Blade Tip Region Research Articles

Rotating Instabilities in a Low-Speed Single Compressor Rotor Row with Varying Blade Tip Clearance

When a compressor is throttled to the near stall point, rotating instability (RI) is often observed as significant increases of amplitude within a narrow frequency band which can be regarded as a pre-stall disturbance. In the current study, a single compressor rotor row with varying blade tip clearance (1.3%, 2.6% and 4.3% chord length) was numerically simulated using the zonal large eddy simulation model. The mesh with six blade passages was selected to capture the proper dynamic feature after being validated in comparison to the measured data, and the dynamic mode decomposition (DMD) approach was applied to the numerical temporal snapshots. In the experimental results, RIs are detected in the configurations with middle and large tip gaps (2.6% and 4.3% chord length), and the corresponding characterized frequencies are about 1/2 and 1/3 of the blade passing frequency, respectively. Simulations provide remarkable performance in capturing the measured flow features, and the DMD modes corresponding to the featured RI frequencies are successfully extracted and then visualized. The analysis of DMD results indicates that RI is essentially a presentation of the pressure wave propagating over the blade tip region. The tip leakage vortex stretches to the front part of the adjacent blade and consequently triggers the flow perturbations (waves). The wave influences the pressure distribution, which, in turn, determines the tip leakage flow and finally forms a loop.

Aeroelastic response of a propulsive rotor blade with synthetic jets

Understanding the aeroelastic response of a propulsive rotor blade is critical to implementing active flow control techniques to mitigate blade structural vibration. In this experimental study, the coupling between rotor blade aerodynamic loading and first flap mode bending and torsion is explored. The three-bladed rotor is 2.58 m in diameter, and contains a NACA 0012 airfoil with zero pre-built twist. Each blade contains 20 high-performance synthetic jet actuators distributed along the span and are activated with a constant mean jet velocity of 66.3 m/s. The rotor was tested at rotor speeds, Ω of 250, 500, 750, and 1000 revolutions per minute (RPM) and collective blade pitch angles, θc of 2, 5, and 8 degrees. Rotor thrust and torque were measured using a high-capacity load cell, and the flow near the blade tip was measured using laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV) techniques. Blade bending and torsion was measured at three equally spaced radial stations on the blade root, middle, tip regions defined by r/R= 0.32, 0.64, and 0.96 respectively using three onboard electronic accelerometers. Synthetic jets reduce the near-wall streamwise velocity deficit and turbulence intensity in the near wall flow, improving the sectional lift coefficient of the blade and delaying flow separation which results in marginally higher thrust and lower torque loading of up to 7.4% and 4.3 % respectively. At higher rotor speeds of 750 and 1000 RPM, there is a pronounced non-linear increase in bending and torsion along blade span. In the blade tip region, the streamwise flow undergoes a significant decrease in velocity and momentum, which contributes to instabilities in the boundary layer with early-stage unsteady flow separation at θc= 8°. This is correlated to a dramatic rise in the baseline power spectral density (PSD) at the blade’s natural frequency along with an increase in root mean square (rms) of bending acceleration and blade pitch angle, where the maximum values measured are arms= 0.74 g and θrms= 1.45°.

Experimental Study of the Leakage Flow in an Axial-Flow Fan at Variable Loading

The present paper reports a 2D-PIV (particle image velocimetry) study of the effect of the operating point on the leakage flow in a low-speed ring fan. First, the flow pattern has been studied at 12 operating points covering the whole characteristic curve. At very low loading, the leakage flow streams along the rotor ring and is directly reingested; then, a separation bubble attached to the ring forms that, approaching the design point, modifies in a flow streaming radially outward. As the loading further increases, a separated flow region appears in the blade tip region that finally merges with the leakage flow. A further, more detailed study has been performed at eight operating points in the neighborhood of the design one. Very small loading variations may yield the leakage flow pattern modification, but no intermittence is present during the transition, as instantaneous flow patterns of any intermediate type continuously alternate. These results provide a consistent explanation for the ones of previous acoustic measurements.

