Numerical Study on Low-Reynolds Compressible Flows around Mars Helicopter Rotor Blade Airfoil

High-speed rotor rotation under the low-density condition creates a special low-Reynolds compressible flow around the rotor blade airfoil where the compressibility effect on the laminar separated shear layer occurs. However, the compressibility effect and shock wave generation associated with the increase in the Mach number (M) and the trend change due to their interference have not been clarified. The purpose is to clear the compressibility effect and its impact of shock wave generation on the flow field and aerodynamics. Therefore, we perform a two-dimensional unsteady calculation by Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis using the CLF5605 airfoil used in the Mars helicopter Ingenuity, which succeeded in its first flight on Mars. The calculation conditions are set to the Reynolds number (Re) at 75% rotor span in hovering (Re = 15,400), and the Mach number was varied from incompressible (M = 0.2) to transonic (M = 1.2). The compressible fluid dynamics solver FaSTAR developed by the Japan aerospace exploration agency (JAXA) is used, and calculations are performed under multiple conditions in which the Mach number and angle of attack (α) are swept. The results show that a flow field is similar to that in the Earth’s atmosphere above M = 1.0, such as bow shock at the leading edge, whereas multiple λ-type shock waves are observed over the separated shear layer above α = 3° at M = 0.80. However, no significant difference is found in the Cp distribution around the airfoil between M = 0.6 and M = 0.8. From the results, it is found that multiple λ-type shock waves have no significant effect on the airfoil surface pressure distribution, the separated shear layer effect is dominant in the surface pressure change and aerodynamic characteristics.

ON INFLUENCE OF KINEMATICS TO EQUIVALENT LINEAR DAMPING OF HELICOPTER BLADE HYDRAULIC DAMPER

An analytical model of hydraulic damper was presented in forward flight accounting for pitch/flap/lag kinematic coupling and its nonlinear force-velocity curve. The fourth order Runge-Kutta was applied to calculate the damper axial velocity in time domain. Fourier series based moving block analysis was applied to calculate equivalent linear damping in terms of transient responses of damper axial velocity. Results indicate that equivalent linear damping will be significantly reduced if pitch/flap/lag kinematic coupling introduced for notional model and flight conditions.

Transverse vibration of the blade for unmanned micro helicopter using rayleigh-ritz method

A rotor manipulation mechanism for micro unmanned helicopter utilizing the inertia and the elasticity of the rotor is introduced. The lagging motion equation of the rotor blades is established, and then the natural frequencies and mode shapes of the blade for the helicopter are studied by using beam characteristic orthogonal polynomials by the Rayleigh-Ritz method. The variation of natural frequencies with the speed of rotation and the mode shapes at different rotational speeds are plotted. The using of orthogonal polynomials for the bending shapes enables the computation of higher natural frequencies of any order to be accomplished without facing any difficulties.

Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Non-synchronous Blade Vibration Excitation in a Transonic Axial Compressor

The complex flow phenomenon of rotating instability(RI) and its induced non-synchronous vibration(NSV) have become a significant challenge as they continuously increase aerodynamic load.This study aims to provide an understanding of the non-synchronous blade vibration phenomenon caused by the rotating instability of a transonic axial compressor rotor.In this case,blade vibrations and non-synchronous excitation are captured by strain gauges and unsteady wall pressure transducer sensors.Unsteady numerical simulations for a full-annulus configuration are used to obtain the non-synchronous flow excitation.The results show that the first-stage rotor blade exhibits an NSV close to the first bending mode;NSV is accompanied by a sharp increase in pressure pulsation;amplitude can reach 20%,and unsteady aerodynamic frequency will lock in a structural mode frequency when the blade vibrates in a large-amplitude motion.The predicted NSV frequency aligns well with the experimental results.The dominant mode of circumferential instability flow structure is approximately 47% of the number blades,and the cell size occupies 2-3 pitches in the circumferential direction.The full-annulus unsteady simulations demonstrate that the streamwise oscillation of the shedding and reattachment vortex structure is the main cause of NSV owing to the strong interaction between the tip leakage and separation vortices near the suction surface.

叶顶刷子汽封在汽轮机上的应用

叙述了叶顶刷子汽封的结构、原理、作用、安全性、寿命,介绍了其在200MW汽轮机动叶叶顶上实际使用后的良好效果。刷子汽封可用于大、中、小型汽轮机和其它涡轮机上。

Experimental Study of the Vibration Phenomenon of Compressor Rotor Blade Induced by Inlet Probe Support

An experimental investigation was conducted in order to understand the installation effects of inlet measurement probes on the vibration characteristics of the rotor blades in two axial compressors.The vibration signal of the rotor blades was analyzed for different layouts of the inlet measurement probes.For the three-stage axial compressor,the first-order resonance occurs on the first stage of the rotor blades at an engine order excitation condition,which is induced by the cylindrical probe support with a diameter of 10 mm.When the size of the probe support is decreased,the vibration level reduces evidently.In contrast,for the six-stage axial compressor,the first-order resonance occurs on the first stage of the rotor blades at an excitation source of 6th order,which is triggered by the inlet measurement probes and the upstream struts.When the number of the inlet measurement probes is changed,the resonance of the rotor blades vanishes.

