Zhu Junqiang

Design performance evaluation and vortex structure investigation of different S-shaped intermediate turbine ducts

The demand of further increasing bypass ratio of aeroengine will lead to low pressure turbines with higher diameter. Therefore, it is necessary to design a duct to guide the hot gas flow which is expelled from the upstream high pressure (HP) turbine stage to the downstream low pressure (LP) turbine stage. Named by its position, this kind of duct is always called intermediate turbine ducts (ITDs). Due to the pursuit of higher thrust ratio of the aeroengine, this kind of ITDs has to beas short as possible which leads to aggressive (high diffusion) S-shaped ITDs’ geometry. In this paper, two different schemes of high diffusion separation-free S-shaped ITDs were studied with the aid of three-dimensional CFD programs. Although these two ITDs have the same area ratios (AR), because of the different duct length, they have totally different area as well as area change rates. With the detailed calculation results, comparisons were made to investigate the underneath physical mechanisms. Additionally, a direct estimation of the ITDs’ loss is given at the end of this paper and some ITDs’ novel design idea is proposed to initiate some further discussions.

Measurement of Plasma Density Produced in Dielectric Barrier Discharge for Active Aerodynamic Control with Interferometer

We utilize an interferometer to investigate the changes of the refractive index caused by dielectric barrier discharge plasma. The electronic density of the plasma produced is measured and analyzed tentatively. The results show that density of the plasma increases linearly with exciting voltages.

Experimental Investigation of Flow Separation Control Using Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma Actuators

Influence of plasma actuators as a flow separation control device was investigated experimentally. Hump model was used to demonstrate the effect of plasma actuators on external flow separation, while for internal flow separation a set of compressor cascade was adopted. In order to investigate the modification of the flow structure by the plasma actuator, the flow field was examined non-intrusively by particle image velocimetry measurements in the hump model experiment and by a hot film probe in the compressor cascade experiment. The results showed that the plasma actuator could be effective in controlling the flow separation both over the hump and in the compressor cascade when the incoming velocity was low. As the incoming velocity increased, the plasma actuator was less effective. It is urgent to enhance the intensity of the plasma actuator for its better application. Methods to increase the intensity of plasma actuator were also studied.

Numerical investigation of radial inflow in the impeller rear cavity with and without baffle

In typical small engines, the cooling air for high pressure turbine (HPT) in a gas turbine engine is commonly bled off from the main flow at the tip of the centrifugal impeller. The pressurized air flow is drawn radially inwards through the impeller rear cavity. The centripetal air flow creates a strong vortex because of high inlet tangential velocity, which results in significant pressure losses. This not only restricts the mass flow rate, but also reduces the cooling air pressure for down-stream hot components. The present study is devoted to the numerical modeling of flow in an impeller rear cavity. The simulations are carried out with axisymmetric and 3-D sector models for various inlet swirl ratio β0 (0–0.6), turbulent flow parameter λT (0.028–0.280) with and without baffle. The baffle is a thin plate attached to the stationary wall of the cavity, and is proved to be useful in reducing the pressure loss of centripetal flow in the impeller rear cavity in the current paper. Further flow details in impeller rear cavity with and without baffle are displayed using CFD techniques. The CFD results show that for any specified geometry, the outlet pressure coefficient of impeller rear cavity with or without baffle depends only on the inlet swirl ratio and turbulent flow parameter. Meanwhile, the outlet pressure coefficient of the cavity with baffle is indeed smaller than that of cavity without baffle, especially for the cases with high inlet swirl ratio. The suppression of the effect of centrifugal pumping and the mixing beween the main air which is downstream of the baffle and the recirculating flow of the vortex in the stationary cavity, which are caused by the use of baffle, are the underlying reasons that lead to the reduction of outlet pressure loss.

The Combined Effects of Surface Roughness with Upstream Wakes on the Boundary Layer Development of an Ultra-High-Lift LPT Blade

Abstract The combined effects of upstream wakes and surface roughness on boundary layer development have been investigated experimentally to improve the performance of ultra-high-lift low-pressure turbine (LPT) blades. The measurement was performed on a linear cascade with an ultra-high-lift LP turbine profile named IET-LPTA with a Zweifel loading coefficient of about 1.4. The wakes were simulated by the moving cylindrical bars upstream of the cascade. The surface roughness was achieved using sandpaper strips which were placed into the slot incised on the blades surfaces. Three types of slots combined with three types of roughness heights formed a large measurement matrix. The roughness with a height of 8.82 μm (1.05×10−4 chord length) covering 5.2 % suction surface reduced the profile loss in the whole tested Reynolds number range. The details of the boundary layer were measured with a boundary hot-wire probe. It was found that both the wake-induced transition and the nature transition between wakes were hastened due to the K-H instability expanded by the roughness of the S3-R3 surface. The nature transition process was more sensitive to surface roughness than the wake-induced transition.

A Comparison of the Wake Effects Generated by the Biased Triangle Bar and Traditional Cylinder Bar to the Boundary Layer on Suction Surface of LPT Blade

Abstract Considering the asymmetry of the low pressure turbine blade (LPT) wake at a low Reynolds number, the influence of asymmetric wakes which are similar to LPT wakes on the boundary layer of downstream blade rows in the near field is studied in the present paper, in order to increase wake flow prediction accuracy of the downstream blade without increasing the difficulty of the experiment or calculation load. Packb high-lift LPT airfoil was studied with CFX software. Following the analysis of the similarities between the wake generated by the cylinder bar and the triangle bar and the LPT blade wake in the near-field, the boundary layer flow characteristics on the suction surface under the different wakes were compared. In this research, it was found that the wakes of biased triangle bar shared more similarities with the LPT blade wake in the near field than the cylinder bar. Furthermore, the biased triangle bar wake was asymmetrical in terms of its centerline, and the separation bubble was suppressed while the calming effect was reduced after the wake-induced transition due to the asymmetry. And the time-averaged momentum thickness decreased by 7 % compared to the cylinder wake.