LES investigation on the dependence of the flow through a centrifugal pump on the diffuser geometry

Large-Eddy Simulation is utilized to investigate the rotor–stator interaction within a centrifugal pump. Comparisons are presented across diffuser geometries for two values of the flow-rate. Decreasing the incidence angle on the diffuser blades at off-design is found the main source of higher pressure rise and lower overall values of turbulent kinetic energy within the pump, resulting in efficiency improvement. The impact on the second-order statistics of the flow is especially significant. However, the values of the pressure fluctuations acting on the diffuser blades, defining fatigue loads on them and cavitation phenomena, are found especially affected by the rotor–stator clearance. Results show that at reduced flow-rates the rotation of the diffuser blades around their mid camber is a better option than rotating them around their leading edge. They also suggest that at larger flow-rates the increased incidence on the diffuser blades causes pressure side separation and large shear layers populating the diffuser channels, not affecting substantially the region of interface between impeller and diffuser, but having detrimental effects on the performance of the latter. The rotation of the diffuser blades around their leading edge should be preferred when the pump operates at flow-rates larger than the design one, avoiding decreasing the rotor–stator gap, thus resulting in smoother rotor–stator interaction and lower pressure fluctuations.     

进口预旋对离心叶轮气动性能影响机理的研究

将理论推导和数值模拟相结合,对典型离心压缩机Eckardt叶轮流场进行分析,探讨了不同进气预旋对叶轮气动性能的影响;从叶片进口攻角、叶尖相对马赫数和流向压力变化的角度,阐述了预旋对内部流动以及气动性能的影响机理。结果表明:预旋角对进口攻角和叶尖相对马赫数同时产生显著影响,正预旋会降低进口来流的攻角及相对马赫数,使叶片前缘载荷降低、叶轮效率及稳定性提升;负预旋会提升叶轮的做功能力,使总压比上升;正预旋由于降低了叶片前部做功能力,使低压流体堆积到叶片中后部,导致总压比下降;叶轮最高效率受叶尖相对马赫数与进口攻角共同影响,若提升效率必须合理协调预旋对二者的影响。     

A Thickened-Hole Model for Large Eddy Simulations over Multiperforated Liners

Flow instabilities such as Rotating Stall and Surge limit the operating range of centrifugal compressors at low mass-flow rates. Employing compressible Large Eddy Simulations (LES), their generation mechanisms are exposed. Toward low mass-flow rate operating conditions, flow reversal over the blade tips (generated by the back pressure) causes an inflection point of the inlet flow profile. There, a shear-layer induces vortical structures circulating at the compressor inlet. Traces of these flow structures are observed until far downstream in the radial diffuser. The tip leakage flow exhibits angular momentum imparted by the impeller, which deteriorates the incidence angles at the blade tips through an over imposed swirling component to the incoming flow. We show that the impeller is incapable to maintain constant efficiency at surge operating conditions due to the extreme alteration of the incidence angle. This induces unsteady flow momentum transfer downstream, which is reflected as compression wave at the compressor outlet traveling toward the impeller. There, the pressure oscillations govern the tip leakage flow and hence, the incidence angles at the impeller. When these individual self-exited processes occurs in-phase, a surge limit-cycle establishes.     

离心式渣浆泵叶轮磨损规律研究

在实验室条件下对离心式渣浆泵叶轮的磨损规律进行了研究，并对泵轮叶片间流道的颗粒运动轨迹进行数值模拟。探讨了磨粒浓度、泵转速、叶片几何参数、运行时间及磨粒粒径对泵轮磨损的影响。研究表明：叶片的磨损强度与泵轮转速呈５次方关系，叶片进口角对磨损强度影响明显，出口角对磨损强度影响不大，研究结果对渣浆泵的设计具有重要的参考价值。     

Interaction of zones of flow separation in a centrifugal impeller-stationary vane system