Aerodynamic design optimization of helicopter rotor blades including airfoil shape for hover performance

This study proposes a process to obtain an optimal helicopter rotor blade shape for aerodynamic performance in hover flight. A new geometry representation algorithm which uses the class function/shape function transformation （CST） is employed to generate airfoil coordinates. With this approach, airfoil shape is considered in terms of design variables. The optimization process is constructed by integrating several programs developed by author. The design variables include twist, taper ratio, point of taper initiation, blade root chord, and coefficients of the airfoil distribution function. Aerodynamic constraints consist of limits on power available in hover and forward flight. The trim condition must be attainable. This paper considers rotor blade configuration for the hover flight condition only, so that the required power in hover is chosen as the objective function of the optimization problem. Sensitivity analysis of each design variable shows that airfoil shape has an important role in rotor performance. The optimum rotor blade reduces the required hover power by 7.4% and increases the figure of merit by 6.5%, which is a good improvement for rotor blade design.

Dynamic behavior of aero-engine rotor with fusing design suffering blade off

Fan blade off（FBO） from a running turbofan rotor will introduce sudden unbalance into the dynamical system,which will lead to the rub-impact,the asymmetry of rotor and a series of interesting dynamic behavior.The paper first presents a theoretical study on the response excited by sudden unbalance.The results reveal that the reaction force of the bearing located near the fan could always reach a very high value which may lead to the crush of ball,journal sticking,high stress on the other components and some other failures to endanger the safety of engine in FBO event.Therefore,the dynamic influence of a safety design named ‘‘fusing＂ is investigated by mechanism analysis.Meantime,an explicit FBO model is established to simulate the FBO event,and evaluate the effectiveness and potential dynamic influence of fusing design.The results show that the fusing design could reduce the vibration amplitude of rotor,the reaction force on most bearings and loads on mounts,but the sudden change of support stiffness induced by fusing could produce an impact effect which will couple with the influence of sudden unbalance.Therefore,the implementation of the design should be considered carefully with optimized parameters in actual aero-engine.

Criterion of aerodynamic performance of large-scale offshore horizontal axis wind turbines

With the background of offshore wind energy projects, this paper studies aerodynamic performance and geometric characteristics of large capacity wind turbine rotors （1 to 10 MW）, and the main characteristic parameters such as the rated wind speed, blade tip speed, and rotor solidity. We show that the essential criterion of a high- performance wind turbine is a highest possible annual usable energy pattern factor and a smallest possible dimension, capturing the maximum wind energy and producing the maximum annual power. The influence of the above-mentioned three parameters on the pattern factor and rotor geometry of wind turbine operated in China＇s offshore meteoro- logical environment is investigated. The variation patterns of aerodynamic and geometric parameters are obtained, analyzed, and compared with each other. The present method for aerodynamic analysis and its results can form a basis for evaluating aerodynamic performance of large-scale offshore wind turbine rotors.

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.

CFD simulation of helicopter rotor flow based on unsteady actuator disk model

Actuator Disks(AD)can provide characterizations of rotor wakes while reducing computational expense associated with modeling the fully resolved blades.This work presents an unsteady actuator disk method based on surface circulation distribution combined with empirical data,blade element theory and rotor momentum theory.The nonuniform circulation distribution accounts for 3 D blade load effects,and in particular,tip loses.Numerical simulations were conducted for the isolated pressure sensitive paint model rotor blade in hover and forward flight using the HMB3 CFD solver of Glasgow University.Validation of CFD results in comparison with published numerical data was performed in hover,for a range of blade pitch angles using fully turbulent flow and the k-x SST model.In forward flight,the vortex structures predicted using the unsteady actuator disk model showed configurations similar to the ones obtained using fully resolved rotor blades.Despite the reduced grid cells number,the CFD results for AD models captured well the main vortical structures around the rotor disk in comparison to the fully resolved cases.

