APPACET
Assessment of Physical Process And Code Evaluation for Turbomachinery flows
Contract no. BRPR-CT-97-0610
Project no. BE97-4185
Coordinator: Vrije Universiteit Brussel Dept. Fluid Mechanics (BE)
start: January 1998
duration: 30 months
status: partner
Contractors:
Vrije Universiteit Brussel VUB (B), National Technical University Athens (GR), UPMC-LEMFI (F), Ecole Centrale de Lyon ECL (F), University of Florence DEF (I), DLR Cologne (D), University of Durham (UK), European Gas Turbine EGT (UK), Fiat Avio S.p.A. (I), Snecma Moteurs (F)
Links:
Abstract:
Objectives and content Technological advances in turbomachinery, particularly at the compressor side, either for aerospace or power generation applications, are largely based on the capacity of industry to model numerically the aerothermal behaviour of advanced components. With the trend towards higher airfoil loading in axial compressors and the need for higher accuracy in performance prediction (including at off-design conditions), future simulation tools must be able to provide better understanding of unsteady rotor/stator interactions and the associated loss sources. These industrial objectives clearly require an improved knowledge at the modelisation level, supported by focused experiments, of detailed flow processes, which were not considered in the previous generation of design tools. The major objectives of the project are the understanding, evaluation and modelling of the main unsteady loss sources in compressor rotor-stator interactions, through new advanced experimental data coupled to systematic and controlled numerical simulations, at the full unsteady and quasi-steady levels, with the objective to provide the designer with modelling guidelines. Unsteady phenomena are dependent on turbulent and eventually transition effects, but it is not considered feasible, at the present level of flow modelling, to assess the validity of turbulence models on unsteady data. Therefore, this effort should be performed on steady simulations of test cases representative of the complex 3D flow structure of advanced compressors, The objectives of the project, are implemented through four separate steps: validation of turbulence models on steady single blade row test cases, including one new set of data, by controlled monitoring of the separate effects of grid dependence and turbulence models, with the expectation that the most appropriate 'steady' turbulence models will be valid for the unsteady flow simulations. gaining a better understanding of the unsteady multiple blade row interactions in axial compressor stages by the collection of new data using advanced instrumentations on heavily instrumented rigs, of industrial relevance, with two sets of new experiments, coupled to full unsteady simulations on fine grids of high resolution. based on the most adequate turbulence models, as resulting from the validation task on the steady test cases, improving modelling capabilities of quasi-steady and full unsteady rotor-stator interaction models based on the new test cases, focusing on issues of identification and quantification of dominant unsteady loss sources. an action towards dissemination and communication, involving a data base initiative and a workshop, through a strong connection to an existing European scientific and industrial network. Conclusions will be drawn concerning the merits of various models, their range of validity at design and hopefully at off-design conditions. A major spin-off of the technology of aero-engines is to be found in the gas turbine industry. The present project aims also at contributing to this objective through exchanges of basic design methodology improvements between the aero- engine and gas turbine industries. The consortium of partners is formed by five university groups involved in experimental and CFD work on turbomachines, one research centre dedicated to propulsion research, three industrial partners and the support of a European Research Network on Turbomachinery, for an action towards dissemination and data base.
Publications:
- Schmitt S., Eulitz F., Wallscheid L., Arnone A., Marconcini M., 2001, "Evaluation of Unsteady CFD Methods by Their Application to a Transonic Propfan Stage", ASME Turbo Expo 2001, New Orleans, Louisiana, 4-7 June, 2001, ASME paper 2001-GT-310.