Blade row interaction in a high pressure steam turbine

This paper presents a study of the three-dimensional flow field within the blade rows of a high-pressure axial flow steam turbine stage. Compound lean angles have been employed to achieve relatively low blade loading for hub and tip section and so reduce the secondary losses. The flow field is investigated in a Low-Speed Research Turbine using pneumatic and hot-wire probes downstream of the blade row. Steady and unsteady numerical simulations were performed using structured 3D Navier-Stokes solver to further understand the flow field. Agreement between the simulations and the measurements has been found. The unsteady measurements indicate that there is a significant effect of the stator flow interaction in the downstream rotor blade. The transport of the stator viscous flow through the rotor blade row is described. Unsteady numerical simulations were found to be successful in predicting accurately the flow near the secondary flow interaction regions compared to steady simulations. A method to calculate the unsteady loss generated inside the blade row was developed from the steady numerical simulations. The contribution of various regions in the blade to the unsteady loss generation was evaluated. This method can assist the designer in identifying and optimizing the features of the flow that are responsible for the majority of the unsteady loss production. An analytical model was developed to quantify this effect for the vortex transport inside the downstream blade.

Wake, shock and potential field interactions in a 1.5 stage turbine: Part I: Vane-rotor and rotor-vane interaction

The composition of the time-resolved surface pressure field around a high-pressure rotor blade caused by the presence of neighboring blade rows was studied, with the individual effects of wake, shock and potential field interaction being determined. Two test geometries were considered: first, a high-pressure turbine stage coupled with a swan-necked diffuser exit duct; secondly, the same high-pressure stage but with a vane located in the downstream duct. Both tests were carried out at engine-representative Mach and Reynolds numbers. By comparing the results to time-resolved computational predictions of the flowfield, the accuracy with which the computation predicts blade interaction was determined. It was found that in addition to upstream vane-rotor and rotor-downstream vane interactions, a new interaction mechanism was found resulting from the interaction between the downstream vane's potential field and the upstream vane's trailing edge potential field and shock.

Wake, shock and potential field interactions in a 1.5 stage turbine: Part II: Vane-vane interaction and discussion of results

The composition of the time-resolved surface pressure field around a high-pressure rotor blade caused by the presence of neighboring blade rows was studied, with the individual effects of wake, shock and potential field interaction being determined. Two test geometries were considered: first, a high-pressure turbine stage coupled with a swan-necked diffuser exit duct; secondly, the same high-pressure stage but with a vane located in the downstream duct. Both tests were carried out at engine-representative Mach and Reynolds numbers. By comparing the results to time-resolved computational predictions of the flowfield, the accuracy with which the computation predicts blade interaction was determined. Evidence was obtained that for a large downstream vane, the flow conditions in the rotor passage, at any instant in time, are close to being steady state.

Influence of the state of the inlet endwall boundary layer on the interaction between pressure surface separation and endwall flows

This paper describes the effect of the state of the inlet boundary layer (laminar or turbulent) on the structure of the endwall flow on two different profiles of low-pressure (LP) turbine blades (solid thin and hollow thick). At present the state of the endwall boundary layer at the inlet of a real LP turbine is not known. The intention of this paper is to show that, for different designs of LP turbine, the state of the inlet boundary layer affects the performance of the blade in very different ways. The testing was completed at low speed in a linear cascade using area traversing, flow visualization and static pressure measurements. The paper shows that, for a laminar inlet boundary layer, the two profiles have a similar loss distribution and structure of endwall flow. However, for a turbulent inlet boundary layer the two profiles are shown to differ significantly in both the total loss and endwall flow structure. The pressure side separation bubble on the solid thin profile is shown to interact with the passage vortex, causing a higher endwall loss than that measured on the hollow thick profile.

Secondary flows and loss caused by blade row interaction in a turbine stage

A study of the three-dimensional stator-rotor interaction in a turbine stage is presented. Experimental data reveal vortices downstream of the rotor which are stationary in the absolute frame - indicating that they are caused by the stator exit flowfield. Evidence of the rotor hub passage vortices is seen, but additional vortical structures away from the endwalls, which would not be present if the rotor were tested in isolation, are also identified. An unsteady computation of the rotor row is performed using the measured stator exit flowfield as the inlet boundary condition. The strength and location of the vortices at rotor exit are predicted. A formation mechanism is proposed whereby stator wake fluid with steep spanwise gradients of absolute total pressure is responsible for all but one of the rotor exit vortices. This mechanism is then verified computationally using a passive-scalar tracking technique. The predicted loss generation through the rotor row is then presented and a comparison made with a steady calculation where the inlet flow has been mixed out to pitchwise uniformity. The loss produced in the steady simulation, even allowing for the mixing loss at inlet, is 10% less than that produced in the unsteady simulation. This difference highlights the importance of the time-accurate calculation as a tool of the turbomachine designer.

Dem analysis of soil-pipeline interaction in sand under lateral and upward movements at deep embedment

The soil-pipeline interactions under lateral and upward pipe movements in sand are investigated using DEM analysis. The simulations are performed for both medium and dense sand conditions at different embedment ratios of up to 60. The comparison of peak dimensionless forces from the DEM and earlier FEM analyses shows that, for medium sand, both methods show similar peak dimensionless forces. For dense sand, the DEM analysis gives more gradual transition of shallow to deep failure mechanisms than the FEM analysis and the peak dimensionless forces at very deep depth are higher in the DEM analysis than in the FEM analysis. Comparison of the deformation mechanism suggests that this is due to the differences in soil movements around the pipe associated with its particulate nature. The DEM analysis provides supplementary data of the soil-pipeline interaction in sand at deep embedment condition.

