Effect of the Double-Slot Injection on the Leakage Flow Control in a Honeycomb-Tip Turbine Cascade

Abstract

Abstract The effect of five arrangements of the double-slot injections on the leakage flow control is studied in a honeycomb-tip turbine cascade numerically. The honeycomb tip is covered with 67 intact honeycomb cavities, since the uneven tip is wearable and the cavity vortex could realize the aerodynamic sealing for the leakage flow. Then in the present study, a pair of injection slots is arranged blow each cavity, aiming to enhance the leakage flow suppression by modifying the cavity vortex. According to the orientation of the two slots, five designs of the double-slot injections are proposed. In detail, the two slots are opposite to each other or keep tangential to the original cavity vortex roughly. The three dimensional calculations were completed by using Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) method and the k-ω turbulence model in the commercial software ANSYS CFX. The estimation of these tip designs is mainly according to the tip leakage mass flow rate and the total pressure loss. Firstly, the injection structures induced by the slots can be divided into X- and T-types inside the cavity. The results show that the T-type structure is more effective in reducing the tip leakage mass flow rate, with the maximum reduction up to 48.2%. Then the effect on the flow field inside the gap and the secondary flow in the upper passage is analyzed. Compared with the flat tip, the span-wise position of the tip leakage vortex core drops within the cascade and the range of the affected loss region expands. At the cascade exit, the tip leakage vortex moves toward the passage vortex near the casing, while the latter’s core rises. The position changes of the secondary vortices eventually determine the total pressure loss contour downstream the cascade. Finally, the injection total pressure and the upper casing motion are investigated. Interestingly, the injection intensity (mass flow rate) increases with the injection total pressure but this value decreases as the casing speed increases. The tip leakage mass flow rate decreases linearly as increasing the injection total pressure or the casing speed. Yet the averaged total pressure loss downstream the cascade increases with the injection total pressure but appears a nonlinear distribution against the casing speed.