In a radial flow pump operating in off-design conditions, regions of stall can exist on the rotating impeller blade and on the downstream diffuser blade, vane or tongue. Interaction of these stall zones can generate complex patterns of vorticity concentrations. In turn, these vorticity concentrations are related to sources of unsteady stagnation enthalpy. The form of these patterns is strongly dependent on the instantaneous location of the impeller trailing-edge relative to the leading-edge of the vane.Comparison of instantaneous with ensemble-averaged images shows that the flow structure in the gap region between the impeller and the vane is highly repetitive. Away from this region, in particular in the separated shear layer from the vane, the nonrepetitive nature of the vorticity field is manifested in substantial reduction of peak levels of vorticity in the ensemble-averaged image, relative to the instantaneous image.The three-dimensional flow structure resulting from these separation zone interactions was characterized via end views of the flow patterns. Particularly pronounced concentrations of vorticity can occur in this plane. They tend to be located in the shear layer at the outer edge of the large-scale separation zone. These vorticity concentrations are, however, highly non-stationary for successive passages of the impeller blade. Ensemble-averaging reveals that they persist primarily on the endwalls of the diffuser.The authors are grateful to the Office of Naval Research for support of this research program     

Laser velocimetry measurements in a laboratory vaned diffuser

Laser velocimetry measurements were made within a laboratory radial vaned diffuser with three different blade configurations. Measurements were made through passages with four, six and eight blades installed at off design conditions. Also, in the eight blade diffuser measurements were made between the blade passage exit and diffuser exit so that the complete secondary flow could be defined. The flow was found to separate from the blades and form large separation zones. The separation zones consisted primarily of two vortices rotating in opposite directions. At the passage exit the separation region encompassed 23% of the circumferential area for the four blade diffuser, 45% for the six blade and 40% in the eight blade diffuser. Separation occurred at 23%, 27% and 50% from the leading edge of the blades for the 4, 6 and 8 bladed diffusers, indicating that more blades better controlled the separation. Turbulence intensities ranged from approximately 5% to 15% in the primary flow and reached a few hundred percent in the secondary flow within the separation regions.     

Large Eddy Simulation of a Controlled Diffusion Compressor Cascade

In this research a Controlled Diffusion (CD) compressor cascade stator blade is simulated at a Reynolds number of ??700,000, based on inflow velocity and chord length, using Large Eddy Simulation (LES). A wide range of flow inlet angles are computed, including conditions near the design angle, and at high negative and positive incidence. At all inlet angles the surface pressure distributions are well-predicted by the LES. Near the design angle the computed suction side boundary layer thickness agrees well with experimental data, whilst the pressure side boundary layer is poorly predicted due to the inability of LES to capture natural boundary layer transition on the present grid. A good estimation of the loss is computed near the design angle, whilst at both high positive and negative incidences the loss is less well predicted owing to discrepancies between the computed and experimental boundary layer thickness. At incidences above the design angle a laminar separation bubble forms near the leading edge of the suction surface, which undergoes a transition to turbulence. Similar behaviour is noted on the pressure surface at negative incidence. At high negative incidence contra-rotating vortex pairs are found to form around the leading edge in response to an unsteady stagnation line across the span of the blade. Such structures are not apparent in time-averaged statistical data due to their highly-transient nature.     

Computational fluid dynamics analysis of diffuser performance in gas-powered jet pumps

Jet pump diffuser performance is analyzed, both in terms of past experimental work dealing with the high inlet flow distortions involved and in the sense that this problem is amenable to predictive investigation by computational fluid dynamics techniques. In these highly nonuniform flow conditions, diffusers are seen to justify their inclusion in a jet pump design, for regaining static pressure downstream of the vacuum chamber, even though their performance in effectiveness terms is lowered by about two thirds at high inlet glow distortion levels. A satisfactory correlation has been found between outlet and inlet conditions and diffuser area ratio, extending well beyond past experimental published results for diffuser geometry and distorted inlet flows.     

