bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Impact of Ceramic Matrix Composite Topology on Friction Factor and Heat Transfer
Authors: Cory Trevor M. , Edelson Ryan D. , Thole Karen A. , Vincent Tyler , Quach San , Mongillo Dominic
Published: September 2021

Ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) are of interest for hot section components of gas turbine engines due to their low weight and favorable thermal properties. To implement this advanced composite in a gas turbine engine, characterizing the influence of CMC’s surface topology on heat transfer and cooling performance is critical. However, very few published studies have reported the flow and heat transfer effects caused by this unique surface topology. This study is an experimental and computational investigation to evaluate the effect of weave orientations, relevant to CMC surfaces, on the resulting pressure loss and convective heat transfer within an internal channel. The weave pattern was additively manufactured as the walls of a scaled-up coupon containing a single channel. For each of the three weave orientations, bulk pressure losses and convective heat transfer coefficients were measured over a range of Reynolds numbers.

Scaling the pressure losses in terms of a friction factor and convective heat transfer coefficients in terms of a Nusselt number showed the importance of choosing the appropriate definition of the hydraulic diameter, which was particularly important for the friction factor. A coupon having one wall with the weave surface increased pressure loss and heat transfer compared to a smooth wall with the largest increases occurring when the CMC weave strands were perpendicular to the flow. Friction factor augmentations were much higher than heat transfer augmentations. When adding the weave to a second channel wall, pressure loss and heat transfer were further increased. Orienting the CMC strands perpendicular to the flow consistently showed the largest augmentations in heat transfer over a smooth channel, but at a much higher pressure loss penalty than that seen with the CMC strands parallel to the flow.
Comprehensive Performance Improvement for a 16-Stage Axial Compressor
Authors: Popov Grigorii , Miheev Maxim , Vorobyev Alexey , Baturin Oleg , Zubanov Vasilii
Published: September 2021

The paper describes the process of gas-dynamic modernization of a 16-stage axial compressor of an industrial gas turbine unit. Tests of the baseline variant of the compressor revealed a significant shortfall of efficiency, pressure ratio, and stability margins. In addition, the ongoing work on the modernization of the entire engine sets the task to the authors of not just achieving design parameters but significantly exceeding them (air mass flow rate by 6%, pressure ratio by 2%, adiabatic efficiency by 1% relative to the design values).

To achieve these goals, a numerical model of the compressor was developed and validated. The characteristics obtained with its help were carefully analyzed. It was found that the front stage group has low efficiency, and the rear stage group is significantly oversized in terms of mass flow rate.

Modernization works were significantly hampered by the presence of many stages and many independent variables. For this reason, the problem was solved in several stages. A separate modernization of the first and rear groups of stages was performed. Moreover, methods of mathematical optimization were used when developing the rear block of 10 stages. Then the working processes of the compressor parts were matched.

As a result of the research, a variant was found to modernize the existing 16-stage axial compressor, providing an increase in the air mass flow rate by 18%, adiabatic efficiency by 3.5%, and margins of gas-dynamic stability up to 16%.
Recursive Sequential Combustion: A Concept Study About a Momentum-Enhanced Blend of the Reactants With Recirculated Burnt Gases
Authors: Giuliani Fabrice , Paulitsch Nina , Hofer Andrea
Published: September 2021

Over the last decade, new concepts have evolved to promote a significant azimuthal flow in annular combustors of gas turbines. The benefits are better flame propagation at ignition, positive flame-flame interaction, and better interaction with the burnt gases. Other advantages in terms of size, congestion and conditioning of the turbine inlet flow are also significant. The technical challenges reported by the literature are often related to the higher thermal stress of the flames on the walls compared to a conventional frame. Other sources of inspiration for this work are the principles of burnt gas recirculation, sequential combustion and flameless combustion.

This contribution focuses on a novel tangential burner arrangement inspired by the previous references. It offers a synthesis of key features and properties of the latter and goes even further. Here, a significant part of the burnt gases produced by one burner intentionally enters the inlet of the next burner, and so on along the azimuthal direction. This takes advantage of the closed loop aspect of an annular combustor when considering the toroidal direction. It also proposes a solution to the thermal load problem. We named this principle Recursive Sequential Combustion (RSC).

