Wn Dawes

Heat Transfer Committee Best Paper of 1995 Award: Distribution of Film-Cooling Effectiveness on a Turbine Endwall Measured Using the Ammonia and Diazo Technique

The distribution of adiabatic film-cooling effectiveness on the endwall of a large-scale low-speed linear turbine cascade has been measured using a new technique. This technique is based on an established surface-flow visualization technique, and makes use of the reaction between ammonia gas and a diazo surface coating. A new method of calibration has been developed to relate the result of the reaction to surface concentration of coolant. Using the analogy that exists between heat and mass transfer, the distribution of film-cooling effectiveness can then be determined. The complete representation of the film-cooling effectiveness distribution provided by the technique reveals the interaction between the coolant ejected from the endwall and the secondary flow in the turbine blade passage. Over- and undercooled regions on the endwall are identified, illustrating the need to take these interactions into account in the design process. Modifications to the cooling configuration examined in this paper are proposed as a result of the application of the ammonia and diazo technique.

Development of a 3D Navier Stokes Solver for Application to all Types of Turbomachinery

This paper describes the current stage of development of a code aimed at solving the 3D Navier-Stokes equations in any type of turbomachinery geometry. The basic algorithm time marches the fully 3D unsteady equations of motion expressed in finite volume form with a two step explicit / one step implicit method. Full multigrid acceleration is used to reduce solution time and maintain code performance on fine meshes. Turbulence modelling is via mixing-length closure and the widely used Baldwin-Lomax model.The generality and robustness of the code is demonstrated by application to five different test cases, three axial and two radial configurations. Also included is a grid independence study which demonstrates near grid independent solutions for transonic compressor cascade flow (albeit with the actual result subject to transition modelling constraints).For two of the axial cases (transonic compressor in cascade, secondary flow in a high speed compressor) and one radial case (Eckardt high speed impellor) sufficient mesh is employed for the predictions to be essentially quantitative. The other two cases (radial inflow turbine with clearance and compressor stator with hub clearance) are really simulations rather than predictions, but are included as the flows are novel and provide much physical insight.Copyright

Aerodynamic Aspects of Endwall Film-Cooling

This paper describes an investigation of the aerodynamic aspects of endwall film-cooling, in which the flow field downstream of a large-scale low-speed linear turbine cascade has been measured. The integrated losses and locations of secondary flow features with and without endwall film-cooling have been determined for variations of both the coolant supply pressure and injection location. Together with previous measurements of adiabatic film-cooling effectiveness and surface-flow visualization, these results reveal the nature of the interactions between the ejected coolant and the flow in the blade passage. Measured hole massflows and a constant static pressure mixing analysis, together with the measured losses, allow the decomposition of the losses into three distinct entropy generation mechanisms: loss generation within the hole, loss generation due to the mixing of the coolant with the mainstream, and change in secondary loss generation in the blade passage. Results show that the loss generation within the coolant holes is substantial and that ejection into regions of low static pressure increases the loss per unit coolant massflow. Ejection upstream of the three-dimensional separation lines on the endwall changes secondary flow and reduces its associated losses. The results show that it is necessary to take the three-dimensional nature of the endwall flow into account in the design of endwall film-cooling configurations.

Computational fluid dynamics for turbomachinery design

Abstract Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) probably plays a greater part in the aerodynamic design of turbomachinery than it does in any other engineering application. For many years the design of a modern turbine or compressor has been unthinkable without the help of CFD and this dependence has increased as more of the flow becomes amenable to numerical prediction. The benefits of CFD range from shorter design cycles to better performance and reduced costs and weight. This paper presents a review of the main CFD methods in use, discusses their advantages and limitations and points out where further developments are required. The paper is concerned with the application of CFD and does not describe the numerical methods or turbulence modelling in any detail.

On the Interpretation of Measured Profile Losses in Unsteady Wake–Turbine Blade Interaction Studies

The interaction of wakes shed by a moving blade row with a downstream blade row causes unsteady flow. The meaning of the free-stream stagnation pressure and stagnation enthalpy in these circumstances has been examined using simple analyses, measurements, and CFD. The unsteady flow in question arises from the behavior of the wakes as so-called negative jets. The interactions of the negative jets with the downstream blades lead to fluctuations in static pressure, which in turn generate fluctuations in the stagnation pressure and stagnation enthalpy. It is shown that the fluctuations of the stagnation quantities created by unsteady effects within the blade row are far greater than those within the incoming wake. The time-mean exit profiles of the stagnation pressure and stagnation enthalpy are affected by these large fluctuations. This phenomenon of energy separation is much more significant than the distortion of the time-mean exit profiles that is caused directly by the cross-passage transport associated with the negative jet, as described by Kerrebrock and Mikolajczak. Finally, it is shown that if only time-averaged values of loss are required across a blade row, it is nevertheless sufficient to determine the time-mean exit stagnation pressure.