Experimental and Numerical Study of Erosion Wear of Fan Blades in Microgrid

As one of the most important components of wind turbines, the fan blade is prone to erosion being exposed to multiphase flow environment, which affects the operation efficiency of wind turbines. In order to reduce the loss caused by the erosion of the fan blade, the erosion rate tests of the fan blade were carried out in this paper. The relevant function values of the simulation mathematical model were calculated from the test results, which were verified by a simplified two-dimensional case. Additionly, a numerical simulation of the three-dimensional full-size gas-solid two-phase flow around the fan blade was conducted, and then the variations of a single blade erosion rate with different wind speeds, sand sizes and impact angles were studied. The results showed that the sample erosion rate was increased with wind speeds and impact angles. The blade tip region was the most susceptible area to erosion, of which protection should be strengthened.

Instability and merging of a helical vortex pair in the wake of a rotor

We present results from an experimental investigation of two closely spaced helical vortices. The two co-rotating vortices are generated in a water channel by a one-bladed rotor, whose tip geometry is modified by the addition of a perpendicular fin on the pressure side. The fin parameters are tuned so that the two vortices have approximately equal circulation. Dye visualisations and flow field measurements from Particle Image Velocimetry show that the vortices merge into a single tip vortex within less than one rotor rotation. This fast merging is caused by a rapid increase of the core radii of the initial vortices, which indicates the presence of an instability phenomenon. Analysis of the vortex velocity profiles identifies it as a centrifugal instability, linked to the presence of opposite-signed vorticity in the blade tip region. We further explore the origin of this vorticity by modifying the streamwise fin position. Measurements suggest that the interaction between the secondary fin vortex and the blade surface is partly responsible for the generation of the unstable velocity profile. The vortex resulting from the merging has a significantly larger core size than the one developing without a fin, indicating that this configuration could be beneficial in the context of Blade-Vortex Interaction noise for helicopters, or for the reduction of fatigue loads on wind turbine rotors caused by the interaction with concentrated tip vortices in the wake of upstream turbines.

A study of sound sources and unsteady surface pressure in an axial fan

The noise emitted from an axial fan has become one of the primary concerns for many industrial applications. This paper presents the work to predict the noise generation and investigate sound sources in a low speed axial fan. Computational fluid dynamics modeling is conducted using Scale Adaptive Simulation for the unsteady flow field. The sound predictions by the acoustic analogy are in good agreement with the experimental data. The results from this study show that the aerodynamic interaction between the blades and outlet vanes has a major contribution to the radiated noise spectrum. Two types of sources of narrowband humps are identified in the axial fan. The first is found at the leading edge of the blade tip, which is related to the interaction of coherent flow structures in the blade tip region. The second is found in the vicinity of the blade hub, which can be attributed to the recirculating flow and hub vortex. The noise below the frequency of 1500 Hz is mainly due to the blade-outlet vane aerodynamic interaction, manifested as the tonal sound at BPF and its harmonics, whereas above 1500 Hz the broadband component of sound is mainly related to the turbulent boundary layers.

Numerical methodology and CFD simulations of a rotary vane energy recovery device for seawater reverse osmosis desalination systems

• Novel analytical grid generation methodology for rotary vane machines. • Removal of backflows and torque peaks through flow port optimisation. • Sensitivity analysis to reduce cavitation and improve volumetric efficiency. • Volumetric efficiency with optimal speed and blade design equal to 91.6%. Energy recovery devices in Seawater Reverse Osmosis Systems (SWRO) reduce energy consumption and may facilitate the large-scale deployment of desalination systems. In this paper, a Rotary Vane Energy Recovery Device (RVERD) is analysed and optimised by aiming at weakening cavitation and improving the volumetric performance of the machine. An innovative analytical methodology based on user defined nodal displacement is proposed to address the need to discretise the rotating and deforming computational domain of double-acting vane machines. The generated grids are interfaced with the ANSYS FLUENT solver for multi-phase computational fluid dynamics simulations. The flow topology is analysed to reveal the flow and cavitation features especially in the blade tip regions. A port optimisation is then carried out followed by a sensitivity analysis on the design parameters to improve RVERD performance. The results show that delaying the discharge angle at the high-pressure outlet port by 3° and an optimal port to stator length ratio of 70% helped to prevent backflows and eliminate torque peaks. The sensitivity analysis has identified the rotational speed and the blade tip clearance as the two most influential factors affecting cavitation and, in turn, the volumetric efficiency of the machine. With respect to the baseline design configuration, at the optimal rotational speed of 1000 RPM and with a tip clearance gap of 50 μm, the volume-averaged vapour volume fraction in the core decreased from 20.6 × 10 −3 to 0.6 × 10 −3 while the volumetric efficiency increased from 85.7% to 91.6%. The axial clearance gap of 70 μm contributed to 2.9% of the volumetric losses.