While the flame alignment is organised along the generatrix of the combustor’s annulus, one difficulty lies in the design of the lateral feeds of reactants and the lateral exit of the exhaust gases. A double-spiral combustor design is proposed, which has similarities with the Swiss Roll Combustor concept. It directs the flow in the toroidal direction, as well as it creates the favourable conditions for a dynamically stabilised premixed flame centred along the torus’ generatrix at some distance from the walls. This design maximises the interaction between the fresh reactants and the burnt gases. The technical challenge is to find the right balance in terms of momentum flux of the incoming and outgoing flows to keep the flame in the middle of the torus. If this concept is successful, a lean flame could be operated with an unmatched trade-off between stability, flexibility and low-emissions (including soot). The paper reports about the RSC concept, the design, and the early results.
Effect of a Ceramic Matrix Composite Surface on Film Cooling
Authors: Wilkins Peter H. , Lynch Stephen P. , Thole Karen A. , Quach San , Vincent Tyler , Mongillo Dominic
Published: September 2021

Ceramic matrix composite (CMC) parts create the opportunity for increased turbine entry temperatures within gas turbines. To achieve the highest temperatures possible, film cooling will play an important role in allowing turbine entry temperatures to exceed acceptable surface temperatures for CMC components, just as it does for the current generation of gas turbine components. Film cooling over a CMC surface introduces new challenges including roughness features downstream of the cooling holes and changes to the hole exit due to uneven surface topography. To better understand these impacts, this study presents flowfield and adiabatic effectiveness CFD for a 7-7-7 shaped film cooling hole at two CMC weave orientations. The CMC surface selected is a 5 Harness Satin weave pattern that is examined at two different orientations. To understand the ability of steady RANS to predict flow and convective heat transfer over a CMC surface, the weave surface is initially simulated without film and compared to previous experimental results. The simulation of the weave orientation of 0°, with fewer features projecting into the flow, matches fairly well to the experiment, and demonstrates a minimal impact on film cooling leading to only slightly lower adiabatic effectiveness compared to a smooth surface. However, the simulation of the 90° orientation with a large number of protruding features does not match the experimentally observed surface heat transfer. The additional protruding surface produces degraded film cooling performance at low blowing ratios but is less sensitive to blowing ratio, leading to improved relative performance at higher blowing ratios, particularly in regions far downstream of the hole.
Measurement of Heat Transfer and Flow Structures in a Closed Rotating Cavity
Authors: Jackson Richard W. , Tang Hui , Scobie James A. , Owen J. Michael , Lock Gary D.
Published: September 2021

Buoyancy-induced flow occurs inside the rotating compressor cavities of gas turbines. These cavities are usually open at the inner radius, but in some industrial gas turbines, they are effectively closed. This paper presents measurements of the disc heat transfer and rotating flow structures in a closed cavity over a wide range of engine relevant conditions. These experimentally derived distributions of disc temperature and heat flux are the first of their kind to be published. The radial distribution of the non-dimensional disc temperature virtually collapsed onto a single curve over the full experimental range. There was a small, monotonic departure from this common curve with increasing Reynolds number; this was attributed to compressibility effects where the core temperature increases as the rotational speed increases. These results imply that, if compressibility effects are negligible, all rotating closed cavities should have a disc temperature distribution uniquely related to the geometry and disc material; this is of important practical use to the engine designer. Unsteady pressure sensors detected either three or four vortex pairs across the experimental range. The number of pairs changed with Grashof number, and the structures slipped relative to the rotating discs by less than 1% of the disc speed.
Performance Prediction of a Multi-Stage Ammonia-Water Turbine Under Variable Nozzle Operation via Machine Learning
Authors: Du Yang , Liu Tingting , Dai Yiping , Fan Gang , Wang Jiangfeng , Zhao Pan
Published: September 2021

This study proposes machine learning models to predict the performance of a multi-stage ammonia-water radial turbine using variable nozzle operation under different operating conditions. A 1.2 MW four-stage ammonia-water radial turbine is firstly designed. Then, the one-dimensional off-design simulation model is developed based on the geometric parameters to mainly evaluate the effects of different nozzle outlet angles and turbine inlet temperatures on the turbine performance. A set of data, which consists of 10,000 training points based on one-dimensional model, is used to train the proposed two high-dimensional model representation (HDMR) methods. The forward HDMR model predicts the mass flow rate, turbine outlet temperature, turbine power and turbine efficiency for any combination of turbine nozzle outlet angle and turbine inlet temperature, while the reverse HDMR model predicts the mass flow rate, turbine outlet temperature, turbine efficiency and turbine nozzle outlet angle for any combination of turbine power and turbine inlet temperature. The two HDMR models are validated using 238 sets of separated test data. The results show that the minimum coefficients of determination (R2) of forward HDMR model and reverse HDMR model are 0.9837 and 0.9953, respectively. The maximum relative errors of two HDMR models are below 1.6822%, so the quality of the proposed machine learning methods is high. The overall performance maps of multi-stage ammonia-water radial turbine under the variable nozzle operation method are constructed based on the reverse HDMR model. The reverse HDMR model is helpful in monitoring the healthy operation state of turbine.
Investigating Gas Turbine Internal Cooling Using Supercritical CO2 at High Reynolds Numbers for Direct Fired Cycle Applications
Authors: Searle Matthew , Roy Arnab , Black James , Straub Doug , Ramesh Sridharan
Published: September 2021

