Low Engine Order Excitation Research Articles

Numerical Investigation of the Excitation Characteristics of Contaminated Nozzle Rings

The deposition of combustion residues in the nozzle ring (NR) of a turbocharger turbine stage changes the NR geometry significantly in a random manner. The resultant complex and highly asymmetric geometry induces low engine order (LEO) excitation, which may lead to resonance excitation of rotor blades and high cycle fatigue (HCF) failure. Therefore, a suitable prediction workflow is of great importance for the design and validation phases. The prediction of LEO excitation is, however, computationally expensive as high-fidelity, full annulus CFD models are required. Previous investigations showed that a steady-state computational model consisting of the volute, the NR, and a radial extension is suitable to reduce the computational costs massively and to qualitatively predict the level of LEO forced response. In the current paper, the aerodynamic excitation of 69 real contaminated NRs is analyzed using this simplified approach. The results obtained by the simplified simulation model are used to select 13 contaminated NR geometries, which are then simulated with a model of the entire turbine stage, including the rotor, in a transient time-marching manner to provide high-fidelity simulation results for the verification of the simplified approach. Furthermore, two contamination patterns are analyzed in a more detailed manner regarding their aerodynamic excitation. It is found that the simplified model can be used to identify and classify contamination patterns that lead to high blade vibration amplitudes. In cases where transient effects occurring in the rotor alter the harmonic pressure field significantly, the ability of the simplified approach to predict the LEO excitation is not sufficient.

Low-Engine-Order Forced Response Analysis of a Turbine Stage with Damaged Stator Vane.

A damaged stator vane can disrupt the circumferential symmetry of the design flow for turbine assemblies, which can lead to a low-engine-order (LEO) forced response of rotor blades. To help engineers be able to better address sudden vane damage failures, this paper conducts a mechanism analysis of the LEO forced response of rotor blades induced by a single damaged vane using an in-house computational fluid dynamic code (Hybrid Grid Aeroelasticity Environment). Firstly, it is found that the damaged vane introduces a family of LEO aerodynamic excitations with high amplitudes by full-annulus unsteady aeroelastic simulations of a single-stage turbine. In particular, the LEO forced response of the rotor blades excited by 3EO is 2.01 times higher than the resonance response excited by vane passing frequency, and the LEO resonance risk of the rotor blades is greatly increased. Then, by analyzing the flow characteristics of the wake and potential field of the stator row with a damaged vane, the localized high transient pressure in the notch cavity and the radial redistribution of the secondary vortex at the stator exit are the main sources of the low-order harmonic components in the flow field. Importantly, the interaction mechanisms in two regions with high LEO excitation amplitude on the rotor blade surface are revealed separately. Finally, an evaluation and comparison of a single damaged vane in terms of aerodynamic performance and LEO forced response was carried out. The results of this paper provide a good theoretical basis for engineers to effectively control the resonance response of rotor blades caused by a damaged stator vane in turbine design.

Integrated Aerodynamic and Mechanical Design of a Large-Scale Axial Turbine Operating With A Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Mixture

Abstract In this paper, the design of a large-scale axial turbine operating with supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) blended with sulfur dioxide (SO2) is presented considering aerodynamic and mechanical design aspects as well as the integration of the whole turbine assembly. The turbine shaft power is 130 MW, designed for a 100 MWe concentrated-solar power plant with turbine inlet conditions of 239.1 bar and 700 °C, total-to-static pressure ratio of 2.94, and mass-flow rate of 822 kg/s. The aerodynamic flow path, obtained in a previous study, is first summarized before the aerodynamic performance of the turbine is evaluated using both steady-state and unsteady three-dimensional numerical models. Whole-annulus unsteady simulations are performed for the last turbine stage and the exhaust section to assess the unsteady loads on the rotor due to downstream pressure field distortion and to assess the aerodynamic losses within the diffuser and exhaust section. The potential low engine order excitation at the last rotor stage natural frequency modes due to downstream pressure distortion is assessed. The design of the turbine assembly is constrained by current manufacturing capabilities and the properties of the proposed working fluid. High-level flow-path design parameters, such as pitch diameter and number of stages, are established considering a trade-off between weight and footprint, turbine efficiency, and rotordynamics. Rotordynamic stability is assessed considering the high fluid density and related cross coupling effects. Finally, shaft end sizing, cooling system design, and the integration of dry gas seals are discussed.

