shock shift between the upstreamλshock feet mode and the downstreamλshock feet mode.The detached bow shock oscillation behaviors at the near stall point have been observed to undergo the pressure perturbations of the shock cycle movement between the upstream detached bow shock mode and the downstream detached bow shock mode.The differences between the shock shift mode and the shock cycle movement mode lead to the different streamwise oscillation travel ranges and different shock intensity variations under the same inlet Mach number.

Photographic Study of Obstacle-Induced Disturbations of Transonic Turbine Cascade Flow

In this paper, the cascade flow structures influenced by the position of the obstacle inserted in the downstream now are presented. The experiments were conducted in a stationary cascade wind tunnel,and the results can not be attributed directly to the real rotor channel flow. Nevertheless, they show qualitatively the very complicated flow pattern in the region of the rotor-stator interaction. They explain the existence of very strong variation of the blade loading and high losses of cascade flow due to the rotor-stator interaction noted by previous authors.

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.