Numerical Investigation of Active Tip-clearance Control through Tip Cooling Injection in an Axial Turbine Cascade

This paper presents a numerical investigation of an active tip-clearance control method based on cooling injectionfrom the blade tip surface. It aims to study the influences of air injection on controlling tip clearance flow, withemphasis on the effects of the injection location on secondary flow and the potential thermal benefits from thecooling jet. The results show that injection location plays an important role in the redistribution of secondary flowwithin the cascade passage. Injection located much closer to the pressure-side comer performs better in reducingtip clearance massflow and its associated losses. However, it also intensifies tip passage vortex, due to less restraintderiving from the reduced tip clearance vortex. Lower plenum total pressure is required to inject equivalentamount of cooling air, but the heat transfer condition on the blade tip surface is a bit worse than that with injectionfrom the reattachment region. Thus the optimum location of air injection should be at the tip separation vortex region.

Regional applicability of seven meteorological drought indices in China

The definition of a drought index is the foundation of drought research.However,because of the complexity of drought,there is no a unified drought index appropriate for different drought types and objects at the same time.Therefore,it is crucial to determine the regional applicability of various drought indices.Using terrestrial water storage obtained from the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment,and the observed soil moisture and streamflow in China,we evaluated the regional applicability of seven meteorological drought indices:the Palmer Drought Severity Index(PDSI),modified PDSI(PDSI_CN) based on observations in China,self-calibrating PDSI(scPDSI),Surface Wetness Index(SWI),Standardized Precipitation Index(SPI),Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index(SPEI),and soil moisture simulations conducted using the community land model driven by observed atmospheric forcing(CLM3.5/ObsFC).The results showed that the scPDSI is most appropriate for China.However,it should be noted that the scPDSI reduces the value range slightly compared with the PDSI and PDSI_CN;thus,the classification of dry and wet conditions should be adjusted accordingly.Some problems might exist when using the PDSI and PDSI_CN in humid and arid areas because of the unsuitability of empiricalparameters.The SPI and SPEI are more appropriate for humid areas than arid and semiarid areas.This is because contributions of temperature variation to drought are neglected in the SPI,but overestimated in the SPEI,when potential evapotranspiration is estimated by the Thornthwaite method in these areas.Consequently,the SPI and SPEI tend to induce wetter and drier results,respectively.The CLM3.5/ObsFC is suitable for China before 2000,but not for arid and semiarid areas after 2000.Consistent with other drought indices,the SWI shows similar interannual and decadal change characteristics in detecting annual dry/wet variations.Although the long-term trends of drought areas in China detected by these seven drought indices during 1961-2013 are consistent,obvious differences exist among the values of drought areas,which might be attributable to the definitions of the drought indices in addition to climatic change.