The simulation of three-dimensional viscous flow in turbomachinery geometries using a solution-adaptive unstructured mesh methodology

This paper presents a numerical method for the simulation of flow in turbomachinery blade rows using a solution-adaptive mesh methodology. The fully three-dimensional, compressible, Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations with k-∈ turbulence modeling (and low Reynolds number damping terms) are solved on an unstructured mesh formed from tetrahedral finite volumes. At stages in the solution, mesh refinement is carried out based on flagging cell faces with either a fractional variation of a chosen variable (like Mach number) greater than a given threshold or with a mean value of the chosen variable within a given range

A simulation of the unsteady interaction of a centrifugal impeller with its vaned diffuser: flow analysis

The aim of this paper is to help advance one`s understanding of the complex, three-dimensional, unsteady flow associated with the interaction of a splittered centrifugal impeller and its vaned diffuser. A time-resolved simulation is presented of the Krain stage performed using a time-accurate, three-dimensional, unstructured mesh, solution-adaptive Navier-Stokes solver. The predicted flowfield, compared with experiment where available, displays a complex, unsteady interaction, especially in the neighborhood of the diffuser entry zone, which experiences large periodic flow unsteadiness. Downstream of the throat, although the magnitude of this unsteadiness diminishes rapidly, the flow has a highly distorted three-dimensional character. The loss levels in the diffuser are then investigated to try and determine how time-mean loss levels compare with the levels expected from equivalent steady flow analysis performed by using the circumferentially averaged exit flow from the impeller as inlet to the diffuser. It is concluded that little loss could be attributed directly to unsteady effects but rather that the principal cause of the rather high loss levels observed in the diffuser is the strong spanwise distortion in swirl angle at inlet, which initiates a strong hub/corner stall.

Aerothermal Investigations of Tip Leakage Flow in Axial Flow Turbines—Part I: Effect of Tip Geometry and Tip Clearance Gap

A numerical study has been performed to investigate the effect of tip geometry oil the tip leakage flow and heat transfer characteristics in unshrouded axial flow turbines. Base line flat tip geometry and squealer type geometries, namely, double squealer or cavity and suction-side squealer, were considered. The performances of the squealer geometries, in terms of the leakage mass flow and heat transfer to the tip, were compared with the flat tip at two different tip clearance gaps. The computations were performed using a single blade with periodic boundary conditions imposed along the boundaries in the pitchwise direction. Turbulence was modeled using three different models, namely, standard k-epsilon, low Re k-omega, and shear stress transport (SST) k-omega, in order to assess the capability, of the models in correctly predicting the blade heat transfer The heat transfer and static pressure distributions obtained using the SST k-omega model were-found to be in close agreement with the experimental data. It was observed that compared to the other two geometries considered, the cavity tip is advantageous both from the aerodynamic and from the heat transfer perspectives by providing a decrease in the amount of leakage, and hence losses, and average heat transfer to the tip. In general, for a given geometry, the leakage mass flow and the heat transfer to the tip increased with increase in tip clearance gap. Part II of this paper examines the effect of relative casing motion on the flow and heat transfer characteristics of tip leakage flow. In, Part III of this paper the effect of coolant injection on the flow and heat transfer characteristics of tip leakage flow is presented.

Heat transfer and aerodynamics of turbine blade tips in a linear cascade

Local measurements of the heat transfer coefficient and pressure coefficient were conducted on the tip and near tip region of a generic turbine blade in a five-blade linear cascade. Two tip clearance gaps were used: 1.6% and 2.8% chord. Data was obtained at a Reynolds number of 2.3 X 10 5 based on exit velocity and chord. Three different tip geometries were investigated: A flat (plain) tip, a suction-side squealer, and a cavity squealer. The experiments reveal that the flow through the plain gap is dominated by flow separation at the pressure-side edge and that the highest levels of heat transfer are located where the flow reattaches on the tip surface. High heat transfer is also measured at locations where the tip-leakage vortex has impinged onto the suction surface of the aerofoil. The experiments are supported by flow visualization computed using the CFX CFD code which has provided insight into the fluid dynamics within the gap. The suction.vide and cavity squealers are shown to reduce the heat transfer in the gap but high levels of heat transfer are associated with locations of impingement, identified using the flow visualization and aerodynamic data. Film cooling is introduced on the plain tip at locations near the pressure-side edge within the separated region and a net heat flux reduction analysis is used to quantify the performance of the successful cooling design.

A practical demonstration of scalable, parallel mesh generation

Cambridge Flow Solutions Ltd, Compass House, Vision Park, Cambridge, CB4 9AD, UK Real-world simulation challenges are getting bigger: virtual aero-engines with multistage blade rows coupled with their secondary air systems & with fully featured geometry; environmental flows at meta-scales over resolved cities; synthetic battlefields. It is clear that the future of simulation is scalable, end-to-end parallelism. To address these challenges we have reported in a sequence of papers a series of inherently parallel building blocks based on the integration of a Level Set based geometry kernel with an octree-based cut-Cartesian mesh generator, RANS flow solver, post-processing and geometry management & editing. The cut-cells which characterize the approach are eliminated by exporting a body-conformal mesh driven by the underpinning Level Set and managed by mesh quality optimization algorithms; this permits third party flow solvers to be deployed. This paper continues this sequence by reporting & demonstrating two main novelties: variable depth volume mesh refinement enabling variable surface mesh refinement and a radical rework of the mesh generation into a bottom-up system based on Space Filling Curves. Also reported are the associated extensions to body-conformal mesh export. Everything is implemented in a scalable, parallel manner. As a practical demonstration, meshes of guaranteed quality are generated for a fully resolved, generic aircraft carrier geometry, a cooled disc brake assembly and a B747 in landing configuration. Copyright