Lift enhancement of airfoil and tip flow control for wind turbine

Two techniques that improve the aerodynamic performance of wind turbine airfoils are described. The airfoil S809, designed specially for wind turbine blades, and the airfoil FX60-100, having a higher lift-drag ratio, are selected to verify the flow control techniques. The flow deflector, fixed at the leading edge, is employed to control the boundary layer separation on the airfoil at a high angle of attack. The multi-island genetic algorithm is used to optimize the parameters of the flow deflector. The results indicate that the flow deflector can suppress the flow separation, delay the stall, and enhance the lift. The characteristics of the blade tip vortex, the wake vortex, and the surface pressure distributions of the blades are analyzed. The vortex diffuser, set up at the blade tip, is employed to control the blade tip vortex. The results show that the vortex diffuser can increase the total pressure coefficient of the core of the vortex, decrease the strength of the blade tip vortex, lower the noise, and improve the efficiency of the blade.     

PIV measurement of internal flow characteristics of very low specific speed semi-open impeller

Detailed particle-image velocimetry (PIV) measurements of flow fields inside semi-open impellers have been performed to understand better the internal flow patterns that are responsible for the unique performance of these centrifugal pumps operated in the range of very low specific speed. Two impellers, one equipped with six radial blades (impeller A) and the other with four conventional backward-swept blades (impeller B), are tested in a centrifugal pump designed to be operated at a non-dimensional specific speed of n_s=0.24. Complex flow patterns captured by PIV are discussed in conjunction with the overall pump performance measured separately. It is revealed that impeller A achieves higher effective head than impeller B even though the flow patterns in impeller A are more complex, exhibiting secondary flows and reverse flows in the impeller passage. It is shown that both the localized strong outward flow at the pressure side of each blade outlet and the strong outward through-flow along the suction side of each blade are responsible for the better head performance of impeller A.     

Numerical modelling and flow analysis of a centrifugal pump running as a turbine: Unsteady flow structures and its effects on the global performance

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the flow patterns in a centrifugal pump when it works as a centripetal turbine, with special interest in the unsteady behavior in order to explain the shape of the performance curves. Also, we focus on the determination of the radial thrust and other mechanical loads over a pump‐designed machine. The pump studied is commercial, with single axial suction and a vaneless spiral volute casing. A numerical study has been carried out in order to obtain more information about the flow into the volute and the impeller. A numerical three‐dimensional unsteady simulation has been developed using a commercial code that solves the URANS set of equations with a standard k–ε turbulence model. The results show the non‐axisymmetric flow developed in the volute, responsible for a significant radial thrust; the interaction between the tongue and the impeller, generating force fluctuations; the velocity and pressure distributions inside the impeller; and the exit flow, characterized with post‐rotation and low‐pressure. These flow results allow us to understand the behavior of the machine by comparing it with the pump mode. Complementarily, an experimental study was conducted to validate the numerical model and characterize the pump‐turbine performance curves at constant head. Fast‐response pressure taps and a three‐hole pneumatic pressure probe were employed to obtain a complete data set of non‐stationary and stationary measurements throughout the centrifugal machine. As a result, loss of efficiency or susceptibility to cavitation, detected numerically, was confirmed experimentally. The study demonstrates that the numerical methodology presented here has shown its reliability and possibilities to predict the unsteady flow and time‐mean characteristics of centrifugal pumps working as turbines. In particular, it is shown that the commercial design of the pump allows a reasonable use of the impeller as a turbine runner, due to the suitable adaptation of the inflow distributions to the volute casing. Moreover, the efficiency for the inverse mode is shown to be as high as achieved for the pumping operational mode. In addition, it is concluded that both axial and radial thrusts are controlled, though important unsteady fluctuations—up to 25%—clocked with the blade passing frequency appear beyond the nominal conditions. In that case, a moderate use of the pump as a turbine is recommended in order to minimize risks of fatigue failure of the bearings. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

