A compressible three-dimensional design method for radial and mixed flow turbomachinery blades

A fully three-dimensional compressible inverse design method for the design of radial and mixed flow turbomachines is described. In this method the distribution of the circumferentially averaged swirl velocity rV _θ on the meridional geometry of the impeller is prescribed and the corresponding blade shape is computed iteratively. Two approaches are presented for solving the compressible flow problem. In the approximate approach the pitchwise variation in density is neglected and as a result the algorithm is simple and efficient. In the exact approach the velocities and density are computed throughout the three-dimensional flow field by employing a fast fourier transform in the tangential direction. The results of the approximate and exact approach are compared for the case of a high-speed (subsonic) radial-inflow turbine and it is shown that the difference between the blade shapes computed by the two methods is well within the manufacturing tolerances. The method was validated by calculating the flow through a designed high-speed radial-inflow turbine by using a three-dimensional inviscid Euler solver. Very good correlation was obtained between the specified and computed rV _θ-distributions.     

A proposed through-flow inverse method for the design of mixed-flow pumps

A through-flow (hub-to-shroud) truly inverse method is proposed and described in this paper. It uses as a initial design specification, an imposition of mean swirl, i.e. radius times mean tangential velocity, given throughout the meridional section of the turbomachine. In the present implementation, it is assumed that the fluid is invsicid, incompressible and irrotational at inlet and the blades are supposed to have zero thickness. Only blade rows that impart to the fluid a constant work along the span will be considered. An application of this procedure to design the rotor of a mixed-flow pump will be described in detail. The strategy used to find a suitable mean swirl distribution and the other design inputs is also described. The final blade shape and pressure distributions on the blade surface are presented, showing that it is possible to obtain feasible designs using this technique. Another advantage of this technique is the fact that it does not require large amounts of CPU time.     

离心风机叶片型线的一种二维逆命题简便设计方法

由于加工工艺和生产成本等因素的影响，离心风机中至今仍普遍采用二维叶片。本文方法通过控制叶轮内相对速度Ｗ沿平均流线ｍ的分布（Ｗ－ｍ分布），使气流相对速度在流动过程中按照设计要求的规律均匀变化，在叶轮回转面上设计出前向或后向叶片型线。为提高设计质量，可将叶轮子午面盘盖型线的设计与回转面上叶片型线的设计联系起来，使二者共同满足控制Ｗ－ｍ分布的需要。设计过程中可同时计算出叶片负荷供修改Ｗ－ｍ分布时参考。本     

Design optimization of axial flow hydraulic turbine runner: Part I—an improved Q3D inverse method

With the aim of constructing a comprehensive design optimization procedure of axial flow hydraulic turbine, an improved quasi‐three‐dimensional inverse method has been proposed from the viewpoint of system and a set of rotational flow governing equations as well as a blade geometry design equation has been derived. The computation domain is firstly taken from the inlet of guide vane to the far outlet of runner blade in the inverse method and flows in different regions are solved simultaneously. So the influence of wicket gate parameters on the runner blade design can be considered and the difficulty to define the flow condition at the runner blade inlet is surmounted. As a pre‐computation of initial blade design on S2m surface is newly adopted, the iteration of S1 and S2m surfaces has been reduced greatly and the convergence of inverse computation has been improved. The present model has been applied to the inverse computation of a Kaplan turbine runner. Experimental results and the direct flow analysis have proved the validation of inverse computation. Numerical investigations show that a proper enlargement of guide vane distribution diameter is advantageous to improve the performance of axial hydraulic turbine runner. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Design of a separation-free airfoil with outer-flow suction over a certain range of angles of attack

The problem of the design of an airfoil with slot air suction from the outer flow for a prescribed velocity distribution over the airfoil contour that ensures the absence of flow separation over a given range of angles of attack is formulated and solved. The proposed combined numerical and analytical method of airfoil design within the framework of the inviscid incompressible fluid model is based on the theory of inverse problems of aerohydrodynamics. Separationless flow past the airfoil is achieved by eliminating the falling velocity intervals from the specified velocity distribution in two given flow regimes. The flow past an airfoil with outer-flow suction is determined not only by the angle of attack as for an impermeable airfoil but also by the value of the suction mass flow. The slot is modeled by an annular channel with constant velocities on the walls. To satisfy the problem solvability conditions, free parameters are introduced into the initial velocity distribution. Examples of airfoil design are given. Kazan, Moscow. Translated from Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 4, pp. 185–191, July–August, 2000.     

