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The purpose of this paper is to numerically study inflow turbulence effects on the transitional flow in a high pressure linear transonic turbine at the design incidence.

The three‐dimensional (3‐D) compressible turbulent flow in a turbine inlet guide vane is simulated using a finite volume based fluid solver coupled with dynamic large eddy simulation (LES) computations to investigate the effects of varying inflow turbulence length scale and the turbulence intensity on the aero‐thermal flow characteristics and the laminar‐turbulent transition phenomena. The computational analyses are extended to very high exit Reynolds number flow conditions to further study the effect of high exit Reynolds numbers on the transitional behavior of the present flow around the inlet guide vane cascades of the turbine. The calculations are performed with varying degree of inflow turbulence intensity values ranging from 0.8 to 6 percent and the inflow turbulence length scales ranging from one to five percent of pitch for different exit isentropic Mach and Reynolds numbers.

The numerical predictions in comparison with the experimental data demonstrate that the level of inflow turbulence closure provided by the present LES computations offers a reliable framework to predict complex turbulent flow and transition phenomena in high free‐stream turbulence environments of high pressure linear turbines.

This is the first instance in which both artificially modified random flow generation method in association with the dynamic procedure of LES application is employed to represent the realistic inflow turbulence conditions in the high pressure turbine and to resolve the transitional flow in a dynamic approach.

Contra‐rotating turbines offer reduced size, weight, and cooling requirements, compared to conventional co‐rotating machinery. In spite of the associated mechanical complexity, their aero‐thermal performance is superior to conventional turbines, not only due to the elimination of stator blade rows, but also because lower turning airfoils can be implemented as a result. The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology to determine the optimum velocity triangles of the turbine, together with a two‐dimensional design and optimization tool to minimize the blade unsteady force using radial basis function network, coupled to a genetic algorithm. The proposed design methodology is illustrated with the aerodynamic design of a contra‐rotating two‐axis turbine, which is able to deliver the power necessary to drive the LOX and LH2 pumps of an improved expander rocket engine.

This paper presents a methodology to determine the optimum velocity triangles of the turbine, together with a two dimensional design and optimization tool to minimize the blade unsteady force using radial basis function network, coupled to a genetic algorithm. The proposed design methodology is illustrated with the aerodynamic design of a contra‐rotating two‐axis turbine, which is able to deliver the power necessary to drive the LOX and LH2 pumps of an expander rocket engine, namely the Japanese LE‐5B.

The airfoil optimizer allows reductions in the downstream pressure distortion of 40 per cent. Consequently, the unsteady forces in the downstream blade row are minimized.

This paper presents to turbomachinery designers in liquid propulsion a novel tool to enhance the aerodynamic performance while reducing the unsteady forces on the blades.

Part II of the two‐part paper describes an aeroelastic analysis program and its application for stability computations of turbomachinery blade rows. Unsteady Euler or Navier‐Stokes equations are solved on dynamically deforming, body fitted, and grid to obtain the aeroelastic characteristics. Blade structural response is modeled using a modal representation of the blade and the work‐per‐cycle method is used to evaluate the stability characteristics. Non‐zero inter‐blade phase angle is modeled using phase‐lagged boundary conditions. Results are presented for a flat plate helical fan, a turbine cascade and a high‐speed fan, to highlight the aeroelastic analysis method, and its capability and accuracy. Obtained results showed good correlation with existing experimental, analytical and numerical results. Numerical analysis also showed that given the computational resources available currently, engineering solutions with good accuracy are possible using higher fidelity analyses.

The purpose of this paper is to numerically investigate the effect of guide vane unsteady passing wake on the rotor blade tip aerothermal performance with different tip clearances.

The geometry and flow conditions of the first stage of GE-E3 high-pressure turbine have been used to obtain the blade tip three-dimensional heat transfer characteristics. The first stage of GE-E3 high-pressure turbine has 46 guide vanes and 76 rotor blades, and the ratio of the vane to the blade is simplified to 38:76 to compromise the computational resources and accuracy. Namely, each computational domain comprises of one guide vane passage and two rotor blade passages. The investigations are conducted at three different tip gaps of 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 per cent of the average blade span.

The results show that the overall discrepancy of the heat transfer coefficient between steady results and unsteady time-averaged results is quite small, but the dramatic growth of the instantaneous heat transfer coefficient along the pressure side is in excess of 20 per cent. The change of the aerothermal performance is mainly driven by turbulence-level fluctuations of the unsteady flow field within gap regions. In addition, the gap size expansion has a marginal impact on the variation ratio of tip unsteady aerothermal performances, even though it has a huge influence on the leakage flow state within the tip region.

This paper emphasizes the change ratio of unsteady instantaneous heat transfer characteristics and detailed the mechanism of blade tip unsteady heat transfer coefficient fluctuations, which provide some guidance for the future blade tip design and optimization.

Discusses some of the stability, control and operational problems arising in the design of supersonic aircraft. The changes in the flow patterns about an aerofoil as a function of Mach number are reviewed and typical patterns are given for M 0·85, 0·95, 1·05 and 1·35. This forms a basis for discussion of the following problems: wing drop which occurs near the drag rise and is the result of compressibility effects and small differences in the manufacture of the wings; ‘pitch‐up’ in which the aircraft during pull‐out after a dive or during a turn suddenly operates under a load factor considerably higher than the pilot intended. Unaccelerated stability, high landing speeds, and approach and landing rates of descent are also discussed. These problems are all studied for transonic and supersonic aircraft and the differences between the two cases are indicated. A case of severe tail buffetting is discussed which occurred when testing the after‐burner of a high thrust jet engine in the bomb bay installation of a B‐45 aircraft used as an engine test‐bed.

