Development of blade profiles for low pressure turbine applications

This paper describes a program of work, largely experimental, which was undertaken with the objective of developing an improved blade profile for the low-pressure turbine in aero-engine applications. Preliminary experiments were conducted using a novel technique. An existing cascade of datum blades was modified to enable the pressure distribution on the suction surface of one of the blades to be altered. Various means, such as shaped inserts, an adjustable flap at the trailing edge, and changing stagger were employed to change the geometry of the passage. These experiments provided boundary layer and lift data for a wide range of suction surface pressure distributions. The data was then used as a guide for the development of new blade profiles. The new blade profiles were then investigated in a low-speed cascade that included a set of moving bars upstream of the cascade of blades to simulate the effect of the incoming wakes from the previous blade row in a multistage turbine environment.

Three-dimensional SBLI control for transonic airfoils

The application of shock control to transonic airfoils and wings has been demonstrated widely to have the potential to reduce wave drag. Most of the suggested control devices are two-dimensional, that is they are of uniform geometry in spanwise direction. Examples of such techniques include contour bumps and passive control. Recently it has been observed that a spanwise array of discrete three-dimensional controls can have similar benefits but also offer advantages in terms of installation complexity and drag. This paper describes research carried out in Cambridge into various three-dimensional devices, such as slots, grooves and bumps. In all cases the control device is applied to the interaction of a normal shock wave (M=1.3) with a turbulent boundary layer. Theoretical considerations are proposed to determine how such fundamental experiments can provide estimates of control performance on a transonic wing. The potential of each class of three-dimensional device for wave drag reduction on airfoils is discussed and surface bumps in particular are identified as offering potential drag savings for typical transonic wing applications under cruise conditions.

Challenges in the Silent Aircraft engine design

The Silent Aircraft Initiative goal is to design an aircraft that is imperceptible above background noise outside the airport boundary. The aircraft that fulfils this objective must also be economically competitive with conventional aircraft of the future and therefore fuel consumption and mechanical reliability are key considerations for the design. To meet these ambitious targets, a multi-fan embedded turbofan engine with boundary layer ingestion has been proposed. This configuration includes several new technologies including a variable area nozzle, a complex high-power transmission system, a Low Pressure turbine designed for low-noise, an axial-radial HP compressor, advanced acoustic liners and a low-speed fan optimized for both cruise and off-design operation. These technologies, in combination, enable a low-noise and fuel efficient propulsion system but they also introduce significant challenges into the design. These challenges include difficulties in predicting the noise and performance of the new components but there are also challenges in reducing the design risks and proving that the new concepts are realizable. This paper presents the details of the engine configuration that has been developed for the Silent Aircraft application. It describes the design approach used for the critical components and discusses the benefits of the new technologies. The new technologies are expected to offer significant benefits in noise reduction without compromising fuel burn. However, more detailed design and further research are required to fully control the additional risks generated by the system complexity.

Micro-vortex generator flow control for supersonic engine inlets

To investigate the flow control potential of micro-vortex generators for supersonic mixed-compression inlets, a basic model experiment has been designed which combines a normal shock wave with a subsonic diffuser. The diffuser is formed by a simple expansion corner, with a divergence angle of 6 degrees. The diffuser entry Mach numbers were M=1.3 and M=1.5 and a number of shock locations relative to the corner position were tested. Flow control was applied in the form of counter-rotating micro-vanes with heights of approximately 20% of boundary layer thickness. Furthermore, corner fences where employed to reduce sidewall effects. It was found that micro-vortex generators were able to significantly reduce the extent of flow separation under all conditions, but could not eliminate it altogether. Corner fences also demonstrated potential for improving the flow in rectangular cross section channels and the combination of corner fences with micro-vortex generators was found to give the greatest benefits. At M=1.3 the combination of corner fences and micro-vanes placed close to the diffuser entry could prevent separation for a wide range of conditions. At the higher diffuser entry Mach number the benefits of flow control were less significant although a reduction of separation size and an improved pressure recovery was observed. It is thought that micro-vortex generators can have significant flow control potential if they are placed close to the expected separation onset and when the adverse pressure gradient is not too far above the incipient separation level. The significant beneficial effects of corner fences warrant a more comprehensive further investigation. It is thought that the control methods suggested here are capable of reducing the bleed requirement on an inlet, which could provide significant performance advantages.