Impact of Rotor-Casing Effusion Cooling on Turbine Performance and Operating Point: An Experimental, Computational, and Theoretical Study

Abstract It is known that a secondary effect of rotor-casing effusion cooling is to modify and potentially spoil the rotor over-tip leakage flow. Studies have shown both positive and negative impacts on high-pressure (HP) stage aerodynamic performance and heat transfer, although there remains no consensus on whether the net effect is beneficial when both aerodynamic and thermal effects are accounted for simultaneously. An effect that has not been extensively discussed in the literature is the change in stage operating point that arises due to mass introduction midway through the machine. This effect complicates the analysis of the true performance impact on a turbine and must be accounted for in an assessment of the overall benefit of such a system. In this paper, we develop a low-order (“mean-line”) analysis in an attempt to bring clarity to this issue. We then present results from experiments conducted in the Oxford Turbine Research Facility, a 1.5-stage transonic rotating facility capable of matching non-dimensional engine conditions. In the experiments, effusion cooling was implemented over a sector of the rotor casing spanning 24 degrees or four rotor-blade pitches. Rotor-exit radial traverse and HP vane loading measurements were conducted locally to the cooled sector. Results are compared to baseline tests conducted without cooling. To assess the degree to which experimental results with only a sector of the annulus cooled would provide an accurate indication of stage operating point changes (when measured local to the annulus) in an annular (engine-like) environment, unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) simulations were performed. In particular, simulations of a full annulus with an effusion-cooled sector were compared to a periodic simulation with fully annular effusion cooling. The results—perhaps surprisingly—suggest that a cooled sector is sufficient to infer the changes in an annular system, provided measurements are performed locally to the sector. Experiments conducted with fixed 1.5-stage boundary conditions showed increases in both mid-stage static pressure and stage-exit total pressure with cooling. The mean-line model and URANS predictions were in good agreement with the experimental data and also showed an increase in stage reaction and a reduction in turbine-inlet (mainstream) mass flowrate with cooling. Finally, the URANS predictions were used to show that with cooling, there are changes both locally to the cooled casing (changes to the tip-leakage and secondary flow structures) and globally (changes to the bulk-flow velocity triangles). An absolute stage efficiency benefit of 0.7% was predicted for a coolant-to-mainstream mass flowrate ratio of 2.2%. By running with a number of different boundary conditions, steady RANS simulations were used to estimate the relative contributions to the efficiency improvement due to the changes in operating point and aerodynamics in the blade-tip region. For the present configuration, both changes contribute positively to the improvement in stage efficiency.

Analysis of characteristics and mechanism of flow unsteadiness in a transonic compressor