CFD-based analysis of multistage throughflow surfaces with incidence

A numerical finite-volume solution of Euler equations is performed in the meridional plane of complete axial flow turbomachinery. The throughflow equations contain blade force terms that model the effects of the real blades on the flow and are resolved by further equations. Under the axisymmetric flow assumption, incidence involves a discontinuity through the leading edge, which introduces strong unphysical losses. Incidence is modeled by solving an inverse problem in the front part of the bladed region. The inverse method provides the geometry of the throughflow surface that replaces the discontinuous profile of swirl velocity with a specified, conveniently smooth profile across the leading edge region. The specified velocity profile and computed ideal geometry are used to update the blade force. The Euler solution is compared to a streamline curvature solution in analyzing a three-stage turbine. In the design condition with up to 2° of spanwise-averaged incidence, the method does not significantly affect the prediction of overall performance. In a strong off-design condition with up to 13° of average incidence, performance is predicted with the same accuracy as in the design case.     

Parameter estimation for a three‐dimensional numerical barotropic tidal model with adjoint method

The parameters of a three‐dimensional (3‐D) barotropic tidal model are estimated using the adjoint method. The mode splitting technique is employed in both forward and adjoint models. In the external mode, the alternating direction implicit method is used to discretize the two‐dimensional depth‐averaged equations and a semi‐implicit scheme is used for the 3‐D internal mode computations. In this model the bottom friction is expressed in terms of bottom velocity which is different from the previous works. Besides, the bottom friction coefficients (BFCs) are supposed to be spatially varying, i.e. the BFC at some grid points are selected as the independent BFC, while the BFC at the other grid points can be obtained through linear interpolation with these independent BFCs. On the basis of the simulation of M₂ tide in the Bohai and North Yellow Seas (BNYS), twin experiments are carried out to invert the prescribed distributions of model parameters. The parameters inverted are the Fourier coefficients of open boundary conditions (OBCs), the BFC and the vertical eddy viscosity profiles. In these twin experiments, the real topography of BNYS is installed. The ‘observations’ are produced by the tidal model and recorded at the position of TOPEX/Poseidon altimeter data, tidal gauge data and current data. The experiments discuss the influence of initial guesses, model errors and data number. The inversion has obtained satisfactory results and the prescribed distributions have been successfully inverted. The results indicate that the inversion of BFC is more sensitive to data error than that of OBC and the vertical eddy viscosity profiles. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A high‐order mass‐lumping procedure for B‐spline collocation method with application to incompressible flow simulations

This paper presents new developments of the staggered spline collocation method for cost‐effective solution to the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. Maximal decoupling of the velocity and the pressure is obtained by using the fractional step method of Gresho and Chan, allowing the solution to sparse elliptic problems only. In order to preserve the high‐accuracy of the B‐spline method, this fractional step scheme is used in association with a sparse approximation to the inverse of the consistent mass matrix. Such an approximation is constructed from local spline interpolation method, and represents a high‐order generalization of the mass‐lumping technique of the finite‐element method. A numerical investigation of the accuracy and the computational efficiency of the resulting semi‐consistent spline collocation schemes is presented. These schemes generate a stable and accurate unsteady Navier–Stokes solver, as assessed by benchmark computations. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Direct,adjoint and mixed approaches for the computation of Hessian in airfoil design problems

In this paper, four approaches to compute the Hessian matrix of an objective function used often in aerodynamic inverse design problems are presented. The computationally less expensive among them is selected and applied to the reconstruction of cascade airfoils that reproduce a prescribed pressure distribution over their walls, under inviscid and viscous flow considerations. The selected approach is based on the direct sensitivity analysis method for the computation of first derivatives, followed by the discrete adjoint method for the computation of the Hessian matrix. The applications presented in this paper show that the Newton method, based on exact Hessian matrices, outperforms other gradient‐based algorithms such as steepest descent or BFGS algorithm. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Beating capillarity in thin film flows

The combination of substrate unevenness and capillarity is known to induce far‐reaching perturbations at the free surface of thin liquid films. These might be undesired and this paper explores the possibility to control the free surface of thin liquid films to give it a prescribed profile by a suitable design of the underlying substrate. This corresponds to the inverse of the widely studied forward problem, which considers the effect of substrate unevenness on a free surface. Assuming that the steady free surface profile can be described by the lubrication approximation, this optimal control problem is shown to be governed by a first‐order partial differential equation, which is solved numerically using the method of characteristics. The proposed method is successfully tested for a range of desired free surface profiles and the domain of existence of a solution to the inverse problem is probed. Expectedly, it is shown that, owing to surface tension, not all free surface profiles can be achieved but in some cases capillarity can be beaten and a prescribed free surface profile obtained. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An improved genetic algorithm and its applications to the optimisation design of an aspirated compressor profile