In this paper, experimental and numerical investigations of three variants of internal cooling configurations — dimples only, ribs only and ribs with dimples have been explored at process conditions (96°C and 207bar) with sCO2 as the coolant. The designs were chosen based on a review of advanced internal cooling features typically used for air-breathing gas turbines. The experimental study described in this paper utilizes additively manufactured square channels with the cooling features over a range of Reynolds number from 80,000 to 250,000. Nusselt number is calculated in the experiments utilizing the Wilson Plot method and three heat transfer characteristics — augmentation in Nusselt number, friction factor and overall Thermal Performance Factor (TPF) are reported. To explore the effect of surface roughness introduced due to additive manufacturing, two baseline channel flow cases are considered — a conventional smooth tube and an additively manufactured square tube. A companion computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation is also performed for the corresponding cooling configurations reported in the experiments using the Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) based turbulence model. Both experimental and computational results show increasing Nusselt number augmentation as higher Reynolds numbers are approached, whereas prior work on internal cooling of air-breathing gas turbines predict a decay in the heat transfer enhancement as Reynolds number increases. Comparing cooling features, it is observed that the “ribs only” and “ribs with dimples” configurations exhibit higher Nusselt number augmentation at all Reynolds numbers compared to the “dimples only” and the “no features” configurations. However, the frictional losses are almost an order of magnitude higher in presence of ribs.
Development and Application of a Concentration Probe for Mixing Flows Tracking in Turbomachinery Applications
Authors: Babazzi G. , Bacci T. , Picchi A. , Fondelli T. , Lenzi T. , Facchini B. , Cubeda S.
Published: September 2021

Modern gas turbines present important temperature distortions in the core-engine flowpath, mainly in the form of hot and cold streaks imputed to combustor burners and components cooling systems. As they highly influence turbines performance and lifetime, the precise knowledge of the thermal field evolution through the combustor and the high-pressure turbine is fundamental. The majority of past studies investigated streaks migrations directly examining the thermal field, while a limited amount of experimental work employed approaches based on the detection of tracer gases. The latter approach provides a more detailed evaluation of the evolution and mixing of the different flows. However, the slow time response due to the employment of sampling probes and gas analysers make the investigation of a whole measurement plane extremely time consuming. To tackle this issue, in this study a commercial oxygen sensor element and its excitation/detection unit were integrated into a newly developed probe to carry out local tracer gas concentration measurements exploiting the fluorescence behaviour. The probe was provided with a Kiel-like shield, a pressure port and a thermocouple, in order to correct the readings in case of 3D flows with pressure, temperature and velocity gradients. The paper summarizes the probe development and calibration activities, with the characterization of its accuracy for different flow conditions. Finally, two probe applications are described: firstly the probe was used to detect tracer gas concentrations on a jet flow; afterwards it was traversed on the interface plane between a non-reactive, lean combustor simulator and the NGV cascade. The probe has proven to provide accurate and reliable measurements both from a quantitative and qualitative point of view even in highly 3D flow fields typical of gas turbines conditions.
Stator Blades Manufacturing Geometrical Variability in Axial Compressors and Impact on the Aeroelastic Excitation Forces
Authors: Gambitta Marco , Kühhorn Arnold , Beirow Bernd , Schrape Sven
Published: September 2021

The manufacturing geometrical variability is a source of uncertainty, which cannot be avoided in the realization of machinery components. Deviations of a part geometry from its nominal design are inevitably present due to the manufacturing process. In the case of the aeroelastic forced response problem within axial compressors, these uncertainties may affect the vibration characteristics. For this reason, the impact of geometrical uncertainties due to the manufacturing process onto the modal forcing of axial compressor blades is investigated in this study.

The research focuses on the vibrational behavior of an axial compressor rotor blisk. In particular the amplitude of the forces acting as source of excitation on the vibrating blades is studied. The geometrical variability of the upstream stator is investigated as input uncertainty. The variability is modeled starting from a series of optical surface scans. A stochastic model is created to represent the measured manufacturing geometrical deviations from the nominal model. A data reduction methodology is proposed in order to represent the uncertainty with a minimal set of variables.

The manufacturing geometrical variability model allows to represent the input uncertainty and probabilistically evaluate its impact on the aeroelastic problem. An uncertainty quantification is performed in order to evaluate the resulting variability on the modal forcing acting on the vibrating rotor blades. Of particular interest is the possible rise of low engine orders due to the mistuned flow field along the annulus. A reconstruction algorithm allows the representation of the variability during one rotor revolution. The uncertainty on low harmonics of the modal rotor forcing can be therefore identified and quantified.
Suppression of Non-Synchronous-Vibration Through Intentional Aerodynamic and Structural Mistuning
Authors: Stapelfeldt Sina , Brandstetter Christoph
Published: September 2021