轴流泵参数化设计及应力与模态特征分析

以船用轴流式喷水推进泵为对象,探索了轴流泵参数化设计、水动力性能、静强度和结构声学特征分析的数值途径。轴流泵叶轮采用升力法设计,导叶采用流线法设计,叶片三维造型在NUMECA参数化设计平台中完成。轴流泵水动力性能校核由粘性CFD计算完成,CFD计算同时提取得到叶片分布式水动力载荷。叶片静强度校核由ANSYS有限元计算叶片应力和应变特征完成,应力分析时同时考虑水动力载荷、重力载荷和离心力载荷。叶片结构声学特征分析由NASTRAN有限元计算叶片模态振型和振型频率完成。计算结果表明,轴流泵扬程和功率满足设计指标,效率达87.13%;叶轮叶片形变相对于叶顶间隙来说为极小量,可忽略不计,叶片存在局部应力集中现象,最大应力小于许用应力,满足静强度要求;叶片前四阶振型特征与分析经验一致,且振型频率远离轴频、叶频及其谐频特征频率,能够避免共振产生。     

小型高速离心压气机级内部的三维流场分析

利用三维数值模拟技术对微型燃气轮机中的离心压气机部分进行了数值分析,得到了离心压气机设计转速下的级特性曲线和各通流部件中的流动情况。数值分析表明:设计转速下压气机的级特性非常陡峭;整个特性线范围内离心叶轮基本在亚音速情况下工作,而径向扩压器是在跨音速条件下工作,离心压气机整机的最大流量是由径向扩压器的喉部面积决定的;离心压气机级内部各通流部件之间流动的相互干扰是引起流动分离的重要原因,各通流部件之间流动的相互匹配和协调将决定了离心压气机整机的性能和稳定性。     

Effects of swirl on flow separation and performance of wide angle diffusers

Experimental investigations have been carried out to determine whether the introduction of a circumferential velocity component can produce worthwhile improvements in the performance of, and eliminate flow separation in, wide angle conical diffusers. The swirl generator is a 24 flat-bladed, radial intake type. Systematic experimentation has been carried out for one diffuser configuration fitted with a tailpipe (16.5° and 4.4 area ratio) using varying strengths of inlet swirl and introducing the dissipated mechanical energy as the main criterion of diffuser performance. The best inlet swirl strength produced about 60% reduction of the total diffuser losses in swirl-free flow. The analysis of these results, together with information obtained from flow visualisation experiments, suggests that increasing the swirl beyond an observed threshold completely eliminated flow separation, but it also gave rise to a central zone of recirculating flow and hence additional dissipative losses. We conclude that the optimum improvement achievable in wide angle diffuser performance using swirl does not require the addition of more energy than it saves     

离心风机子午通道内湍流场数值模拟

由进风口－叶轮－无叶扩压器－蜗壳等部件组成的离心风机通道内流分析是非常复杂的，目前还只能是分别计算各部件内的流场，但必须考虑部件间的相互影响。本文采用轴对称Ｎ－Ｓ方程，根据三维叶轮通道计算给出的叶片力分布，求解了考虑叶片力的进风口－叶轮－无叶扩压器组成的子午通道问题，所得结果可用来给出三维叶轮通道计算的进口条件，并可用于优化设计进风口及叶轮前、后盘形状。该方法已得到实践检验。     

Flow and performance characteristics of twin-entry radial turbine under full and extreme partial admission conditions

This paper presents numerical and experimental investigation of the performance and internal flow field characteristics of twin-entry radial inflow turbines at full and extreme partial admission conditions. The turbine is tested on a turbocharger test facility, which was developed for small and medium size turbochargers. Experimental results show that the lowest efficiency corresponds to extreme conditions. Therefore, flow field analyzing is employed to consider these conditions. The flow pattern in the volute and impeller of a twin-entry turbine is analyzed using an in-house fully three-dimensional viscous flow solver. The computational performance results are compared with the experimental results and good agreement is found. The flow field at the outlet of the turbine is investigated using a five-hole pressure probe; the numerical results are also compared with experimental measurements at the outlet of the rotor. For the volute, results show that lowest entropy gain factor corresponds to the extreme conditions, particularly when shroud side entry is fully closed. At the inlet of the rotor for equal admission conditions, the incidence angle is mostly in the optimum values. However, large variation in the incidence angle is seen in the extreme conditions, which lead to larger incidence losses and consequently a lower efficiency. In addition, entropy distribution contours corresponding to the exit plane are considered. For full admission, the location of low entropy gain factor at this plane occupies a region near the shroud side of suction surface as well as near the hub side of the pressure surface that corresponds to a region of high absolute flow angle. However, for the extreme cases, the low entropy gain factor occupies a relatively larger region near the shroud side than full admission. So, higher loss generation is noted at the extreme cases. Moreover, this entropy gain factor region is increased when shroud side entry is fully closed.     

