The accuracy by which the compressor performance is estimated plays a major role in predicting the transient performance of a gas turbine Brayton cycle. Numerical prediction has proven to be a valuable tool to reduce development costs of such cycles. This document subsequently discusses the expansion of the well-known Greitzer prediction model used for unstable transient compressor operation. The expansion allows for compressibility effects in the compressor as well as integrating the compressor with a turbine in an open cycle. After this it addresses the effect of flow feedback to the compressor inlet due to a closed cycle configuration. From the one-dimensional form of the conservation laws, three partial differential equations are derived governing the dynamics of fluid flow through the compressor. The simulation results for a simple open cycle configuration compares favorably with that published by Greitzer. A similar approach was used for the closed cycle resulting in an oscillation in compressor inlet pressure due to the feedback from the turbine outlet. The study presents a first step into investigating the possibility of including a generic surge and rotating stall model into an existing software code capable of solving complex thermodynamic systems including turbo-machine cycles.

Rotary compressors such as screw compressors, roots blowers, and turbo compressors are used in industry to compress process gases, or as vacuum or backing pumps to evacuate vessels. Gas is sucked in at low-pressure side, transported and compressed by size-changing chambers (PD machines) or energy transmission from rotor to fluid (turbo machinery), and released at high-pressure side. In expanders or turbines, flow direction is from high to low pressure side to gain energy from pressurized gases. The 3D CFD simulation of such compressors/expanders is complex and time-consuming due to its transient nature and fine meshes to ensure a proper representation of radial and axial gaps in the range of some microns with machine dimensions up to meters. Due to this complexity, 3D CFD simulation should focus on the component, i.e. the compressor, and the attached overall system with vessels, valves, pipes, and consumers should be simulated in a 1D network or system simulation. Due to oscillations in the gas flow and interaction with the connected system a transient coupling is necessary. In this paper we show a 3D CFD simulation of a screw compressor using ANSYS CFX in a co-simulation with the 1D Flownex simulation environment of a network modelling the pressurized gas distribution. Whereas the 3D solver works on meshes with up to several million nodes in parallel on HPC systems, the 1D solver typically works serially on several thousand nodes that discretize the flow direction. The transient coupling is based on the exchange of variables at the boundaries of each simulation for every time step allowing for detailed analysis. The impact of the acoustic propagation of pressure fluctuations and the pulsating fluid flow provided by the compressor on the distribution system, and in return the effects of the system response on the compressor are evaluated. Furthermore transient scenarios such as start-up procedures or component failure will be shown.

Preliminary combustor design usually requires that an extensive number of geometrical and operational conditions be evaluated and compared. During this phase important parameters the designer sought after are typically the mass flow rate distribution through air admission holes, associated pressure losses as well as liner wall temperatures. The process is therefore iterative in nature and can become expensive in terms of engineering analysis cost considering the time required to build and execute 3D CFD models. Network codes have the potential to fill the gap during this stage of the design since they can be setup and solved in timeframes that are orders of magnitude less than comprehensive CFD models, essentially leading to cost savings since overall less time is spent on 3D simulations and rig tests. An additional advantage using this approach is that results from the network solution can be applied as boundary conditions to subsequent more detailed 3D models. In this study a commercial flow network tool, Flownex®, was used to model a complete combustor including flow distribution, combustion and heat transfer. The integrated mass, momentum and energy balance is solved using the continuity, momentum and energy equations applied to nodes and elements. These nodes and elements are the modular building blocks, typically semi-empirical and allow users to either select appropriate built-in correlations, or to define using specific equations through scripting. Flow equations are fully compressible and applied to the gas mixture. The chemical composition of the reactants forming during combustion as well as the adiabatic flame temperature is determined from the NASA CEA package incorporated into the solution. Heat transfer mechanisms included in the model are gas-surface radiation, film convection, forced convection in ducts, surface-surface radiation, and 2D axially-symmetric conduction through solid walls. Results produced from the network were compared with test data obtained from the NASA E3 development combustor. Overall good agreement resulted, showcasing the success of the approach followed.