Non-synchronous vibrations (NSV) arising near the stall boundary of compressors are a recurring and potentially safety-critical problem in modern axial compressors and fans. Recent research has improved predictive capabilities and physical understanding of NSV but prevention measures are still lacking. This paper addresses this by systematically studying the influence of aerodynamic and structural mistuning on NSV. This is achieved by incorporating mistuning effects in a validated linear model, in which individual blade modes are modelled as single-degree of freedom mass oscillators coupled by a convected aerodynamic disturbance term. The results demonstrate that both structural and aerodynamic mistuning are effective. While structural mistuning improves stability by preventing aero-structure lock-in, aerodynamic mistuning, which locally reduces the tip blockage, attenuates the aerodynamic disturbance causing NSV. In the latter case, the circumferentially-averaged conditions are shown to be most influential, while the pattern plays a minor role. A combination of moderate aerodynamic and structural mistuning (1%) was also found to be effective. These findings are relevant for design decisions, demonstrating that small blade-to-blade variations can suppress NSV.
Numerical Study of Droplet Erosion in the First-Stage Rotor of an Axial Flow Compressor
Authors: Agati Giuliano , Borello Domenico , Di Gruttola Francesca , Rispoli Franco , Venturini Paolo , Gabriele Serena , Simone Domenico
Published: September 2021

In the present paper, a procedure for the study of the water washing in axial flow compressors is presented. The study is part of an ongoing partnership between Baker Hughes and Sapienza University of Rome aiming at maximizing the washing of the compressor blades while maintaining the erosion under specific thresholds. A computational analysis in the first part of an axial flow compressor (i.e. up to the first rotor) was carried out by using Ansys Fluent for the solution of multi-phase flow, while the water droplet erosion mechanism was modeled by the authors by using a properly developed methodology implemented in Fluent though the use of User Defined Functions. The washing process efficiency as well as the erosion rate are evaluated by introducing appropriate indexes. A parametric analysis was carried out by varying the mass flow rate of injected water. Two different computational grids were considered aiming at simulating two different configurations. In the first one the rotor blades leading edge (LE) is placed in the wake released by IGVs trailing edge (TE). In the second configuration, the rotor blades LE is located in a circumferential position corresponding to the mid-pitch between two successive IGVs. These two configurations simulate the situations of minimum and maximum water impact on the rotor blade surfaces. For all the injection conditions here considered, the configuration where IGVs trailing edges were aligned with the rotor blades LEs resulted in higher impacts and erosion on the blade pressure sides. When rotating rotor blades LEs in the middle of the IGVs vanes, rotor LEs were found to be the mostly washed regions but also the most subject to erosion phenomena. The computed indexes show the not optimal distribution of the injectors from the washing efficiency point of view.
Improvement of Aerodynamic and Strength Characteristics of a Multi-Shaft Axial Turbine of a Turboshaft Engine
Authors: Popov Grigorii , Goriachkin Evgenii , Egorov Igor , Baturin Oleg , Salnikov Anton , Solovieva Anastasia , Zhurenkov Yurii
Published: September 2021

The article presents the results of solving the complex task of increasing the rotor wheel strength factor and the efficiency of the twin-shaft axial turbine of the small turboshaft engine using methods of multidisciplinary optimization. This turbine consists of a single-stage compressor turbine (CT) and a free turbine (FT).

An analysis of the original variant of the turbine revealed that the strength factor of their rotor wheels are significantly lower than the necessary structural requirement. To eliminate the occurring problem at the first step the initial task of estimation the rotor wheels only on the basis of structural requirements was performed without taking into account aerodynamic processes. As a result, variants of the turbine rotor wheels were obtained to provide the structural constraints. They were used as starting points for the complex task of optimization, taking into account aerodynamic and deformation processes.

The task of multi-disciplinary CT and FT optimization was solved step by step. As a first step, specific CT and FT models were built, which as a result of their optimization allowed to ensure acceptable strength factor of rotor wheel and slightly increased turbine efficiency.

In the next step, a joint model of both turbines was built and tested. Its analysis showed that mutual influence of these working processes of the turbines leads to a distortion of the flow temperature distribution in the flow path, which causes a reduction of the FT blades strength criteria to an unacceptable level.

Further optimization of the joint turbine model, taking into account aerodynamic and deformation processes, made it possible to increase the efficiency of both turbines by 0.4% (for each one), providing the necessary safety margins for the disks.
Convection in Scaled Turbine Internal Cooling Passages With Additive Manufacturing Roughness
Authors: Stafford Gabriel J. , McClain Stephen T. , Hanson David R. , Kunz Robert F. , Thole Karen A.
Published: September 2021