This paper reveals the flow mechanism of unsteady flow oscillations at small mass flow rate conditions in a transonic compressor rotor. A series of unsteady RANS simulations were performed to achieve time-accurate and time-averaged flow fields. The predicted results were validated by experimental data. The present analysis indicates that the tip leakage vortex (TLV) breakdown occurs with the operating condition approaching the stability limit due to an interaction between the TLV and the shock wave. A bubble-type vortex breakdown is first observed. However, the TLV breakdown does not directly cause flow oscillations. Only if the breakdown region develops beyond a threshold volume value (9.15e−9 m3 in current case), it will influence the static pressure distribution at the pressure side of blade tip region. After that the flux of tip leakage flow, the strength of TLV, the shock/TLV interaction are varied, which in return changed the size of the breakdown region in the adjacent passage. In such a way, a self-sustained system which causes periodical flow oscillations is established. When the compressor is further throttled, the bubble- and spiral-type TLV breakdown occur alternatively, which induces a change in the frequency of the periodical flow oscillation. Although the characteristic frequency of flow oscillation changes with the transition of operating conditions, the trigger for flow unsteadiness is the same as that in the bubble-type breakdown case, namely the changes of static pressure distribution at the pressure side of blade tip. Moreover, during the transition from bubble- to spiral-type breakdown, the breakdown region significantly increases, resulting in a more severe pressure fluctuation in the flow field.

Effect of inlet radial distortion on aerodynamic stability in a multi-stage axial flow compressor

Inlet radial distortion caused by boundary layer separation is experimentally studied in a three-stage axial flow compressor. Two lattice rings were designed to generate tip and hub radial distortion, respectively, and distortion intensity was measured using a five-hole probe installed upstream of the first rotor blade row. The unsteady flow field is captured by using a collection of pressure transducers installed on the casing wall with circumferential and chordwise spatial resolution. The stall route measured on the casing wall indicates that the first stage stalls under all inflow conditions, tip radial distortion can modify the scale of stall inception to long-length scale (6–8 blade passages), unlike the uniform inflow and hub radial distortion with typical short-length-scaled inception (3–4 blade passages). Detailed measurements indicate that tip radial distortion can strengthen the tip leakage vortex and increase the tip separation to induce the compressor to stall earlier than uniform inflow. However, hub radial distortion redistributes the mainstream flow toward the blade tip region, thereby weakening the unsteadiness of tip leakage flow, reducing the outlet flow angle and increasing the outlet axial velocity near the blade tip to remove the separation or blockage, and finally extending the stall margin. The aerodynamic measurements downstream different rotor blade rows also indicate that the inlet radial distortion mainly affects the flow field at the first stage, which is obviously weakened at the second stage and completely unaffected at the third stage.

An in-depth quantitative analysis of wind turbine blade tip wake flow based on the lattice Boltzmann method.

With the continuous increase in the total quantity and quality of wind energy used by society, the aerodynamic complexity of wind turbine impellers has also gradually increased. This requires a more accurate analysis and understanding of the aerodynamic performance of important parts of the wind turbine impeller. The blade tip vortex is undoubtedly one of the most important issues. This article used the state-of-the-art lattice Boltzmann method (LBM), combining large eddy simulation (LES) and wall-adapting local-eddy (WALE) model, to investigate the unsteady flow characteristics of the blade tip region due to impeller wake for a wind turbine. The trend of this calculation result is consistent with the experimental data, both for the axial force and the torque on the impeller. Therefore, it indicates the calculation model of LBM is reasonable and effective. The relevant in-depth results clearly showed the dynamic stability of a spiral structure will increase as operating conditions continue to advance and it is also synchronously affected by the tower wake flow structures. The fluctuation amplitude of the static pressure value on both sides of the impeller gradually decreases with time. The distribution of static pressure near the leading edge of the tip is very different for each blade due to the influences of turbulence intensity and the tower shadow effect. The random minor fluctuations of the axial force and torque both exhibit similar characteristics, and the overall torque is more sensitive to random changes in the tip vortex on the impeller surface.

Effects of flow structure on heat transfer of squealer tip in a turbine rotor blade

Consideration heat transfer while organizing the flow structure in the turbine blade tip region is important to improve the turbine aerodynamic performance and turbine blade reliability. Numerical methods were conducted to investigate the flow physics and the heat transfer characteristic in high pressure turbine squealer tip. The impacts of some geometric parameters and aerodynamic conditions on heat load distribution were also discussed. Based on the above results, a heat transfer model for squealer tip was developed. The results show that the high heat transfer occurred in certain tip region is mainly caused by the leakage jet impingement on these surfaces. The velocity direction and magnitude of the leakage are determined by the characteristic of flow structures, especially the scraping vortex in the cavity. Different squealer height, relative casing velocity and blade loading can change the heat load distribution of tip region by varying the characteristic of the scraping vortex. Through simplifying the process of the leakage jet flowing into the cavity as a backward step flow, a heat transfer model is established which provides a useful tool to predict heat load distribution of the squealer tip.