Genetic algorithm (GA) is a widely used method for numerical optimisation owing to their good global search ability; however, their local search ability has an obvious shortcoming. To improve local search ability, this paper introduces a simplex method and combines it with a GA to form an improved genetic algorithm (IGA). In the IGA, at each generation of the original GA, high‐fitness individuals are selected as vertices of a simplex, and then a one‐dimensional search within the simplex is conducted to obtain the most‐fit individuals while replacing the inferior ones. Typical test functions show that the IGA can effectively improve the optimisation effect over that of the original GA. To further verify the IGA's practicability, an aspirated compressor profile is optimised with profile, suction flow rate and suction flow location as coupled design parameters. The results again show that the IGA has a better optimising effect than the GA. In addition, it is also verified that coupling the profile and suction flow parameters results in a design that outperforms the uncoupled design; therefore, designing an aspirated compressor blade by arranging suction flow on a conventional blade without considering suction flow is not a good method. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Finite volume solution of the Navier–Stokes equations in velocity–vorticity formulation

For the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations, vorticity‐based formulations have many attractive features over primitive‐variable velocity–pressure formulations. However, some features interfere with the use of the numerical methods based on the vorticity formulations, one of them being the lack of a boundary conditions on vorticity. In this paper, a novel approach is presented to solve the velocity–vorticity integro‐differential formulations. The general numerical method is based on standard finite volume scheme. The velocities needed at the vertexes of each control volume are calculated by a so‐called generalized Biot–Savart formula combined with a fast summation algorithm, which makes the velocity boundary conditions implicitly satisfied by maintaining the kinematic compatibility of the velocity and vorticity fields. The well‐known fractional step approaches are used to solve the vorticity transport equation. The paper describes in detail how we accurately impose no normal‐flow and no tangential‐flow boundary conditions. We impose a no‐flux boundary condition on solid objects by the introduction of a proper amount of vorticity at wall. The diffusion term in the transport equation is treated implicitly using a conservative finite update. The diffusive fluxes of vorticity into flow domain from solid boundaries are determined by an iterative process in order to satisfy the no tangential‐flow boundary condition. As application examples, the impulsively started flows through a flat plate and a circular cylinder are computed using the method. The present results are compared with the analytical solution and other numerical results and show good agreement. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An immersed boundary method for incompressible flows using volume of body function

A simple and effective immersed boundary method using volume of body (VOB) function is implemented on unstructured Cartesian meshes. The flow solver is a second‐order accurate implicit pressure‐correction method for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. The domain inside the immersed body is viewed as being occupied by the same fluid as outside with a prescribed divergence‐free velocity field. Under this view a fluid–body interface is similar to a fluid–fluid interface encountered in the volume of fluid (VOF) method for the two‐fluid flow problems. The body can thus be identified by the VOB function similar to the VOF function. In fluid–body interface cells the velocity is obtained by a volume‐averaged mixture of body and fluid velocities. The pressure inside the immersed body satisfies the same pressure Poisson equation as outside. To enhance stability and convergence, multigrid methods are developed to solve the difference equations for both pressure and velocity. Various steady and unsteady flows with stationary and moving bodies are computed to validate and to demonstrate the capability of the current method. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

3D free‐surface flow computation using a RANSE/Fourier–Kochin coupling

A coupling method for numerical calculations of steady free‐surface flows around a body is presented. The fluid domain in the neighbourhood of the hull is divided into two overlapping zones. Viscous effects are taken in account near the hull using Reynolds‐averaged Navier–Stokes equations (RANSE), whereas potential flow provides the flow away from the hull. In the internal domain, RANSE are solved by a fully coupled velocity, pressure and free‐surface elevation method. In the external domain, potential‐flow theory with linearized free‐surface condition is used to provide boundary conditions to the RANSE solver. The Fourier–Kochin method based on the Fourier–Kochin formulation, which defines the velocity field in a potential‐flow region in terms of the velocity distribution at a boundary surface, is used for that purpose. Moreover, the free‐surface Green function satisfying this linearized free‐surface condition is used. Calculations have been successfully performed for steady ship‐waves past a serie 60 and then have demonstrated abilities of the present coupling algorithm. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