Effects of Asymmetric Vane Pitch on Reducing Low-Engine-Order Forced Response of a Turbine Stage

Asymmetric vane pitch is a key technique to suppress the forced response of downstream rotor blades. To address the problem of low-engine-order (LEO) excitation with high amplitude under an asymmetric configuration (half-and-half layout) widely recognized in the previous literature, we first apply the in-house computational fluid dynamics code Hybrid Grid Aeroelasticity Environment to perform full-annulus unsteady aeroelasticity simulations of the turbine stage, comparing the resonance response of rotor blades on different asymmetric configurations and analyzing the flow field at the vane exit, as well as the excitation force, modal force, and maximum vibrational amplitude on the rotor blades. Second, we reveal that the potential field of the vane row is the main source of the LEO excitation caused by asymmetric configuration on rotor blades, the vane wake and potential field jointly determine the LEO excitation strength of rotor blades, and the vane pitch difference ΔS can be used to regulate the strength of the LEO excitation. Finally, based on an in-depth understanding of flow physics under an asymmetric configuration, a more preferable and effective asymmetric configuration (non-half two-segment layout) is proposed. Our findings demonstrate that, with the proposed asymmetric configuration, the amplitude of the vane passing frequency was reduced by 48.32% compared to the uniform configuration; furthermore, the maximum vibrational amplitude of the three-nodal-diameter response of the rotor blade at the three-engine-order crossing decreased by 45.49% compared to the half-and-half layout. The non-half two-segment layout also significantly improves upon the half-and-half layout in terms of aerodynamic performance. The results presented in this paper provide a good theoretical basis for reducing blade vibration by applying asymmetric vane pitch in engineering practice.

Assessment of Low Engine Order Excitation of a Contaminated Turbocharger Radial Turbine Stage Using a Nozzle Ring Only Computational Model

Abstract The use of critical fuels such as heavy fuel oil (HFO) usually leads to deposits of combustion residues in the turbocharger turbine stage, foremost in the nozzle ring where flow channels can get partially or completely clogged. The resulting change in geometry is heavily asymmetrical and therefore induces low engine order (LEO) excitation, which may lead to resonant excitation of rotor blades and potentially to high cycle fatigue (HCF) failure. The accurate prediction of LEO excitation is computationally intensive especially, in the context of a probabilistic analysis. The current study investigates the suitability of using a simplified model that only contains the nozzle ring in the assessment of LEO excitation to reduce computational costs. The aerodynamic excitation is assessed from the circumferential variation of the nozzle ring outflow. The results obtained with this simplified model are compared to results of validated forced response analyses. Two deteriorated nozzle rings are used for validation purposes, a generic one having one passage blocked by 90%, and a digital replica of a real contaminated nozzle ring. It is shown that the simplified model is suitable for the qualitative prediction of the aerodynamic excitation if the contamination patterns feature sufficiently large differences and that the computational costs can be greatly reduced.

Model update and validation of a mistuned high-pressure compressor blisk

ABSTRACTIn order to prepare an advanced 4-stage high-pressure compressor rig test campaign, details regarding both accomplishment and analysis of preliminary experiments are provided in this paper. The superior objective of the research project is to contribute to a reliable but simultaneously less conservative design of future high pressure blade integrated disks (blisk). It is planned to achieve trend-setting advances based on a close combination of both numerical and experimental analyses. The analyses are focused on the second rotor of this research compressor, which is the only one being manufactured as blisk. The comprehensive test program is addressing both surge and forced response analyses e.g. caused by low engine order excitation. Among others the interaction of aeroelastics and blade mistuning is demanding attention in this regard. That is why structural models are needed, allowing for an accurate forced response prediction close to reality. Furthermore, these models are required to support the assessment of blade tip timing (BTT) data gathered in the rig tests and strain gauge (s/g) data as well. To gain the maximum information regarding the correlation between BTT data, s/g-data and pressure gauge data, every blade of the second stage rotor (28 blades) is applied with s/g. However, it is well known that s/g on blades can contribute additional mistuning that had to be considered upon updating structural models.Due to the relevance of mistuning, efforts are made for its accurate experimental determination. Blade-by-blade impact tests according to a patented approach are used for this purpose. From the research point of view, it is most interesting to determine both the effect s/g-instrumentation and assembling the compressor stages on blade frequency mistuning. That is why experimental mistuning tests carried out immediately after manufacturing the blisk are repeated twice, namely, after s/g instrumentation and after assembling. To complete the pre-test program, the pure mechanical damping and modal damping ratios dependent on the ambient pressure are experimentally determined inside a pressure vessel. Subsequently the mistuning data gained before is used for updating subset of nominal system mode (SNM) models. Aerodynamic influence coefficients (AICs) are implemented to take aeroelastic interaction into account for forced response analyses. Within a comparison of different models, it is shown for the fundamental flap mode (1F) that the s/g instrumentation significantly affects the forced response, whereas the impact of assembling the compressor plays a minor role.