Compressor wake/leading-edge interactions at off design incidences

In this paper, the effects of wake/leading-edge interactions were studied at off-design conditions. Measurements were performed on the stator-blade suction surface at midspan. The leading-edge flow-field was investigated using hotwire micro-traverses, hotfilm surface shear-stress sensors and pressure micro-tappings. The trailing-edge flow-field was investigated using hotwire boundary-layer traverses. Unsteady CFD calculations were also performed to aid the interpretation of the results. At low flow coefficients, the time-averaged momentum thickness of the leading-edge boundary layer was found to rise as the flow coefficient was reduced. The time-resolved momentum-thickness rose due to the interaction of the incoming rotor wake. As the flow coefficient was reduced, the incoming wakes increased in pitch-wise extent, velocity deficit and turbulence intensity. This increased both the time-resolved rise in the momentum thickness and the turbulent spot production within the wake affected boundary-layer. Close to stall, a drop in the leading-edge momentum thickness was observed in-between wake events. This was associated with the formation of a leading-edge separation bubble in-between wake events. The wake interaction with the bubble gave rise to a shedding phenomenon, which produced large length scale disturbances in the surface shear stress. Copyright © 2008 by ASME.

The elastic-plastic indentation response of a columnar thermal barrier coating

Thermal barrier coatings with a columnar microstructure are prone to erosion damage by a mechanism of surface cracking upon impact by small foreign particles. In order to explore this erosion mechanism, the elastic indentation and the elastic-plastic indentation responses of a columnar thermal barrier coating to a spherical indenter were determined by the finite element method and by analytical models. It was shown that the indentation response is intermediate between that of a homogeneous half-space and that given by an elastic-plastic mattress model (with the columns behaving as independent non-linear springs). The sensitivity of the indentation behaviour to geometry and to the material parameters was explored: the diameter of the columns, the gap width between columns, the coefficient of Coulomb friction between columns and the layer height of the thermal barrier coating. The calculations revealed that the level of induced tensile stress is sufficient to lead to cracking of the columns at a depth of about the column radius. It was also demonstrated that the underlying soft bond coat can undergo plastic indentation when the coating comprises parallel columns, but this is less likely for the more realistic case of a random arrangement of tapered columns. © 2009 Elsevier B.V.

Velocity distributions for low pressure turbines

A parametric set of velocity distributions has been investigated using a flat plate experiment. Three different diffusion factors and peak velocity locations were tested. These were designed to mimic the suction surfaces of Low Pressure (LP) turbine blades. Unsteady wakes, inherent in real turbomachinery flows, were generated using a moving bar mechanism. A turbulence grid generated a freestream turbulence level that is believed to be typical of LP turbines. Measurements were taken across a Reynolds number range of 50,000-220,000 at three reduced frequencies (0.314, 0.628, 0.942). Boundary layer traverses were performed at the nominal trailing edge using a Laser Doppler Anemometry system and hot-films were used to examine the boundary layer behaviour along the surface. For every velocity distribution tested, the boundary layer separated in the diffusing flow downstream of the peak velocity. The loss production is dominated by the mixing in the reattachment process, mixing in the turbulent boundary layer downstream of reattachment and the effects of the unsteady interaction between the wakes and the boundary layer. A sensitive balance governs the optimal location of peak velocity on the surface. Moving the velocity peak forwards on the blade was found to be increasingly beneficial when bubblegenerated losses are high, i.e. at low Reynolds number, at low reduced frequency and at high levels of diffusion. Copyright © 2008 by ASME.