Shock / boundary-layer interaction control using three-dimensional bumps for transonic wings

Three-dimensional bumps have been developed and investigated, aiming at the two major objectives of shock-wave / boundary-layer interaction control, i.e. drag reduction and suppression of separation, simultaneously. An experimental investigation has been conducted for a default rounded bump in channel now at University of Cambridge and a computational study has been performed for a spanwise series of rounded bumps mounted on a transonic aerofoil at University of Stuttgart. Observed in both cases are wave drag reduction owing to A-shock structures produced by three-dimensional surface bumps and mild control effects on the boundary layer. The effects of rough surface and tall extension have been investigated as well as several geometric variations and multiple bump configurations. A double configuration of narrow rounded bumps has been found to best perform amongst the tested, considerably reducing wave drag through a well-established A-shock structure with little viscous penalty and thus achieving substantial overall drag reduction. Counter-rotating streamwise vortex pairs have been produced by some configurations as a result of local flow separation, but they have been observed to be confined in relatively narrow wake regions, expected to be beneficial in suppressing large-scale separation under off-design condition despite increase of viscous drag. On the whole a large potential of three-dimensional control with discrete rounded bumps has been demonstrated both experimentally and numerically, and experimental investigation of bumps fitted on a transonic aerofoil or wing is suggested toward practical application.

Experimental investigation of 3D shock / boundary layer interaction control in transonic flows

A novel supersonic wind tunnel setup is proposed to enable the investigation of control on a normal shock wave. Previous experimental arrangements were found to suffer from shock instability. Wind tunnel tests with and without control have confirmed the capability of the new setup to stabilise a shock structure at a target position without changing the nature of the shock wave / boundary layer interaction flow at M∞ = 1.3 and M ∞ = 1.5. Flow visualisation and pressure measurements with the new setup have revealed detailed characteristics of shock wave / boundary layer interactions and a λ-shock structure as well as benefits of control in total drag reduction in the presence of 3D bump control.

Laser-vapour interaction in high-power cw Nd:YAG laser welding

During high-power cw Nd:YAG laser welding a vapour plume is formed containing vaporised material ejected from the keyhole. Spectroscopic studies of the vapour emission have demonstrated that the vapour can be considered as thermally excited gas with a stable temperature (less than 3000K), not as partially ionised plasma. In this paper, a review of temperatures in the vapour plume is presented. The difficulties in the analysis of the plume spectroscopic results are reviewed and explained. It is shown that particles present in the vapour interact with the laser beam, attenuating it. The attenuation can be calculated with Mie scattering theory, however, vaporisation and particle formation also both play a major role in this process. The laser beam is also defocused due to the scattering part of the attenuation mechanism, changing the energy density in the laser beam. Methods for mitigating the effects of the laser beam-vapour interaction, using control gases, are presented together with their advantages and disadvantages. This 'plume control' has two complementary roles: firstly, the gas must divert the vapour plume from out of the laser beam path, preventing the attenuation. Secondly, the gas has to stabilise the front wall of the keyhole, to prevent porosity formation.

Species interaction between carp species in polyculture system

A three months experiment was conducted to study the species interactions of two carp species in polyculture system under supplemental feeding. Four species of fishes such as silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix), mrigal (Cirrhina cirrhosus), catla (Catla catla) and common carp (Cyprinus carpio) were cultured in four different combinations each containing two species. The combination of silver carp and mrigal in treatment 1, and silver carp and common carp in treatment 2 resulted better growth and production than other two treatments of different combinations of catla and common carp, and catla and mrigal.

Computational fluid-structure interaction methods for simulation of inflatable aerodynamic decelerators

Inflatable aerodynamic decelerators have potential advantages for planetary re-entry in robotic and human exploration missions. It is theorized that volume-mass characteristics of these decelerators are superior to those of common supersonic/subsonic parachutes and after deployment they may suffer no instabilities at high Mach numbers. A high fidelity computational fluid-structure interaction model is employed to investigate the behavior of tension cone inflatable aeroshells at supersonic speeds up to Mach 2.0. The computational framework targets the large displacements regime encountered during the inflation of the decelerator using fast level set techniques to incorporate boundary conditions of the moving structure. The preliminary results indicate large but steady aeroshell displacement with rich dynamics, including buckling of the inflatable torus that maintains the decelerator open under normal operational conditions, owing to interactions with the turbulent wake. Copyright © 2009 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc.

Assessment of CFD models for shock boundary-layer interaction

A workshop on the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) prediction of shock boundary-layer interactions (SBLIs) was held at the 48th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting. As part of the workshop numerous CFD analysts submitted solutions to four experimentally measured SBLIs. This paper describes the assessment of the CFD predictions. The assessment includes an uncertainty analysis of the experimental data, the definition of an error metric and the application of that metric to the CFD solutions. The CFD solutions provided very similar levels of error and in general it was difficult to discern clear trends in the data. For the Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes methods the choice of turbulence model appeared to be the largest factor in solution accuracy. Large-eddy simulation methods produced error levels similar to RANS methods but provided superior predictions of normal stresses.

Fluid-structure interaction simulation of an inflatable aerodynamic tension-cone decelerator

Inflatable aerodynamic decelerators have potential advantages for planetary re-entry in robotic and human exploration missions. In this paper, we focus on an inflatable tension cone design that has potential advantages over other geometries. A computational fluid-structure interaction model of a tension cone is employed to investigate the behavior of the inflatable aeroshell at supersonic speeds for conditions matching recent experimental results. A parametric study is carried out to investigate the deflections of the tension cone as a function of inflation pressure of the torus at a Mach of 2.5. Comparison of the behavior of the structure, amplitude of deformations, and determined loads are reported. © 2010 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc.