Improvement In Stage Efficiency Research Articles

Multi-objective design optimization of a transonic axial fan stage using sparse active subspaces

In this paper, a multi-objective optimization strategy for efficient design of turbomachinery blades using sparse active subspaces is implemented for a turbofan stage design. The proposed strategy utilized sparse polynomial chaos expansion on a limited dataset to generate a function from which the differential and the covariance matrix can be obtained. Active subspace was used to compute the active variables via singular value decomposition and a hybrid polynomial correlated function expansion was used to construct a surrogate model on the active subspace. Coupled with freeform method and multi-objective genetic algorithm, an automated optimization loop was run at a single operating condition. An improvement in stage efficiency and total pressure ratio of 2.97% and 1.15% was achieved for the optimum design compared with the baseline. Additionally, total pressure loss coefficient decreased by 5.88%, exit flow angle by 34.65% and shock strength by 5.32%. The coupled effect of change in stagger angle, forward sweep, forward lean, and chord length reduced the recirculation at the hub, and blockage at the shroud due the tip leakage flow by decreasing the blade loading. The threshold value hyperparameter was found to be the most influential and must be accurately determined.

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.

Numerical Loss Investigation of a Small Scale, Low Specific Speed Supercritical CO2 Radial Inflow Turbine

Radial inflow turbines, characterized by a low specific speed, are a candidate architecture for the supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle at small scale, i.e., less than 5 MW. Prior cycle studies have identified the importance of turbine efficiency to cycle performance; hence, well-designed turbines are key in realizing this new cycle. With operation at high Reynolds numbers, and small scales, the relative importance of loss mechanisms in supercritical CO2 turbines is not known. This paper presents a numerical loss investigation of a 300 kW low specific speed radial inflow turbine operating on supercritical CO2. A combination of steady-state and transient calculations is used to determine the source of loss within the turbine stage. Losses are compared with preliminary design approaches, and geometric variations to address high loss regions of stator and rotor are trialed. Analysis shows stage losses to be dominated by endwall viscous losses in the stator. These losses are more significant than predicted using gas turbine derived preliminary design methods. A reduction in stator–rotor interspace and modification of the blade profile showed a significant improvement in stage efficiency. An investigation into rotor blading shows favorable performance gains through the inclusion of splitter blades. Through these, and other modifications, a stage efficiency of 81% is possible, with an improvement of 7.5 points over the baseline design.

Tip clearance influence in CFD calculations and optimization of a centrifugal compressor stage through CFD methods

This paper presents a study on a centrifugal compressor stage aerodynamics. The influence of the blade tip clearance on performances of the centrifugal impeller and also on the diffuser is taken into consideration for the overall optimization process. Also a stress analysis has been carried out to investigate the stresses and strains of the blade. The impeller was designed for a pressure ratio of 4:1, a mass flow of 8.1 kg/s at 22 000 rpm. Three cases have been studied: first without a tip clearance, the second one with tip clearance and the third case which studies an optimized geometry for the vaned diffusers. Through a designer driven optimization process, the recirculation zone that appears in the diffuser was reduced by half. Following the numerical analysis some differences were noted between the three cases in terms of both global results and particular flow details. One of the main differences is given by the power consumed by the impeller. Due to the elimination of the tip clearance (shrouded impeller), the power consumed by the impeller was reduced by 72 kW and the efficiency increased by 2.2%. In the case of diffusers analysis, was noticed an improvement in stage efficiency of 8.2%.

Design and Analysis of a Novel Split Sliding Variable Nozzle for Turbocharger Turbine

Variable geometry turbine (VGT) has been widely applied in internal combustion engines to improve engine transient response and torque at light load. One of the most popular VGTs is the variable nozzle turbine (VNT) in which the nozzle vanes can be rotated along the pivoting axis and thus the flow passage through the nozzle can be adjusted to match with different engine operating conditions. One disadvantage of the VNT is the turbine efficiency degradation due to the leakage flow in the nozzle endwall clearance, especially at small nozzle open condition. With the purpose to reduce the nozzle leakage flow and to improve turbine stage efficiency, a novel split sliding variable nozzle turbine (SSVNT) has been proposed. In the SSVNT design, the nozzle is divided into two parts: one part is fixed and the other part can move along the partition surface. When sliding the moving vane to large radius position, the nozzle flow passage opens up and the turbine has high flow capacity. When sliding the moving vane to small radius position, the nozzle flow passage closes down and the turbine has low flow capacity. As the fixed vane does not need endwall clearance, the leakage flow through the nozzle can be reduced. Based on calibrated numerical simulation, there is up to 12% turbine stage efficiency improvement with the SSVNT design at small nozzle open condition while maintaining the same performance at large nozzle open condition. The mechanism of efficiency improvement in the SSVNT design has been discussed.

