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Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS), unsteady RANS (URANS), and large eddy simulation (LES) numerical approaches are clear candidates for the understanding of turbine blade flows. For such blades, the flow unsteady nature appears critical in certain situations and URANS or LES should provide more physical understanding as illustrated here for a laboratory high outlet subsonic Mach blade specifically designed to ease numerical validation. Although RANS offers good estimates of the mean isentropic Mach number and boundary layer thickness, LES and URANS are the only approaches that reproduce the trailing edge flow. URANS predicts the mean trailing edge wake but only LES offers a detailed view of the flow. Indeed, LESs identify flow phenomena in agreement with the experiment, with sound waves emitted from the trailing edge separation point that propagate upstream and interact with the lower blade suction side [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aerodynamic instabilities such as stall and surge may occur in compressors, possibly leading to mechanical failures so their avoidance is crucial. A better understanding of those phenomena and an accurate prediction are necessary to improve both the performance and the safety. A surge event in a compressor threatens the mechanical integrity of the aircraft engine, and this remains true for a research compressor on a test rig. As a result, few experimental data on surge are available. Moreover, there are technological, restrictive constraints that exist on test rigs and limit severely the type of data obtainable experimentally. This partially explains why numerical simulation has become a usual, complementaiy and convenient tool to collect data in a compressor, as it does not disturb the flow nor does it encounter technological limits. Despite the inherent difficulties, an entire surge cycle has been simulated in a high-speed, high-pressure, multistage research compressor, using an implicit, time-accurate, 3D compressible unsteady Reynoldsaveraged Navier-Stokes solver. First, the paper presents the main features of the surge cycle obtained, along with those from the experimental cycle, for a validation purpose. Four phases compose the surge cycle: surge inception, the reversed-flow phase, the recovery phase, and the repressurization of the compressor flow. All of them are described, and focus is put on surge inception and the reversed-flow phase, as they induce greater risk for the mechanical integrity of the machine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aerodynamic instabilities such as stall and surge may lead to mechanical failures. They can be avoided by better understanding and accurate prediction of the associated flow phenomena. Numerical simulations of rotating stall do not often match well the experiments as the number of cells and/or their rotational speed are not correctly predicted. The volumes surrounding the compressor have known effects on rotating stall flow patterns; therefore, an increased need for more realistic simulations has emerged. In that context, this paper addresses a comparison of numerical stall simulation in a compressor alone with a numerical stall simulation including the additional compressor rig. This study investigates the influence of the upstream and downstream volumes of the compressor rig on the rotating stall flow patterns and the consequences on surge inception in a high-pressure, high-speed research compressor. The numerical simulations were conducted using an implicit, time-accurate, 3D compressible Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) solver. First, rotating stall is simulated in both configurations, and then the outlet nozzles are further closed to bring the compressors to surge. The numerical results show that when the compressor rig is accounted for, fewer cells develop in the third stage and their rotational speed is slightly higher. The major difference linked to the presence of the rig lays in the existence of a ID low frequency oscillation of the static pressure, which affects the entire flow and modifies surge inception. The analysis of the results leads to a calculation of the thermo-acoustic modes in the whole configuration, which shows that this low frequency corresponds to the third thermo-acoustic mode of the complete test-rig. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the investigations peiformed to better understand unsteady flows that develop in a three-stage high-pressure compressor. More specifically, this study focuses on rotor-stator interactions and tip leakage flow effects on overall performance and aerodynamic stability. The investigation method is based on three-dimensional unsteady RANS simulations, considering the natural spatial periodicity of the compressor. Indeed, all information related to rotor-stator interactions can be computed. A comparison is first done with experimental measurements to outline the capacity of the numerical method to predict overall performance and unsteady flows. The results show that the simulation correctly estimates most flow features in the multistage compressor. Then numerical data obtained for three configurations of the same compressor are analyzed and compared. Configurations 1 and 2 consider two sets of tip clearance dimensions and a casing treatment based on a honeycomb design is applied for configuration 3. Detailed investigations of the flow at the same operating line show that the tip leakage flow is responsible for the loss of stability in the last stage. An increase by 30% of the tip clearance dimension dramatically reduces the stable operating range (by 40% with respect to the standard configuration). A modal analysis shows that the stall process in this case involves the perturbation of the flow in the last rotor by upstream stator wakes, leading to the development of a rotating instability. The control device designed and investigated in this study allows for reducing the sensitivity of the compressor to tip leakage flow by recovering the initial stable operating range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the absence of instabilities, the large deterministic scales of turbomachinery flows resulting from the periodic rotation of blades can be considered periodic in time. Such flows are not simulated with enough efficiency when using classical unsteady techniques as a transient regime must be by-passed. New techniques, dedicated to time-periodic flows and based on Fourier analysis, have been developed recently. Among these, harmonic balance methods cast a time-periodic flow computation in several coupled stead)' flow computations. A time-domain harmonic balance method is derived and adapted to phase lag periodic conditions to allow the simnulation of only one blade passage per row regardless of row blade counts. Sophisticated space and time interpolations are involved and detailed. The test case is a single stage subsonic compressor. A convergence study of the present harmonic balance is performed and compared with a reference well-resolved classical unsteady flow simulation. The results show, on one hand, the good behavior of the harmonic balance and its ability to correctly predict global quantities as well as local flow pattern; on the other hand, the simulation time is drastically reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increase in computing power, large eddy simulation (LES) emerges as a promising technique to improve both knowledge of complex physics and reliability of turbomachinery flow predictions. However, these simulations are very expensive for industrial applications, especially when a 360 deg configuration should be considered. The objective of this paper is thus to adapt the well-known phase-lagged conditions to the LES approach by replacing the traditional Fourier series decomposition (FSD) with a compression method that does not make any assumptions on the spectrum of the flow. Several methods are reviewed, and the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) is retained. This new method is first validated on a flow around a circular cylinder with rotating downstream blocks. The results show significant improvements with respect to the FSD. It is then applied to unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) simulations of a single-stage compressor in 2.5D and 3D as a first validation step toward single-passage LES of turbomachinery configuration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the numerical simulation of technologies to increase the compressor performances. The objective is to extend the stable operating range of an axial compressor stage using passive control devices located in the tip region. First, the behavior of the tip leakage flow is investigated in the compressor without control. The simulation shows an increase in the interaction between the tip leakage flow and the main flow when the mass flow is reduced, a phenomenon responsible for the development of a large flow blockage region at the rotor leading edge. A separation of the rotor suction side boundary layer is also observed at near stall conditions. Then, two approaches are tested in order to control these flows in the tip region. The first one is a casing treatment with nonaxisymmetric slots. The method showed a good ability to control the tip leakage flow but failed to reduce the boundary layer separation on the suction side. However an increase in the operability was observed but with a penalty for the efficiency. The second approach is a blade treatment that consists of a longitudinal groove built in the tip of each rotor blade. The simulation pointed out that the device is able to control partially all the critical flows with no penalty for the efficiency. Finally, some recommendations for the design of passive treatments are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]