航空发动机叶片抗冲击动力学拓扑优化研究

本文运用了结合混合元胞自动机(Hybrid Cellular Automaton, HCA)方法和基于LS-DYNA显式有限元算法的动力学拓扑优化方法来解决非线性动力学拓扑优化问题,并形成了该方法迭代过程的数学模型．运用该方法,对某航空发动机叶片进行了动力学拓扑优化设计,给出了优化后结构的材料分布,并与优化前结构进行了对比分析．结果表明,优化后结构相比于优化前在材料分布上更加合理,在减少质量的同时降低了结构在冲击过程中的最大应力,实现了航空发动机的抗冲击优化,为航空发动机动态优化设计提供了有效分析方法．     

Explicit characteristic‐based finite volume element method for level set equation

Accurate modeling of interfacial flows requires a realistic representation of interface topology. To reduce the computational effort from the complexity of the interface topological changes, the level set method is widely used for solving two‐phase flow problems. This paper presents an explicit characteristic‐based finite volume element method for solving the two‐dimensional level set equation. The method is applicable for the case of non‐divergence‐free velocity field. Accuracy and performance of the proposed method are evaluated via test cases with prescribed velocity fields on structured grids. By given a velocity field, the motion of interface in the normal direction and the mean curvature, examples are presented to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method for calculating interface evolutions in time. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An efficient finite difference scheme for free‐surface flows in narrow rivers and estuaries

This paper presents a free‐surface correction (FSC) method for solving laterally averaged, 2‐D momentum and continuity equations. The FSC method is a predictor–corrector scheme, in which an intermediate free surface elevation is first calculated from the vertically integrated continuity equation after an intermediate, longitudinal velocity distribution is determined from the momentum equation. In the finite difference equation for the intermediate velocity, the vertical eddy viscosity term and the bottom‐ and sidewall friction terms are discretized implicitly, while the pressure gradient term, convection terms, and the horizontal eddy viscosity term are discretized explicitly. The intermediate free surface elevation is then adjusted by solving a FSC equation before the intermediate velocity field is corrected. The finite difference scheme is simple and can be easily implemented in existing laterally averaged 2‐D models. It is unconditionally stable with respect to gravitational waves, shear stresses on the bottom and side walls, and the vertical eddy viscosity term. It has been tested and validated with analytical solutions and field data measured in a narrow, riverine estuary in southwest Florida. Model simulations show that this numerical scheme is very efficient and normally can be run with a Courant number larger than 10. It can be used for rivers where the upstream bed elevation is higher than the downstream water surface elevation without any problem. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A design method for turbomachinery blading in three-dimensional flow

A mixed spectral finite element scheme for the implementation of a design method for turbomachinery blading in three-dimensional subcritical compressible flow is presented. The method gives the detailed blade shape that would produce a prescribed tangential mean swirl schedule, given the hub and shroud profiles, the number of blades and their stacking position. After a presentation of the mathematical formulation of the design theory, the current numerical approach is described. It is then applied to the design of blading for radial inflow turbine impellers in three-dimensional flow.     

Aerodynamic design method of cascade profiles based on load and blade thickness distribution

A cascade profile design method was proposed using the aerodynamic load and blade thickness distribution as the design constraints, which were correspondent to the demands from the aerodynamic characteristics and the blade strength. These constraints,together with all the other boundary conditions , were involved in the stationary conditions ofa variational principle , in which the angle-function was employed as the unknown function.The angle-function ( i. e. , the circumferential angular coordinate) was defined in the image plane composed of the stream function coordinate ( circumferential direction ) and streamline coordinate. The solution domain, i.e., the blade-to-blade passage, was transformed into a square in the image plane, while the blade contour was projected to a straight line ; thus, the difficulty of the unknown blade geometry was avoided. The finite element method was employed to establish the calculation code. Applications show that this method can satisfy the design requests on the blade     

A three‐dimensional vortex particle‐in‐cell method for vortex motions in the vicinity of a wall

A new vortex particle‐in‐cell method for the simulation of three‐dimensional unsteady incompressible viscous flow is presented. The projection of the vortex strengths onto the mesh is based on volume interpolation. The convection of vorticity is treated as a Lagrangian move operation but one where the velocity of each particle is interpolated from an Eulerian mesh solution of velocity–Poisson equations. The change in vorticity due to diffusion is also computed on the Eulerian mesh and projected back to the particles. Where diffusive fluxes cause vorticity to enter a cell not already containing any particles new particles are created. The surface vorticity and the cancellation of tangential velocity at the plate are related by the Neumann conditions. The basic framework for implementation of the procedure is also introduced where the solution update comprises a sequence of two fractional steps. The method is applied to a problem where an unsteady boundary layer develops under the impact of a vortex ring and comparison is made with the experimental and numerical literature. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.