High-speed stereoscopic PIV study of rotating instabilities in a radial vaneless diffuser

This paper presents an experimental analysis of the unsteady phenomena developing in a vaneless diffuser of a radial flow pump. Partial flow operating conditions were investigated using 2D/3C high repetition rate PIV, coupled with unsteady pressure transducers. Pressure measurements were acquired on the shroud wall of the vaneless diffuser and on the suction pipe of the pump, whereas PIV flow fields were determined on three different heights in the hub to shroud direction, inside the diffuser. The classical Fourier analysis was applied to both pressure signals to identify the spectral characteristics of the developing instabilities, and the high-order spectral analysis was exploited to investigate possible non-linear interaction mechanisms between different unsteady structures. A dedicated PIV averaging procedure was developed and applied to the PIV flow fields so as to capture and visualize the topology of the spectrally identified phenomena. The influence of these phenomena on the diffuser efficiency was also investigated.     

Flow field analysis inside a gas turbine trailing edge cooling channel under static and rotating conditions

The flow field inside a modern internal cooling channel specifically designed for the trailing edge of gas turbine blades has been experimentally investigated under static and rotating conditions. The passage is characterized by a trapezoidal cross-section of high aspect-ratio and coolant discharge at the blade tip and along the wedge-shaped trailing edge, where seven elongated pedestals are also installed. The tests were performed under engine similar conditions with respect to both Reynolds (Re = 20,000) and Rotation (Ro = 0, 0.23) numbers, while particular care was put in the implementation of proper pressure conditions at the channel exits to allow the comparison between data under static and rotating conditions. The flow velocity was measured by means of 2D and Stereo-PIV techniques applied in the absolute frame of reference. The relative velocity fields were obtained through a pre-processing procedure of the PIV images developed on purpose.Time averaged flow fields inside the stationary and rotating channels are analyzed and compared.A substantial modification of the whole flow behavior due to rotational effects is commented, nevertheless no trace of rotation induced secondary Coriolis vortices has been found because of the progressive flow discharge along the trailing edge. For Ro = 0.23, at the channel inlet the high aspect-ratio of the cross section enhances inviscid flow effects which determine a mass flow redistribution towards the leading edge side. At the trailing edge exits, the distortion of the flow path observed in the channel central portion causes a strong reduction in the dimensions of the 3D separation structures that surround the pedestals.     

LES of supersonic turbulent flow in nozzles and diffusers

Large-eddy simulations of supersonic nozzle and diffuser flows with circular cross-sections using high-order compact schemes and an explicit filtering version of the approximate deconvolution method are presented in this paper. Two flow cases each for nozzle and diffuser having different outlet to inlet area ratios are presented. The effect of the geometry variations on the Reynolds stresses as well as on the production and pressure-strain terms in their transport equations is demonstrated. A Green’s function analysis of the Poisson equation for pressure fluctuations using LES data is presented and the results show similar trends as found in previous analyses using DNS data. The effects of geometry changes on the rapid and slow parts of pressure-strain correlations is also demonstrated.     

Measurements in the vaneless diffuser of a radial flow compressor

Results from an experimental study of flow behaviour at the inlet of a vaneless diffuser of a centrifugal compressor are presented. Measurements from a crossed hot-wire probe are given for operating points having inlet flow coefficients ranging from 0.006 to 0.019 at different Reynolds numbers. Instantaneous, time-averaged, and phase-averaged absolute velocity and flow angle at the diffuser inlet are deduced from the hot-wire signals after correction for mean density variations. These results show how flow behaviour varies in stable, rotating stall and surge regimes of compressor operation