Additive manufacturing processes, such as direct metal laser sintering (DMLS), enable creation of novel turbine cooling internal passages and systems. However, the DMLS method produces a significant and unique surface roughness. Previous work in scaled passages analyzed pressure losses and friction factors associated with the rough surfaces, as well as investigated the velocity profiles and turbulent flow characteristics within the passage. In this study, the heat transfer characteristics of scaled additively manufactured surfaces were measured using infrared (IR) thermography. Roughness panels were CNC machined from plates of aluminum 6061 to create near isothermal roughness elements when heated. Fluid resistance differences between the aluminum roughness panels and roughness panels constructed from ABS plastic using the same roughness patterns from McClain et al. (2020) were investigated. Finally, the overall thermal performance enhancements and friction losses were assessed through calculation of surface averaged “global thermal performance” ratios. The global thermal performance characterizations indicate results in-line with those found for traditional commercial roughness and slightly below traditional internal passage convection enhancement methods such as swirl chambers, dimples, and ribs. The passages investigated in this study do not include compressibility effects or the long-wavelength artifacts and channel geometric deviations observed by Wildgoose et al. (2020). However, the results of this study indicate that, based on the roughness augmentation alone, artificial convective cooling enhancers such as turbulators or dimples may still be required for additively manufactured turbine component cooling.
Mathematical Modeling of the Polytropic Process Using the Sequential Cubic Polynomial Approximation
Authors: Taher Matt
Published: September 2021

The polytropic process is used to signify the effect of “energy degradation” associated with the equipment losses, which is as an inherent irreversibility in a compression process. The polytropic process is path dependent, which entails the irreversibility associated with the system. The change of gas composition and operating conditions affect the energy degradation. In this paper the polytropic process of real gas is explained and thermodynamics and mathematical model used in Taher-Evans Cubic Polynomial Method [1], [2] is presented. The elegance of Taher-Evans Cubic Polynomial Method is its rapid solution technique and high precision for calculating polytropic efficiency as required for compressor performance testing by the ASME PTC-10 [3].
Structurally Constrained Aerodynamic Adjoint Optimisation of Highly Loaded Compressor Blades
Authors: Cuciumita Cleopatra , John Alistair , Qin Ning , Shahpar Shahrokh
Published: September 2021

Adjoint aerodynamic optimisation has recently gained increased popularity for turbomachinery applications due to the large number of parameters that can be used without incurring additional major computational costs. This work presents an adjoint based aero-structural optimisation method having efficiency as the objective function and maximum von Mises stress set as a constraint. The full optimisation loop was set up with free-form deformation for geometry parametrisation. A response surface was created beforehand for computing the maximum von Mises stress using a meshless method. A discrete adjoint approach was used to obtain the gradients of the objective function with respect to each design parameter, while the constraint gradients were computed using finite differences. A sequential least squares programming algorithm was used as the optimizer. Tests carried out on a highly loaded compressor blade showed that the method successfully increases the efficiency by more than 3% while maintaining the maximum stress under the imposed value. The results also showed that the constrained optimisation loses about 1% in potential efficiency gain compared to the same optimisation process without stress constraint. Overall, the work provides a methodology for conducting structurally constrained adjoint aerodynamic optimisation that can be applied for large number of design parameters while maintaining low computational costs. It also provides reference for constructing and selecting a response surface to be used in the optimisation process.
Flow Response of an Industrial Gas Turbine Combustor To Acoustic Forcing Extracted From Unforced Data
Authors: Beuth Jan Paul , von Saldern Jakob G. R. , Kaiser Thomas Ludwig , Reichel Thoralf G. , Paschereit Christian Oliver , Ćosić Bernhard , Oberleithner Kilian
Published: September 2021

Gas turbine combustors are commonly operated with lean premix flames, allowing for high efficiencies and low emissions. These operating conditions are susceptible to thermoacoustic pulsations, originating from acoustic-flame coupling. To reveal this coupling, experiments or simulations of acoustically forced combustion systems are necessary, which are very challenging for real-scale applications. In this work we investigate the possibility to determine the flame response to acoustic forcing from snapshots of the unforced flow. This approach is based on three central hypothesis: first, the flame response is driven by flow fluctuations, second, these flow fluctuations are dominated by coherent structures driven by hydrodynamic instabilities, and third, these instabilities are driven by stochastic forcing of the background turbulence. As a consequence the dynamics in the natural flow should be low-rank and very similar to those of the acoustically forced system. In this work, the methodology is applied to experimental data of an industry-scale swirl combustor. A resolvent analysis is conducted based on the linearized Navier-Stokes equations to assure analytically the low-rank behavior of the flow dynamics. Then, these dynamics are extracted from flow snapshots using spectral proper orthogonal decomposition (SPOD). The extended SPOD is applied to determine the heat release rate fluctuations that are correlated with the flow dynamics. The low-rank flow and flame dynamics determined from the analytic and data-driven approach are then compared to the flow response determined from a classic phase average of the acoustically forced flow, which allow the research hypothesis to be evaluated. It is concluded that for the present combustor, the flow and flame dynamics are low-rank for a wider frequency range and the response to harmonic forcing can be determined quite accurately from unforced snapshots. The methodology further allows to isolate the frequency range where the flame response is predominantly driven by hydrodynamic instabilites.
Virtual Gas Turbines Part II: an Automated Whole-Engine Secondary Air System Model Generation
Authors: Kulkarni Davendu Y. , di Mare Luca
Published: September 2021

The design and analysis of the secondary air system (SAS) of gas turbine engine is a complex and time-consuming process because of its complicated geometry topology. The conventional SAS design-analysis model generation process is quite tedious, time consuming. It is still heavily dependent on human expertise and thus incurs high time-cost.

