Tip clearance effect on high-pressure compressor stage matching

Domercq, O.; Escuret, J. F.

doi:10.1243/09576509jpe468

Cited by 23 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Results showed that the increment in tip gap gradually affected the performance of the unswept blade while the effect was very high for the swept rotors. While carrying out study on high pressure compressor stage matching, Domercq and Escuret [8] and ZhengXian et al [9] deduced that the tip clearance flows and its gap variation have a major impact on performance and stability of high pressure compressors. Tang et al [10] predicted similar behaviour of loss in performance with an increase in tip clearance and they reported an optimum clearance of 6 μm for their specific design.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of tip clearance and rotor–stator axial gap on the efficiency of a multistage compressor

Danish

Qureshi

Imran

et al. 2016

Applied Thermal Engineering

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Multistage compressor is the most important constituent of gas turbines used in land, naval and aeronautical applications. Overall performance of such machinery depends mainly on the axial compressor performance. Due to the relative motion between rotor and stator blades, the flow field in this machinery is highly unsteady. Furthermore several technological effects like tip clearances, complexity of the blade shapes, variation of axial distance between stator and rotor, seal leakages and cooling holes among others complicate the machine. Therefore the study of a complicated, strongly threedimensional flow field inside a compressor is considered to be one of the most difficult tasks to be performed by a CFD expert. The present work is the extensive numerical study of the effect of: (1) tip clearance of rotor blades and (2) the axial gap between rotor and stator on the overall performance of a multistage axial compressor. A commercial software package is used for this study. Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations are solved using Spalart-Allmaras model. A number of steady-state viscous flow simulations were run for both the tip clearance effect and different axial gaps between stator and rotor. All simulations were performed for the first stage, i.e. Stator-Rotor-Stator. Simulations were carried out with coarse, medium and fine meshes to find an optimum, meshindependent solution. It has been found that larger tip clearance has a detrimental effect on the stage pressure ratio and efficiency of a multistage axial compressor. Similarly there exists a certain distance ratio between the stator1-rotor and rotor-stator2, where stage performance is optimum. Overall performance characteristics obtained through simulation for both the tip clearance and axial gap variation were also compared with the experimental studies and found to be in good agreement.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of tip clearance and rotor–stator axial gap on the efficiency of a multistage compressor

Danish

Qureshi

Imran

et al. 2016

Applied Thermal Engineering

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“…Moreover, the behaviors of the endwall 3D separation flow could vary significantly as the operating conditions change, including mass-flow rate and rotating speed [1,[13][14][15]. Among the varied influencing factors in multistage environments, the rotor tip clearance flow always plays the most important role in compressor blade row matching [16]. In the experimental work of Ivey et al [17,18], they found that increased rotor tip clearance resulted in significant changes in the performance of the downstream stator.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental investigation of the effect of rotor tip gaps on 3D separating flows inside the stator of a highly loaded compressor stage

Liu

et al. 2016

Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science

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Flow separations in compressor blade passages are common and can cause significant flow blockage and loss production. This paper investigates experimentally the three-dimensional (3D) flow separations in a highly loaded low-speed large-scale compressor facility. Oil flow visualizations, stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (SPIV), and five-hole probe measurements are conducted at certain conditions from the near-chock to near-stall condition along the compressor operating line. The 3D separation and vortex flow structures in the stator at different operating conditions are analyzed. By changing the size of the rotor tip gap, six groups of oil-flow pictures are obtained to study the effect of the rotor gaps on the 3D separating flows in the downstream stator. The variation of the corner separation scale is almost linear with the rotor tip gap size. Along the compressor operating line, four typical 3D flow structures are found inside the stator passage. Between the second typical 3D flow structure and the third typical 3D flow structure, an unstable stage exists on the compressor operating line; during this stage, the hub corner separation becomes an open separation from the closed type. A smaller rotor tip gap corresponds to an earlier unstable stage. Finally, a critical rotor tip blockage state usually existed for the transform of corner separation types at a certain rotor tip gap configuration. This discovery is valuable for the study of multistage compressor matching problems at off-design conditions.

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“…First, overall performance is largely impacted by the matching conditions between the successive rotor and stator rows (''time-averaged'' flow effects). For instance, rotor tip clearance variations and end-wall flows affect both efficiency [12] and aerodynamic stability [9,26]. Then, relative motions between fixed and rotating parts induce periodic unsteady flows that also modify overall performance, aerodynamic stability and the development of secondary flows [2,3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prediction of the unsteady turbulent flow in an axial compressor stage. Part 1: Comparison of unsteady RANS and LES with experiments

Gourdain

2015

Computers & Fluids

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a b s t r a c tA better understanding of turbulent unsteady flows is a necessary step towards a breakthrough in the design of modern gas turbine components. With the increase in computing power, LES emerges as a promising method to improve both knowledge of complex physics and reliability of flow solver predictions. However, there is still a lack of evidences in the literature that LES is applicable for turbomachinery at conditions relevant to industrial applications. In that context, the objective of the present work is to investigate the capability of LES to predict the turbulent flow in a stage of an axial compressor and compare the results with unsteady RANS data and experiments. The compressor operates at industrial relevant conditions, with Mach and Reynolds numbers equal to M ¼ 0:5 and Re ¼ 7 Â 10 5 , respectively. This paper presents the numerical method and a comparison of URANS and LES results to experimental data. A particular care is brought to estimate the results sensitivity to grid refinement (LES) and to turbulence and transition modelling (URANS). The comparison to experiments shows that LES better predicts time-dependent quantities than URANS, especially close to the casing. However, both URANS and LES fail to accurately estimate the compressor performance (efficiency and pressure ratio).

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Tip clearance effect on high-pressure compressor stage matching

Cited by 23 publications

References 3 publications

Effect of tip clearance and rotor–stator axial gap on the efficiency of a multistage compressor

Effect of tip clearance and rotor–stator axial gap on the efficiency of a multistage compressor

Experimental investigation of the effect of rotor tip gaps on 3D separating flows inside the stator of a highly loaded compressor stage

Prediction of the unsteady turbulent flow in an axial compressor stage. Part 1: Comparison of unsteady RANS and LES with experiments

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