No abstract

Novel pressure gain combustion concepts invoke periodic flow disturbances in a gas turbine's last compressor stator row. This contribution presents studies of mitigation efforts on the effects of periodic disturbances on an annular compressor stator rig. The passages were equipped with pneumatic active flow control influencing the stator blade's suction side, and a rotating throttling disc downstream of the passages inducing periodic disturbances. For steady blowing, it is shown that with increasing actuation amplitudes $c_\mu$, a hub corner vortex's extension deteriorating the suction side flow can be reduced, resulting in an increased static pressure rise coefficient~$C_p$ of a passage. The effects of the induced periodic disturbances could not be addressed, by using steady blowing actuation. Considering a corrected total pressure loss coefficient $\zeta^*$, which includes the actuation effort, the stator row's efficiency decreases with higher $c_\mu$. Therefore, a closed-loop approach is presented to address the effects of the disturbances more specifically, thus lowering the actuation effort. For this, a Repetitive Model Predictive Control (RMPC) was applied, taking advantage of the disturbance's periodic nature. The presented RMPC formulation is restricted to a binary control domain to account for the used solenoid valves' switching character. An efficient implementation of the optimization within the RMPC is presented, which ensures real-time capability. As a result, $C_p$ increases in a similar magnitude but with a lower actuation mass flow of up to 66\,\%, resulting in a much lower~$\zeta^*$ for similar values of $c_\mu$.

In many actively controlled processes, such as active flow or combustion control, a set of actuation parameters has to be specified, ranging from actuation frequency to pulse width to geometrical parameters such as actuator spacing. As a specific example, impingement cooling is considered here. Finding the optimal parameters for impingement cooling with steady-state measurements is a time consuming process because of the necessary time to reach thermal equilibrium. This work presents an algorithm for fast extremum seeking to reduce the amount of time needed. It is inspired by an Extremum Seeking Controller, which is a simple but powerful feedback control technique. The first results using this concept are promising, as the magnitude of the optimal pulse frequency for the cooling efficiency of pulsed impingement jets could be found with sufficient precision in a short period of time. The main advantages of this concept are the simple execution on a test rig, its versatility, and the fact that almost no information about the investigated system is necessary.

Novel pressure gain combustion concepts invoke periodic flow disturbances in a gas turbine’s last compressor stator row. This contribution presents studies of mitigation efforts on the effects of these periodic disturbances on an annular compressor stator rig. The passages were equipped with pneumatic Active Flow Control (AFC) influencing the stator blade’s suction side, and a rotating throttling disc downstream of the passages inducing periodic disturbances. For steady blowing, it is shown that with increasing actuation amplitudes Cμ, the extension of a hub corner vortex deteriorating the suction side flow can be reduced, resulting in an increased static pressure rise coefficient Cp of a passage. The effects of the induced periodic disturbances could not be addressed intrinsically, by using steady blowing actuation, Considering a corrected total pressure loss coefficient ζ*, which includes the actuation effort, the stator row’s efficiency decreases with higher cμ due to the increasing costs of the actuation mass flow. Therefore, a closed-loop approach is presented to address the effects of the disturbances more specifically, thus lowering the actuation cost, i.e., mass flow. For this, a Repetitive Model Predictive Control (RMPC) was applied, taking advantage of the periodic nature of the induced disturbances. The presented RMPC formulation is restricted to a binary control domain to account for the used solenoid valves’ switching character. An efficient implementation of the optimization within the RMPC is presented, which ensures real-time capability. As a result, Cp increases in a similar magnitude but with a lower actuation mass flow of up to 66%, resulting in a much lower ζ* for similar values of cμ.