This paper presents an automated, whole-engine SAS flow network model generation methodology. During the SAS preprocessing step, the method accesses a pre-built whole-engine geometry model created using a novel, in-house, feature-based geometry modelling environment. It then transforms the engine geometry features into the features suitable for SAS flow network analysis. The proposed method not only extracts the geometric information from the computational geometry but also retrieves additional non-geometric attributes such as, rotational frames, boundary types, materials and boundary conditions etc. Apart from ensuring geometric consistency, this methodology also establishes a bi-directional information exchange protocol between engine geometry model and SAS flow network model, which enables making engine geometry modifications based on SAS analysis results.

The application of this feature mapping methodology is demonstrated by generating the secondary air system (SAS) flow network model of a modern three-shaft gas turbine engine. This capability is particularly useful for the integration of geometry modeler with the simulation framework. The present SAS model is generated within a few minutes, without any human intervention, which significantly reduces the SAS design-analysis time-cost. The proposed method allows performing a large number of whole-engine SAS simulations, design optimisations and fast re-design activities.
Bayesian Optimization for Multi-Objective High-Dimensional Turbine Aero Design
Authors: Zhang Yiming , Ghosh Sayan , Vandeputte Thomas , Wang Liping
Published: September 2021

Industrial design fundamentally relies on high-dimensional multi-objective optimization. Bayesian Optimization (BO) based on Gaussian Processes (GPs) has been shown to be effective for this practice where new designs are picked in each iteration for varying objectives including optimization and model refinement. This paper introduces two industrial applications of BO for turbine aero design. The first application is GE’s Aviation & Power DT4D Turbo Aero Design with 32 design variables. It has a single objective to maximize with 32 input/design variables and thus considered high-dimensional in terms of the input space. BO has significantly succeeded the traditional design schemes. It has been shown that finding the maximum-EI points (inner-loop optimization) could be critical and the influence of inner-loop optimization was evaluated. The second application is for multi-objective optimization. Each simulation run is the aggregate result from multiple CFD runs tuning geometry and took 24 hours to complete. BO has been capable to extend the existing Pareto front with a few additional runs. BO has been searching along the border of the design space and therefore motivate the open-up of design space exploration. For both applications, BO successfully guide the CFD run and allocate design variables more optimum than previous design approaches.
Analysis and Design of Centrifugal Blowers for the Pressure Ratio Range 1.2 - 1.8
Authors: Howard Jonathon , Engeda Abraham
Published: September 2021

Centrifugal/centrifugal compressor designs within pressure ratio range of 2.0–4.0 have well-established guidelines for most common gases, and it is possible to determine optimum compressor geometry for numerous applications as characterized by specific speed or flow coefficient. Specific speed can be correlated to various combinations of inlet tip-exit diameter ratio, inlet hub-tip diameter ratio, blade exit back-sweep, and inlet-tip absolute tangential velocity for solid body pre-whirl. For centrifugal compressors in the pressure ratio range of 1.2–1.8, commonly known as blowers, there lacks organized and systematic optimum design procedures.

Blowers, among many others uses, are widely used in HVAC, and provide air for ventilation and industrial process requirements. Due to broad applications in industry, blowers comprise an important sub-group of turbomachinery. This paper provides analysis and design data for blowers in the pressure ratio range of 1.2–1.8. Specific speed is determined from the data provided, and accurate correlations to possible achievable maximum efficiencies are established within a good operational range. Furthermore, plots of impeller exit flow angle, inlet tip-exit diameter ratio, inlet hub-tip diameter ratio, head coefficient, and blade exit back-sweep are provided over a range of specific speeds for various tip speeds to permit rapid selection of optimum blower size and shape for a variety of applications. The design procedure follows a method that enables efficient blade passage sizing. When the blower inlet and outlet velocities, diameters, blade widths, and blade angles are determined and fixed, the blade passage and profile will be sized by applying an energy, momentum, and continuity balance analysis. The application of these equations equates the proper pressure and velocity distribution throughout the blower impeller. Generally, the passage is designed to accommodate an optimum prescribed diffusion rate.
Coupling of Mainstream Velocity Fluctuations With Plenum Fed Film Cooling Jets
Authors: Sperling Spencer , Christensen Louis , Celestina Richard , Mathison Randall , Aksoy Hakan , Liu Jong , Nickol Jeremy
Published: September 2021