Influence of self-circulating casing treatment with double-bleed ports structure on compressor performance

Casing treatment is an effective way to improve the stable working margin of the compressor and plays an important role in ensuring the stable and safe work of the compressor. On the premise that the numerical results are in agreement with the experimental values, the paper study on a new type of the self-circulating casing treatment with double-bleed ports structure was carried out on the NASA rotor 37 by numerical simulation. It is found that compared with the self-circulating casing treatment with single-bleed port structure, the self-circulating casing treatment with double-bleed ports structure is more favorable for improving the stall margin of the rotor, and the improvement of the stall margin obtained at the rotor design speed is as high as 9.57%. Compared with the other two self-circulating casing treatments with single-bleed port structure, the improvement of the stall margin is increased by 37.90 and 49.53%, respectively. The self-circulating casing treatment with double-bleed ports structure has a significant effect on the enhancing stability, but at the same time, it causes a greater efficiency loss, which reduces the design point efficiency of the rotor by 0.34%. Through detailed analysis of the flow field, it is found that the self-circulating casing treatment improves the flow capacity of the blade tip region, weakens the blockage degree of the blade tip region, and reduces the blade tip load, thereby improving the stall margin of rotor. Compared with the self-circulating casing treatment with single-bleed port structure, the self-circulating casing treatment with double-bleed ports structure is more advantageous for delaying the flow separation of the suction surface, delaying the occurrence of the blade tip stall to make the stability of rotor more favorable, and obtained stall margin improvement is the greatest.

Analysis Method of Compressor Stability Based on Eigenvalue Theory

Abstract In order to analyze the flow stability of compressors rapidly in the design stage, a fast analysis method is developed in this paper. This method takes the base flow on each streamline at different spanwise locations as the research object and characterizes the effect of blade rows on the internal flow by establishing a body force model. Therefore, it is capable of taking the complex three-dimensional blade geometry and the abundant flow details into account, and what's more, it has a significantly high computational efficiency, which makes it available to engineering practice. Based on the eigenvalue theory, the flow stability problem is transformed into the eigenvalue problem, and the system stability is determined by the eigenvalue obtained by utilizing the singular value decomposition method. The flow stability of NASA Rotor 37 is analyzed to validate the reliability of the developed approach, and the results show that this analysis method is able to capture the process of stability deterioration with throttling and identify the blade tip region as the most unstable area. In order to further study the influence of blade geometry on compressor stability, a number of swept rotors are designed by modifying the stacking line of NASA Rotor 37. The assessment results via the developed method indicate that the forward sweep defined in this work can significantly improve the stability of the flow field in the tip region, while the backward sweep has the opposite effect.

Numerical investigation into the mechanism regarding the inception and evolution of flow unsteadiness induced by the tip leakage flow in a transonic compressor

Unsteady flow in the blade tip region of modern axial flow compressors is one of the sources of loss, noise, and blade vibration. In some cases, it is potentially linked to stall inception. In this paper, the complex flow fields in the blade tip region of a transonic axial flow compressor rotor have been numerically investigated. The predicted results were validated by experimental data. Analyses of monitoring results of numerical probes showed that three typical flow characteristics occurred as the operating condition approached the stability limit: no flow fluctuation at the first operating point; flow fluctuation with high frequency and low amplitude at the second operating point; flow fluctuation with low frequency and high amplitude at the third operating point. Further analysis of the tip flow field showed that the evolution of the tip leakage vortex experienced three stages as the rotor was throttled. At the first stage, the TLV did not breakdown. At the second stage, a bubble-type breakdown of the tip leakage vortex occurred. At the third stage, a spiral-type breakdown of tip leakage vortex occurred. The current study demonstrated that the flow unsteadiness that appears within the test rotor was induced by the tip leakage vortex breakdown. Furthermore, with the transformation of the vortex breakdown form, the characteristic frequency and amplitude of the flow oscillation substantially changed.