Effect of diffuser vane shape on the performance of a centrifugal compressor stage

The present paper reports the results of experimental investigations on the effect of diffuser vane shape on the performance of a centrifugal compressor stage. These studies were conducted on the chosen stage having a backward curved impeller of 500 mm tip diameter and 24.5 mm width and its design flow coefficient is ϕd=0.0535. Three different low solidity diffuser vane shapes namely uncambered aerofoil, constant thickness flat plate and circular arc cambered constant thickness plate were chosen as the variants for diffuser vane shape and all the three shapes have the same thickness to chord ratio (t/c=0.1). Flow coefficient, polytropic efficiency, total head coefficient, power coefficient and static pressure recovery coefficient were chosen as the parameters for evaluating the effect of diffuser vane shape on the stage performance. The results show that there is reasonable improvement in stage efficiency and total head coefficient with the use of the chosen diffuser vane shapes as compared to conventional vaneless diffuser. It is also noticed that the aero foil shaped LSD has shown better performance when compared to flat plate and circular arc profiles. The aerofoil vane shape of the diffuser blade is seen to be tolerant over a considerable range of incidence.

Improving Efficiency of a High Work Turbine Using Nonaxisymmetric Endwalls—Part II: Time-Resolved Flow Physics

This paper is the second part of a two part paper that reports on the improvement of efficiency of a one and a half stage high work axial flow turbine. The first part covered the design of the endwall profiling, as well as a comparison with steady probe data; this part covers the analysis of the time-resolved flow physics. The focus is on the time-resolved flow physics that leads to a total-to-total stage efficiency improvement of 1.0%±0.4%. The investigated geometry is a model of a high work (Δh/U2=2.36), axial shroudless HP turbine. The time-resolved measurements have been acquired upstream and downstream of the rotor using a fast response aerodynamic probe (FRAP). This paper contains a detailed analysis of the secondary flow field that is changed between the axisymmetric and the nonaxisymmetric endwall profiling cases. The flowfield at the exit of the first stator is improved considerably due to the nonaxisymmetric endwall profiling and results in reduced secondary flow and a reduction in loss at both hub and tip, as well as a reduced trailing shed vorticity. The rotor has reduced losses and a reduction in secondary flows mainly at the hub. At the rotor exit, the flow field with nonaxisymmetric endwalls is more homogenous due to the reduction in secondary flows in the two rows upstream of the measurement plane. This confirms that nonaxisymmetric endwall profiling is an effective tool for reducing secondary losses in axial turbines. Using a frozen flow assumption, the time-resolved data are used to estimate the axial velocity gradients, which are then used to evaluate the streamwise vorticity and dissipation. The nonaxisymmetric endwall profiling of the first nozzle guide vane show reductions in dissipation and streamwise vorticity due to the reduced trailing shed vorticity. This smaller vorticity explains the reduction in loss at midspan, which is shown in the first part of the two part paper. This leads to the conclusion that nonaxisymmetric endwall profiling also has the potential of reducing trailing shed vorticity.

Development of a Highly Loaded Rotor Blade for Steam Turbines. 2nd Report. Three-Dimensional Stage Performance Verifications.

In order to improve steam turbine internal efficiency, a new highly loaded rotor blade for the high and intermediate pressure (HIP) stages, has been developed. The blade configuration is expressed by a 5th-order Bezier curve and an interactive technique is adopted in combination with a 2-D turbulent blade-to-blade flow analysis. The inverse method is adopted to modify the blade shape by optimizing the blade aerodynamic loading distribution near the root section which should decrease not only profile loss, but also endwall loss. Three-dimensional stage flow analysis and air turbine tests are carried out to verify the stage performance of the new blade. It is found that the new blade has improved blade performance near the root and the midspan; in particular, higher blade performance near the midspan contributes to an improvement in stage efficiency by about 0.3% at the design point. Consequently, it is verified that the new rotor blade is effective to improve steam turbine internal efficiency and to lower manufacturing cost by reducing the blade number by 15%.