Modern gas turbine engines require film cooling to meet efficiency requirements. An integral part of the design process is the numerical simulation of the heat transfer to film cooled components and the resulting metal temperature. Industry design simulations are frequently performed using steady Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations. However, much research has shown limitations in the use of steady RANS to predict film cooling performance. Prediction errors are typically attributed to poor modelling of turbulent mixing. Recent experiments measuring time-accurate film cooling jet behavior have indicated unsteady jet motions in sweeping and separation-reattachment modes contribute to the dispersion of the cooling jet along the cooled surface and the resulting time-averaged distribution. This study identifies the physical phenomena acting on film cooling jets issuing from fan-shaped film cooling holes, including acoustic resonance, which drive the unsteady behavior. Turbulent velocity fluctuations in the stream-wise direction cause corresponding fluctuations in the film cooling jet blowing ratio, which in turn reduces the time-averaged film cooling performance compared to the steady behavior that would be predicted with time-averaged blowing ratio.

The plenum film cooling supply geometry acts as a Helmholtz resonator. An unsteady RANS (URANS) simulation including unsteady forcing is compared to experimental data. Helmholtz frequency excitation causes film cooling jet motions that qualitatively match the experiment. Resonant behavior causes the periods of lower blowing ratio to contribute to coolant dissipation rather than increased surface coverage.

Results from URANS simulations demonstrate that replicating the unsteady jet motion is an important step in film cooling predictions. Starting with a steady baseline prediction, the URANS model used in this study is observed to reduce the overprediction of lateral average effectiveness by more than 50%, underlining the advantages of modeling the unsteady components of the Navier-Stokes equations.
Performance Modification of an Erosion-Damaged Large-Sized Centrifugal Fan
Authors: Aldi Nicola , Casari Nicola , Pinelli Michele , Suman Alessio , Vulpio Alessandro , Saccenti Paolo
Published: September 2021

Heavy-duty fans are frequently employed in industrial processes that involve the operation of contaminated gases. Particle-laden flows may cause erosion issues, generating several drawbacks such as unbalanced load, vibrations and structural damage responsible for performance degradation and early failure. In this paper, the erosion behavior of a large-sized centrifugal fan employed in clinker production is studied by numerical simulation. Based on preliminary numerical results for the undamaged fan configuration and on-field erosion detections, the geometry damage effects due to the erosion process are analyzed. The severe erosive conditions under which these machines operate determine a progressive reduction in wall thickness of specific fan zones, which may finally result in the formation of holes. This, in turn, makes the internal flow field changing, affecting contaminant trajectories and impact characteristics. CFD predictions show that erosion-induced damage on the fan inlet cone causes a distortion of the velocity profile immediately upstream of the impeller, which influences the impeller flow. Simultaneously, the erosion process changes, leading to a modification of particle impact areas, impact kinematic characteristics and erosion intensity. This investigation focuses on the importance of erosion predictions for maintenance planning and scheduling and demonstrates how localized damage could be responsible for larger damage, involving the structural integrity of the installation.
An Experimental Investigation Into the Impacts of Varying the Circumferential Extent of Tip-Low Total Pressure Distortion on Fan Stability
Authors: Allen Oliver , Castillo Pardo Alejandro , Hall Cesare A.
Published: September 2021

Future jet engines with shorter and thinner intakes present a greater risk of intake separation. This leads to a complex tip-low total pressure distortion pattern of varying circumferential extent. In this paper, an experimental study has been completed to determine the impact of such distortion patterns on the operating range and stalling behaviour of a low-speed fan rig. Unsteady casing static pressure measurements have been made during stall events in 11 circumferential extents of tip-low distortion. The performance has been measured and detailed area traverses have been performed at rotor inlet and outlet in 3 of these cases — clean, axisymmetric tip-low and half-annulus tip-low distortion. Axisymmetric tip-low distortion is found to reduce stall margin by 8%. It does not change the stalling mechanism compared to clean inflow. In both cases, high incidence at the tip combined with growth of the casing boundary layer drive instability. In contrast, half-annulus tip-low distortion is found to reduce stall margin by only 4% through a different mechanism. The distortion causes disturbances in the measured casing pressure signals to grow circumferentially in regions of high incidence. Stall occurs when these disturbances do not decay fully in the undistorted region. As the extent of the distorted sector is increased, the stability margin is found to reduce continuously. However, the maximum disturbance size before stall inception is found to occur at intermediate values of distorted sector extent. This corresponds to distortion patterns that provide sufficient circumferential length of undistorted region for disturbances to decay fully before they return to the distorted sector. It is found that as the extent of the tip-low distortion sector is increased, the circumferential size of the stall cell that develops is reduced. However, its speed is found to remain approximately constant at 50% of the rotor blade speed.
A Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Guided Engineering Solution for Performance Improvement of a Multistage Pump
Authors: Javaherchi Teymour , Brahmeshwarkar Susheel , Faruq Raja , Deshpande Chinmay
Published: September 2021