Experimental investigation of the bending clearance on the aerodynamic performance in turbine blade tip region

The bending clearance design method is applied for the aerodynamic optimization by using the Kriging model and Genetic Algorithm. To validate the effects of the clearance shape and the deformation coefficient on the TLF suppression, the baseline case and other four modified cases have been experimentally and numerically investigated in a low speed wind tunnel linear cascade. The measured data and numerical results demonstrates that the modified cases increase the pressure inside the clearance, impedes the tip leakage flow (TLF), and its deceleration effect on leakage fluid inside the bending clearance gradually increased with the increasing deformation coefficient. In addition, the presence of the blocking vortex (BV) exerts a brake on the tip leakage vortex (TLV) and divides it into two parts. The TLV development is interrupted in front of the midstream under the blocking effect, but the UPV scale is enlarged. Compared with the baseline case, the application of bending clearance is proved to reduce the aerodynamic loss and leakage with relative reduction of 9.7% and 28.8%, furthermore, the optimal configuration has better aerodynamic performance with relative reduction of 16.3% and 31%. Both of the aerodynamic loss and leakage continue to decline with the increase of λ, but no significant performance improvement will be achieved when λ exceeds 6 mm.

Stator–rotor interaction in the tip leakage flow of an inlet vaned low-speed axial fan

Purpose The purpose of the paper is to quantify the impact of the non-uniform flow generated by the upstream stator on the generation and convection of the tip leakage flow (TLF) structures in the passages of the rotor blades in a low-speed axial fan. Design/methodology/approach A full three dimensional (3D)-viscous unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-stokes (RANS) (URANS) simulation of the flow within a periodic domain of the axial stage has been performed at three different flow rate coefficients (φ = 0.38, 0.32, 0.27) using ReNormalization Group k-ε turbulence modelling. A typical tip clearance of 2.3 per cent of the blade span has been modelled on a reduced domain comprising a three-vaned stator and a two-bladed rotor with circumferential periodicity. A non-conformal grid with hybrid meshing, locally refined O-meshes on both blades and vanes walls with (100 × 25 × 80) elements, a 15-node meshed tip gap and circumferential interfaces for sliding mesh computations were also implemented. The unsteady motion of the rotor has been covered with 60 time steps per blade event. The simulations were validated with experimental measurements of the static pressure in the shroud of the blade tip region. Findings It has been observed that both TLF and intensities of the tip leakage vortex (TLV) are significantly influenced by upstream stator wakes, especially at nominal and partial load conditions. In particular, the leakage flow, which represents 12.4 per cent and 11.3 per cent of the working flow rate, respectively, has shown a clear periodic fluctuation clocked with the vane passing period in the relative domain. The periodic fluctuation of the TLF is in the range of 2.8-3.4 per cent of the mean value. In addition, the trajectory of the tip vortex is also notably perturbed, with root-mean squared fluctuations reaching up to 18 per cent and 6 per cent in the regions of maximum interaction at 50 per cent and 25 per cent of the blade chord for nominal and partial load conditions, respectively. On the contrary, the massive flow separation observed in the tip region of the blades for near-stall conditions prevents the formation of TLV structures and neglects any further interaction with the upstream vanes. Research limitations/implications Despite the increasing use of large eddy simulation modelling in turbomachinery environments, which requires extremely high computational costs, URANS modelling is still revealed as a useful technique to describe highly complex viscous mechanisms in 3D swirl flows, such as unsteady tip flow structures, with reasonable accuracy. Originality/value The paper presents a validated numerical model that simulates the unsteady response of the TLF to upstream perturbations in an axial fan stage. It also provides levels of instabilities in the TLV derived from the deterministic non-uniformities associated to the vane wakes.

