Effects of Squealer Geometry of Turbine Blade Tip on the Tip-Leakage Flow and Loss

The effective control of the tip-leakage flow and loss is of great significance to improve the aerodynamic performance of the turbine.In this paper,the evolution mechanism of tip-leakage flow in a transonic high pressure turbine with a squealer tip is investigated with numerical simulation methods.The impacts of squealer geometric,such as the inclined pressure side rim and squealer rim width,on the vortex structure in the gap and tip-leakage loss are discussed.The results show that the scraping vortex inside the cavity plays the role of aero-labyrinth seal,and forms interlocking sealing labyrinth structure with the rims on both sides,which has an effective sealing effect on the tip-leakage flow.The inclined pressure side squealer rim inhibits the development of the pressure side squealer corner vortex,which is beneficial to expand the influence range of the scraping vortex and enhance the sealing effect on the tip-leakage flow.The increase of the suction side squealer rim width reduces the effective flow area at the gap exit,which is conducive to reduction of the tip-leakage flow rate and tip-leakage loss.However,the increase of the pressure side squealer rim width strengthens the pressure side squealer corner vortex and limits the development space of the scraping vortex,causing the adverse effects on the control of tip-leakage flow.

A review of cavitation in tip-leakage flow and its control

The tip-leakage vortex(TLV)cavitation is a challenging issue for a variety of axial hydraulic turbines and pumps from both technical and scientific viewpoints.The flow characteristics of the TLV cavitation were widely studied in the past decades,but the knowledge about the tip-leakage cavitating flow is still limited.The present paper reviews the progresses in the researches of the TLV cavitation,including the numerical methods for the TLV cavitation,the flow characteristics of the TLV,the influences of the TLV cavitation on the local flow field and the control strategies of the TLV cavitation.It is indicated that the non-condensable gas may play an important role in the development of the TLV cavitation,and this fact should be considered during a careful simulation of the TLV cavitation.It is also suggested that the development of the TLV cavitation will significantly influence the distributions of the vorticity and the turbulence kinetic energy.Due to the complexity of the TLV cavitation,it is still an open question how to suppress the TLV cavitation in a simple but effective way.Finally,based on these understandings,some advanced topics for the future work are suggested to further promote the study of the TLV cavitation,for a deeper knowledge about the TLV cavitation.

URANS simulations of the tip-leakage cavitating flow with verification and validation procedures

In the present paper, the Vortex Identified Zwart-Gerber-Belamri（VIZGB） cavitation model coupled with the SST-CC turbulence model is used to investigate the unsteady tip-leakage cavitating flow induced by a NACA0009 hydrofoil. A qualitative comparison between the numerical and experimental results is made. In order to quantitatively evaluate the reliability of the numerical data, the verification and validation（V＆V） procedures are used in the present paper. Errors of numerical results are estimated with seven error estimators based on the Richardson extrapolation method. It is shown that though a strict validation cannot be achieved, a reasonable prediction of the gross characteristics of the tip-leakage cavitating flow can be obtained. Based on the numerical results, the influence of the cavitation on the tip-leakage vortex（TLV） is discussed, which indicates that the cavitation accelerates the fusion of the TLV and the tip-separation vortex（TSV）. Moreover, the trajectory of the TLV, when the cavitation occurs, is close to the side wall.

Effect of Tip-Blade Cutting on the Performance of Large Scale Axial Fan

The effect of tip-blade cutting on the performance of a large scale axial fan was investigated using computational fluid dynamics(CFD)methods.Experiments verified the numerical simulations.The original fan was compared with the one with tip-cutting in terms of dimensionless characteristic and aerodynamic performance in tip region under the conditions of the maximum efficiency point and near-stall point.The results showed that double leakage flow occurred in tip clearance at maximum efficiency point and spillage of leakage flow from leading edge occurred in tip-blade region at near-stall point for the both two fans;and that tip-cutting with 6% of blade height could reduce the intensity of tip-leakage vortex and increase flow capacity in tip blade region,and hold the stall margin almost the same as the original fan.The maximum efficiency of the fan with tip-cutting was improved by1%,and the ability of total pressure rising was obviously greater than the original fan.

Large eddy simulation of tip leakage cavitating flow focusing on cavitation-vortex interaction with Cartesian cut-cell mesh method

In the present paper, flow configurations of cavitating flow around a straight NACA0009 foil with a gap between the foil tip and sidewall are investigated numerically by large eddy simulation（LES） coupled with Zwart-Gerber-Belamri（ZGB） cavitation model. A Cartesian cut-cell method is used for mesh generation, which is of good orthogonality and high quality. A good agreement is obtained between simulation and experiment. Two influencing factors on vorticity distributions, the interaction between different vortices and the occurrence of cavitation, are discussed in detail based on the numerical results. A series of ？-shaped loops are observed during the development of the induced vortex, which is a result of the instability of vortex pair. This finding may provide a new viewpoint to control the evolution of tip-leakage vortex（TLV） cavitation. Moreover, it is found that the dilatation term plays a much more important role in the evolution of TLV cavitation compared with that in sheet cavitation.