This work will demonstrate how the Energy Recovery Inc. (ERI) engineering team improved the efficiency of a multistage pump by about 10% at the first stage, which translated into a 3% increase in the overall multistage pump efficiency; according to a set of engineering calculations and review of the archived in-house test data for the legacy multistage pumps, it was hypothesized that the performance pain-point of the pump was inefficient performance of the first stage, due to the formation of a strong pre-swirl right before its inlet. The validity of this hypothesis then was confirmed via RANS CFD simulations of the flow field inside the inlet suction housing and pump impeller. Same CFD methodology was used to evaluate multiple engineering solutions to reduce the strength of the inflow pre-swirl by modifying the inlet suction housing geometry. The obtained RANS CFD solutions guided the engineering team towards the most promising hardware modification proposal. The proposed geometrical modification of the inlet suction housing was implemented and tested on different multistage pumps. All of the test results validated the obtained RANS CFD numerical solution.

The state of the art in this successful performance improvement process was first the on-point hypothesis development based on fundamentals of engineering and archived test data. Second, the proper RANS CFD methodology development to model/confirm the initial hypothesis and vet all possible engineering solutions to maximize the multistage pump efficiently and accurately. This can be a great example for various relevant turbomachinery industrial applications.
Data-Driven Approach for Identifying Mistuning in As-Manufactured Blisks
Authors: Kelly Sean T. , Lupini Andrea , Epureanu Bogdan I.
Published: September 2021

Sector-to-sector geometry or material property variations in as-manufactured bladed disks, or blisks, can result in significantly greater vibration responses during operation compared to nominally cyclic symmetric designs. The dynamics of blisks are sensitive to these unavoidable deviations, known as mistuning, making the identification of mistuning in as-manufactured blisks necessary for accurately predicting their vibration. As in previous mistuning modeling and identification approaches, the mistuning of interest is small and is parameterized by using deviations in cantilever blade-alone frequencies. Such mistuning parameterization is popular because it can be applied through blade-to-blade stiffness deviations in computational reduced-order models used to predict blisk dynamics. Previous approaches to identify such mistuning parameters often require the identification of modal information or blade-isolation techniques such blade detuning using masses or adding damping pads. However, modal information can be difficult to obtain accurately even in optimal bench conditions. Additionally, in practice it can be difficult to isolate individual blades by restricting blade motion around the blisk or detuning individual blades through added masses due to geometric constraints. In this paper, we present a method for mistuning identification using a data-driven approach based on a neural network. The network is first trained using surrogate computational data. Thus, the data-driven portion of the approach is executed using surrogate computational methods. With the trained network, mistuning in all sectors of blisks with the same nominal geometry can be identified by using a small number of forced responses and the forcing phase information from traveling-wave excitation. In this approach, no system or sector-level modal response information, restrictive blade isolation, or mass detuning are required. We additionally present a method for forcing frequency selection and response conditioning to improve identification accuracy. Validation of this approach is presented using a finite element blisk model containing stiffness mistuning within the blades to create computationally generated surrogate data. It is shown that mistuning can be predicted accurately using forced responses containing a significant amount of absolute and relative measurement noise, mimicking responses collected from experimental measurements. In addition, it is shown that mistuning can be predicted independently and accurately using different engine orders of excitation in regions of high modal density.
Application of a Viscous Through-Flow Model to a Modern Axial Low-Pressure Compressor
Authors: Budo Arnaud , Terrapon Vincent E. , Arnst Maarten , Hillewaert Koen , Mouriaux Sophie , Rodriguez Benoit , Bartholet Jules
Published: September 2021

This paper describes the evaluation of a newly developed viscous time-marching through-flow solver to two test cases to assess the applicability of the method using correlations from the literature to modern blade designs. The test cases are the classic axial compressor stage CME2 and a modern highly loaded multi-stage axial low-pressure compressor developed by Safran Aero Boosters. The through-flow solver is based on the Navier-Stokes equations and uses a pseudo-time marching method. The closure models currently include terms of major importance: the blade forces and the Reynolds stress. The results are compared to higher-fidelity results including three-dimensional RANS simulations to assess their reliability for design and off-design conditions. The main originality of this work is the evaluation of the CFD-based method in the context of a compressor with highly three-dimensional blades, as such an analysis is not commonly found in the literature.

The solver gives realistic predictions of loss and deviation for the compressor stage CME2 at both design and off-design operating conditions. Regarding the second test case, the through-flow simulations based on theoretically non-adapted correlations for such a compressor are still in good agreement with RANS simulations, although the results for the 2nd test case are probably not as good as for the first. These results are a promising first step towards the use of this through-flow model for industrial design. Regarding the ongoing closure models development, suggestions to extend the loss models to a larger range of designs are discussed.