Detached-eddy simulation of transonic flow past a fan-blade section

Detached-eddy simulation of transonic flow past a thin section of a fan blade has been carried out. The inflow Mach number is 1.03, and a bow shock forms upstream of the blade. The shock (corresponding to an adjacent blade) impinges on the suction-side boundary layer which causes separation and rapid transition to turbulence. The boundary layer later re-attaches near the trailing edge. The pressure-side boundary layer transitions near the leading edge and remains attached. Mean surface pressure shows basic agreement with a steady RANS calculation; strong shock motion in the DES is the major cause of discrepancy. Surface pressure spectra are investigated, and low-frequency two-dimensional disturbances associated with the shock motion are dominant. Removing the two-dimensional component from the spectra, the pressure-side three-dimensional spectra reproduce the spectral shape given by a correlation for flat-plate boundary layer wall-pressure spectra developed by Goody. 1 The suction-side disturbances produce similar high- and intermediate-frequency scalings despite substantially different boundary layer development. Near-wake results show that disturbance kinetic energy peaks at the suction-side inflection point of the mean profile, and that the energy is concentrated at low frequencies relative to the near-trailing edge surface pressure. Copyright © 2009 by the authors.

An experimental and numerical study of an oscillating transonic shock wave in a duct

A combined experimental and numerical study of a transonic shock wave in a parallel walled duct subject to downstream pressure perturbations has been conducted. Experiments and simulations have been carried out with a shock strength of M∞ = 1.4 for pressure perturbation frequencies in the range 16-90 Hz. The dynamics of unsteady shock motion and the interaction structure between the unsteady transonic shock wave and the turbulent tunnel floor boundary layer have been investigated. It is found that the (experimentally measured) dynamics of shock motion are generally well predicted by the computational scheme, especially at relatively low (≈ 40 Hz) frequencies. However, at higher frequencies (≈ 90 Hz), some subtle differences between the shock dynamics measured in experiments and those predicted by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) exist. There is evidence from experiments that variations in shock / boundary layer interaction (SBLI) structure caused by shock motion are responsible for a change in the nature of shock dynamics between low and high frequency. In contrast, numerical results at low and high frequencies do not differ significantly and this suggests that the numerical method is not fully capturing the physics of the unsteady flow. Possible reasons for this are considered and a number of areas where CFD is unable to replicate experimental observations are identified. Significantly, CFD predicts changes in SBLI structure due to shock motion that are much too large and this may explain why none of the subtle effects on shock dynamics seen in experiments occur in CFD. Further work developing numerical methods that demonstrate a more realistic sensitivity of SBLI structure to unsteady shock motion is required. Copyright © 2010 by P.J.K. Bruce.

Corner effect and asymmetry in transonic channel flows

An experimental and numerical investigation into transonic shock/boundary-layer interactions in rectangular ducts has been performed. Experiments have shown that flow development in the corners of transonic shock/boundary-layer interactions in confined channels can have a significant impact on the entire flowfield. As shock strength is increased from M∞ = 1:3 to 1.5, the flowfield becomes very slightly asymmetrical. The interaction of corner flows with one another is thought to be a potential cause of this asymmetry. Thus, factors that govern the size of corner interactions (such as interaction strength) and their proximity to one another (such as tunnel aspect ratio) can affect flow symmetry. The results of the computational study show reasonable agreement with experiments, although simulations with particular turbulence models predict highly asymmetrical solutions for flows that were predominantly symmetrical in experiments. These discrepancies are attributed to the tendency of numerical schemes to overprediction corner-interaction size, and this also accounts for why computational fluid dynamics predicts the onset of asymmetry at lower shock strengths than in experiments. The findings of this study highlight the importance of making informed decisions about imposing artificial constraints on symmetry and boundary conditions for internal transonic flows. Future effort into modeling corner flows accurately is required. Copyright © 2011 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. All rights reserved.

Frictional flow of damp granular material in a conical centrifuge

An analysis is given of velocity and pressure-dependent sliding flow of a thin layer of damp granular material in a spinning cone. Integral momentum equations for steady state, axisymmetric flow are derived using a boundary layer approximation. These reduce to two coupled first-order differential equations for the radial and circumferential sliding velocities. The influence of viscosity and friction coefficients and inlet boundary conditions is explored by presentation of a range of numerical results. In the absence of any interfacial shear traction the flow would, with increasing radial and circumferential slip, follow a trajectory from inlet according to conservation of angular momentum and kinetic energy. Increasing viscosity or friction reduces circumferential slip and, in general, increases the residence time of a particle in the cone. The residence time is practically insensitive to the inlet velocity. However, if the cone angle is very close to the friction angle then the residence time is extremely sensitive to the relative magnitude of these angles. © 2011 Authors.