Conjugate calculation of a film-cooled blade for improvement of the leading edge cooling configuration

Great efforts are still put into the design process of advanced film-cooling configurations.In particular,the vanes and blades of turbine front stages have to be cooled extensively for a safe operation.The conjugate calculation technique is used for the three dimensional thermal load prediction of a fim-cooled test blade of a modern gas turbine.Thus,it becomes possible to take into account the interaction of internal flows,external flow,and heat transfer without the prescription of heat transfer ooefficients.The focus of the investigation is laid on the leading edge part of the blade.The numerical model consists of all internal flow passages and cooling hole rows at the leading edge.Furthermore,the radial gap flow is also part of the model.The comparison with thermal pyrometer measurements shows that with respect to regions with high thermal load a qualitatively and quantitatively good agreement of the conjugate results and the measurements can be found.In particular,the region in the vicinity of the mid-span section is exposed to a higher thermal load,which requires further improvement of the cooling arrangement.Altogether the achieved results demonstrate that the conjugate calculation technique is applicable for reasonable prediction of three-dimensional thermal load of complex cooling configurations for blades.

LES of rotating film-cooling performance in a 1-1/2 turbine stage

The large eddy simulation method was employed to investigate the film-cooling performance in a low-speed rotor blade of a 1-1/2 turbine stage.The rotor blade height and axial chord length were 99 mm and 124.3 mm,respectively.Two rows of film holes were placed on the rotor blade surface,one each on the pressure and suction surfaces.Each row had three cylindrical film holes with a diameter of 4 mm and a tangential injection angle of 28°on the pressure side and 361 on the suction side.The Reynolds number was fixed at Re=1.92×10^(5)and the coolant-to-mainstream density ratio(DR)was about 2.0.Simulations were carried out for three different rotating speeds of 1800,2100,and 2400 rpm with the blowing ratio(BR)varying from 0.3 to 3.0.The commercial CFD code STAR-CCM+was used to run the simulations using the WALE subgrid-scale model for modelling the turbulence.The results show that on the pressure side,the film coverage and filmcooling effectiveness decrease with increasing rotation number(Ro)and increase with increasing blowing ratio(BR).A higher Ro and lower BR result in a stronger film deflection.The film injection with higher BR produces better film attachment.The film deflects centrifugally where the deflection becomes greater with increasing Ro.On the suction side,the film coverage and film-cooling effectiveness increase with increasing either Ro or BR and a centripetal deflection of the film is observed.The deflection of the film path could be amplified by either increasing the Ro at a constant BR or decreasing the BR at a constant Ro.Increasing the rotation weakens the film deflection towards the hub on the suction surface.Overall,it was found that both rotation number and blowing ratio play significant roles in determining the film-cooling effectiveness distributions of the rotor blade surface.

A numerical study of anti-vortex film-cooling holes designs in a 1-1/2 turbine stage using LES

The primary focus of the present study is to investigate the impact of anti-vortex holes design on the film-cooling performance in a film-cooled rotor blade model using the large eddy simulation method(LES).One row of the film holes was positioned on the pressure surface of the rotor blade.This row had three cylindrical holes(the main hole in the present study)with a diameter(D)of 4 mm and a tangential injection angle of 28 deg.Each main hole supplemented with the addition of two symmetrical side holes(anti-vortex holes),which branch out from the same main hole.Three positions for the anti-vortex side holes were considered;namely:upstream to the outlet of the main hole;in line with the main hole;and downstream of the main hole.The Reynolds number was fixed at Re Z 1.92
105 and the speed of the rotor blade was taken to be 1800 rpm.The blowing ratio varied from 1.0 to 5.0 and the density ratio of coolant to mainstream was 2.0.Compared to the base hole,the film cooling performance of the all anti-vortex cases showed obvious improvement at all blowing ratios.The middle stream side holes and downstream side holes each demonstrated good film cooling performance at all blowing ratios,while the upstream side holes perform well only at a lower blowing ratio.The presence of side holes can restrain the CRVP(counter rotating vortex pairs)intensity of the main hole and reduce the coolant lift-off,improving the film coverage and film cooling effectiveness.The downstream side holes can perform better in reducing the CRVP intensity.

Experimental research in rotating wedge-shaped cooling channel with multiple non-equant holes lateral inlet

The heat transfer in a novel smooth wedge-shaped cooling channel with lateral ejection of turbine blade trailing edge is experimentally investigated in both non-rotating and rotating cases.Beside the conventional inlet at the bottom of the channel, an extra coolant injection from 8 lateral non-equant holes is introduced to improve the overall heat transfer. The total mass flow rate ratio（lateral mass flow rate/total mass flow rate） varies from 0 to 1.0. The major inlet Reynolds number and rotation number respectively vary from 10000 to 20000 and from 0 to 1.16. Experimental results show that the lateral inlet decreases local bulk temperature and increases local heat transfer at the middle and the top of the static channel. In rotating cases, the lateral inlet notably improves the heat transfer at the high-radius half channel and compensates the negative effects induced by the rotation. Both intensity and uniformity of heat transfer inside the channel are enhanced while flow resistance decreases with proper mass flow rate ratio of coolant from two inlets. The most satisfactory total mass flow rate ratio is around 2/3. This new structural style of cooling channel has huge potential and provides new direction of heat transfer of turbine blade trailing edge.