Forced Response Reduction of a Blisk by Means of Intentional Mistuning

The effect of intentional mistuning has been analyzed for an axial turbocharger blisk with the objective of limiting the forced response due to low engine order excitation (LEO). The idea behind the approach was to increase the aerodynamic damping for the most critical fundamental mode in a way that a safe operation is ensured without severely losing aerodynamic performance. Apart from alternate mistuning, a more effective mistuning pattern is investigated, which has been derived by means of optimization employing genetic algorithms. In order to keep the manufacturing effort as small as possible, only two blade different geometries have been allowed, which means that an integer optimization problem has been formulated. Two blisk prototypes have been manufactured for purpose of demonstrating the benefit of the intentional mistuning pattern identified in this way: A first one with and a second one without employing intentional mistuning. The real mistuning of the prototypes has been experimentally identified. It is shown that the benefit regarding the forced response reduction is retained in spite of the negative impact of unavoidable additional mistuning due to the manufacturing process. Independently, further analyzes have been focused on the robustness of the solution by considering increasing random structural mistuning and aerodynamic mistuning as well. The latter one has been modeled by means of varying aerodynamic influence coefficients (AIC) as part of Monte Carlo simulations. Reduced order models have been employed for these purposes.

Forced Response Analyses of Mistuned Radial Inflow Turbines

Radial turbine wheels designed as blade integrated disks (blisk) are widely used in various industrial applications. However, related to the introduction of exhaust gas turbochargers in the field of small and medium sized engines, a sustainable demand for radial turbine wheels has come along. Despite those blisks being state of the art, a number of fundamental problems, mainly referring to fluid-structure-interaction and, therefore, to the vibration behavior, have been reported. Aiming to achieve an enhanced understanding of fluid-structure-interaction in radial turbine wheels, a numerical method, able to predict forced responses of mistuned blisks due to aerodynamic excitation, is presented. In a first step, the unsteady aerodynamic forcing is determined by modeling the spiral casing, the stator vanes, and the rotor blades of the entire turbine stage. In a second step, the aerodynamic damping induced by blade vibration is computed using a harmonic balance technique. The structure itself is represented by a reduced order model being extended by aerodynamic damping effects and aerodynamic forcings. Mistuning is introduced by adjusting the modal stiffness matrix based on results of blade by blade measurements that have been performed at rest. In order to verify the numerical method, the results are compared with strain-gauge data obtained during rig-tests. As a result, a measured low engine order excitation was found by modeling the spiral casing. Furthermore, a localization phenomenon due to frequency mistuning could be proven. The predicted amplitudes are close to the measured data.

Numerical Simulation of Low Engine Order Excitation in a Transonic Compressor

A full-annulus unsteady quasi-3D simulation for a transonic compressor was conducted to investigate the low engine order excitation sources. A special inlet total pressure distortion was used in the simulation to account for the effect of non-axisymmetric tip clearance. The unsteady aerodynamic forces were obtained by integrating the static pressure along the blade surface. Furthermore, the effect of downstream rotor detached shock on upstream stator was analyzed. It was shown that the unsteady aerodynamic excitation of the rotor was subjected to the first two harmonic frequencies of the inlet distortion, and the adjacent stators’ basic frequency and lower harmonics. It was found that the detached shock had a significant impact on the surface static pressure distribution of the upstream stators.

Multibladerow Forced Response Modeling in Axial-Flow Core Compressors

This paper describes the formulation and application of an advanced numerical model for the simulation of blade-passing and low-engine order forced response in turbomachinery core compressors. The Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes equations are used to represent the flow in a nonlinear time-accurate fashion on unstructured meshes of mixed elements. The structural model is based on a standard finite-element representation. The fluid mesh is moved at each time step according to the structural motion so that changes in blade aerodynamic damping and flow unsteadiness can be accommodated automatically. A whole-annulus 5-bladerow forced response calculation, where three upstream and one downstream bladerows were considered in addition to the rotor bladerow of interest, was undertaken using over 20 million grid points. The results showed not only some potential shortcomings of equivalent 2-bladerow computations for the determination of the main blade-passing forced response, but also revealed the potential importance of low engine-order harmonics. Such harmonics, due to stator blade number differences, or arising from common symmetric sectors, can only be taken into account by including all stator bladerows of interest. The low engine-order excitation that could arise from a blocked passage was investigated next. It was shown that high vibration response could arise in such cases.

Low-Engine-Order Excitation Mechanisms in Axial-Flow Turbomachinery

One particular regime of forced response, occurring at much lower frequencies than the blade-passing frequency, is the so-called low-engine-order (LEO) forced response. The source of LEO excitation is a loss of symmetry in the flow, such as that caused by stator blade throat width variations, flow exit angle variations, perturbations in the passage cooling flow,or temperature distortions. Using a 3D integrated time-domain aeroelasticity code, parametric forced response studies were conducted for a high-pressure turbine stage with 36 stator and 90 rotor blades. Both whole-annulus and sector models were used to investigate the effects of individual and combined LEO parameters. For individual parameters, the amplitude of the excitation was, proportional to the imposed variation. For combined cases, the total excitation was found to be determined by the phasing between the individual excitations. A ballpark comparison suggested that LEO and blade-passing forced response vibration amplitudes were similar for typical variations of the controlling LEO parameters.