Turbulent flow structure in experimental laboratory wind-generated gravity waves

This paper is the third part of a report on systematic measurements and analyses of wind-generated water waves in a laboratory environment. The results of the measurements of the turbulent flow on the water side are presented here, the details of which include the turbulence structure, the correlation functions, and the length and velocity scales. It shows that the mean turbulent velocity profiles are logarithmic, and the flows are hydraulically rough. The friction velocity in the water boundary layer is an order of magnitude smaller than that in the wind boundary layer. The level of turbulence is enhanced immediately beneath the water surface due to micro-breaking, which reflects that the Reynolds shear stress is of the order u *w 2. The vertical velocities of the turbulence are related to the relevant velocity scale at the still-water level. The autocorrelation function in the vertical direction shows features of typical anisotropic turbulence comprising a large range of wavelengths. The ratio between the microscale and macroscale can be expressed as λ/Λ=a Re Λ n, with the exponent n slightly different from -1/2, which is the value when turbulence production and dissipation are in balance. On the basis of the wavelength and turbulent velocity, the free-surface flows in the present experiments fall into the wavy free-surface flow regime. The integral turbulent scale on the water side alone underestimates the degree of disturbance at the free surface. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.

Zonal RANS-LES modeling for turbines in aeroengines

The cost of large-eddy simulation (LES) modeling in various zones of gas turbine aeroengines is outlined. This high cost clearly demonstrates the need to perform hybrid Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes-LES (RANS-LES) over the majority of engine zones because the Reynolds number is too high for pure LES. The RANS layer is used to cover over the fine streaks found in the inner part of the boundary layer. The hybrid strategy is applied to various engine zones, which is shown to typically give much greater predictive accuracy than pure RANS simulations. However, the cost estimates show that the RANS layer should be disposed within the low-pressure turbine zone. Also, the nature of the flow physics in this zone makes LES most sensible. © 2012 by Begell House, Inc.

Mixed nonlinear LES for DES suitable flows

It is shown that a new mixed nonlinear/eddy viscosity LES model reproduces profiles better than a number of competing nonlinear and mixed models for plane channel flow. The objective is an LES method that produces a fully resolved turbulent boundary layer and could be applied to a variety of aerospace problems that are currently studied with RANS, RANS-LES, or DES methods that lack a true turbulent boundary layer. There are two components to the new model. One an eddy viscosity based upon the advected subgrid scale energy and a relatively small coefficient. Second, filtered nonlinear terms based upon the Leray regularization. Coefficients for the eddy viscosity and nonlinear terms come from LES tests in decaying, isotropic turbulence. Using these coefficients, the velocity profile matches measurements data at Reτ ≈ 1000 exactly. Profiles of the components of kinetic energy have the same shape as in the experiment, but the magnitudes differ by about 25%. None of the competing LES gets the shape correct. This method does not require extra operations at the transition between the boundary layer and the interior flow.

Turbine blade tip heat transfer in low speed and high speed flows

In this paper, high and low speed tip flows are investigated for a high-pressure turbine blade. Previous experimental data are used to validate a CFD code, which is then used to study the tip heat transfer in high and low speed cascades. The results show that at engine representative Mach numbers the tip flow is predominantly transonic. Thus, compared to the low speed tip flow, the heat transfer is affected by reductions in both the heat transfer coefficient and the recovery temperature. The high Mach numbers in the tip region (M>1.5) lead to large local variations in recovery temperature. Significant changes in the heat transfer coefficient are also observed. These are due to changes in the structure of the tip flow at high speed. At high speeds, the pressure side corner separation bubble reattachment occurs through supersonic acceleration which halves the length of the bubble when the tip gap exit Mach number is increased from 0.1 to 1.0. In addition, shock/boundary-layer interactions within the tip gap lead to large changes in the tip boundary-layer thickness. These effects give rise to significant differences in the heat-transfer coefficient within the tip region compared to the low-speed tip flow. Compared to the low speed tip flow, the high speed tip flow is much less dominated by turbulent dissipation and is thus less sensitive to the choice of turbulence model. These results clearly demonstrate that blade tip heat transfer is a strong function of Mach number, an important implication when considering the use of low speed experimental testing and associated CFD validation in engine blade tip design. Copyright © 2009 by ASME.