Aeroelastic vibration analysis of a 1.5 stage compressor

Aeroelastic vibration problems are commonly found in modern compressors operating in off-design conditions. Large amplitude vibration could lead to high cycle fatigue (HCF) of blade and usually occurs in front stages of axial compressors. In this study, the influence of tip gap size on aeroelastic stability is analyzed in a 1.5 stage compressor with an in-house fluid-structure interaction code. A three-dimensional unstructured finite-volume compressible flow solver is applied in the fluid domain and a structure dynamic solver with the modal superimposition method for blade motion is used in the structure domain. Rotor tip clearances of 1%, 2% and 3% of tip axial chord at maximum rotor loading conditions at off-design speeds are analyzed for aeroelastic stability. The tip leakage flow and vortex structure can be seen near the blade tip region at a larger tip gap size. The aeroelastic stability of rotor blade at different tip gap sizes is mainly influenced by the 1st torsion mode, and the variation of aerodynamic damping is not monotonous. The intensity of the tip vortex and shock wave are the key factors affecting the aeroelastic stability of rotor when tip gap size increases.

Vortex dynamic characteristics of unsteady tip clearance cavitation in a waterjet pump determined with different vortex identification methods

The cavitating flow field in waterjet pumps is complex, especially tip leakage cavitation (TLC), which has been a puzzle to researchers for decades. In this study, high-speed video (HSV) of the instantaneous inner structures of tip cavitation flow is used to show the evolution of TLC. Numerical simulation is conducted with the scale adaptive simulation (SAS) turbulence model and Zwart-Gerber-Belamri (ZGB) cavitation model to understand the cavitation-vortex interaction in the blade tip region. The predicted cavitation performance curve exhibits reasonable agreement with the experimental results, and the time-dependent vapor iso-surfaces (αv = 0.1) are consistent with HSV at different times in a typical cycle. Numerical simulation results show that cavitation can enhance the turbulent kinetic energy in the unstable vortex cavitation region and downstream tip leakage vortex region along the blade. Different vortex identification methods, including vorticity, Q criterion, λci, λ2 criterion, Ω, and Liutex/Rortex, are investigated. Analysis and comparison of the iso-surfaces of the different vortex identification methods indicate that the Ω and Liutex iso-surfaces can effectively predict the tip leakage vortex core and vortex pair in the unstable vortex cavitation region. Analysis of the fifth clip contours shows that no obvious difference exists between Q and λ2 criteria in terms of predicting the vortex core. All vortex identification methods can accurately predict the tip separation vortex in the blade tip region, but only the Ω and Liutex iso-surfaces can predict weak vortices in the cavitation region. The influence of the small parameter e of the Ω method on tip vortex identification is also discussed.

A Genetic Algorithm Based Multi-Objective Optimization of Squealer Tip Geometry in Axial Flow Turbines: A Constant Tip Gap Approach

Abstract Tip clearance is a crucial aspect of turbomachines in terms of aerodynamic and thermal performance. A gap between the blade tip surface and the stationary casing must be maintained to allow the relative motion of the blade. The leakage flow through the tip gap measurably reduces turbine performance and causes high thermal loads near the blade tip region. Several studies focused on the tip leakage flow to clarify the flow-physics in the past. The “squealer” design is one of the most common designs to reduce the adverse effects of tip leakage flow. In this paper, a genetic-algorithm-based optimization approach was applied to the conventional squealer tip design to enhance aerothermal performance. A multi-objective optimization method integrated with a meta-model was utilized to determine the optimum squealer geometry. Squealer height and width represent the design parameters which are aimed to be optimized. The objective functions for the genetic-algorithm-based optimization are the total pressure loss coefficient and Nusselt number calculated over the blade tip surface. The initial database is then enlarged iteratively using a coarse-to-fine approach to improve the prediction capability of the meta-models used. The procedure ends once the prediction errors are smaller than a prescribed level. This study indicates that squealer height and width have complex effects on the aerothermal performance, and optimization study allows to determine the optimum squealer dimensions.