One of the most critical gas turbine engine components, the rotor blade tip and casing, is exposed to high thermal load. It becomes a significant design challenge to protect the turbine materials from this severe situation. The purpose of this paper is to study numerically the effect of turbine inlet temperature on the tip leakage flow structure and heat transfer.

In this paper, the effect of turbine inlet temperature on the tip leakage flow structure and heat transfer has been studied numerically. Uniform low (LTIT: 444 K) and high (HTIT: 800 K) turbine inlet temperature, as well as non‐uniform inlet temperature have been considered.

The results showed the higher turbine inlet temperature yields the higher velocity and temperature variations in the leakage flow aerodynamics and heat transfer. For a given turbine geometry and on‐design operating conditions, the turbine power output can be increased by 1.33 times, when the turbine inlet temperature increases 1.80 times. Whereas the averaged heat fluxes on the casing and the blade tip become 2.71 and 2.82 times larger, respectively. Therefore, about 2.8 times larger cooling capacity is required to keep the same turbine material temperature. Furthermore, the maximum heat flux on the blade tip of high turbine inlet temperature case reaches up to 3.348 times larger than that of LTIT case. The effect of the interaction of stator and rotor on heat transfer features is also explored using unsteady simulations. The non‐uniform turbine inlet temperature enhances the heat flux fluctuation on the blade tip and casing.

The increase of turbine inlet temperature is usually proposed to achieve the higher turbine efficiency and the higher turbine power output. However, it has not been reported how much the heat transfer into the blade tip and casing increases with the increased turbine inlet temperature. This paper investigates the heat transfer distributions on the rotor blade tip and casing, associated with the tip leakage flow under high and low turbine inlet temperatures, as well as non‐uniform temperature distribution.

The authors aim to present a procedure for the parallel, steady and unsteady conjugate, Navier–Stokes/heat-conduction rotor-stator interaction analysis of multi-blade-row, film-cooled, turbine airfoil sections. A new grid generation procedure for multiple blade-row configurations, including walls, thermal barrier coatings, plenums, and cooling tubes, is discussed.

Steady, multi-blade-row interaction effects on the flow and wall thermal fields are predicted using a Reynolds’s-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) simulation in conjunction with an inter-blade-row mixing plane. Unsteady, aero-thermal interaction solutions are determined using time-accurate sliding grids between the stator and rotor with an unsteady RANS model. Non-reflecting boundary condition treatments are utilized in both steady and unsteady approaches at all inlet, exit and inter-blade-row boundaries. Parallelization techniques are also discussed.

The procedures developed in this research are compared against experimental data from the Air Force Research Laboratory’s turbine research facility.

The software presented in this paper is useful as both the design and analysis tool for fluid system and turbomachinery engineers.

This research presents a novel approach for the simultaneous solution of fluid flow and heat transfer in film-cooled rotating turbine sections. The software developed in this research is validated against experimental results for 2D flow, and the methods discussed are extendable to 3D.

This paper introduces a novel algorithm for solving the two‐dimensional Euler and Navier‐Stokes compressible equations using a one‐step effective flux vector‐splitting implicit method. The new approach makes a contribution by deriving a simple and yet effective implicit scheme which has the features of an exact factorization and avoids the solving of block‐diagonal system of equations. This results in a significant improvement in computational efficiency as compared to the standard Beam‐Warming and Steger implicit factored schemes. The current work has advantageous characteristics in the creation of higher order numerical implicit terms. The scheme is stable if we could select the correct values of the scalars (λ±ξ and λ±η) for the respective split flux‐vectors (F± and G±) along the ξ− and η−directions. A simple solving procedure is suggested with the discussion of the implicit boundary conditions, stability analysis, time‐step length and convergence criteria. This method is spatially second‐order accurate, fully conservative and implemented with general co‐ordinate transformations for treating complex geometries. Also, the scheme shows a good convergence rate and acceptable accuracy in capturing the shock waves. Results calculated from the program developed include transonic flows through convergence‐divergence nozzle and turbine cascade. Comparisons with other well‐documented experimental data are presented and their agreements are very promising. The extension of the algorithm to 3D simulation is straightforward and under way.

Proposes a measure to stabilize the fourth(fifth)‐order high resolution schemes for the compressible Navier‐Stokes equations. Solves the N‐S equations of the volume fluxes and the low‐Reynolds number k‐ε turbulence model in general curvilinear co‐ordinates by the delta‐form implicit finite difference methods. Notes that, in order to simulate the flow containing weak discontinuities accurately, it is very effective to use some higher‐order TVD upstream‐difference schemes in the right‐hand side of the equations of these methods; however, the higher‐order correction terms of such schemes in general amplify the numerical disturbances. Therefore, restricts these terms here by operating the minmod functions to the curvatures so as to suppress the occurrence of new inflection points. Computes an unsteady transonic turbine cascade flow where vortex streets occur from the trailing edge of blades and interact with shock waves. Finds that the stabilization measure improves not only the computational results but also the convergency for such a complicated flow problem.

The purpose of this paper is to characterize the blade–row interaction and investigate the effects of axial spacing and clocking in a two-stage high-pressure axial turbine.

Flow simulations were performed by means of Ansys-CFX code. First, the effects of blade–row stacking on the expansion performance were investigated by considering the stage interface. Second the axial spacing and the clocking positions between successive blade–rows were varied, the flow field considering the frozen interface was solved, and the flow interaction was assessed.

The axial spacing seems affecting the turbine isentropic efficiency in both design and off-design operating conditions. Besides, there are differences in aerodynamic loading and isentropic efficiency between the maximum efficiency clocking positions where the wakes of the first-stage vanes impinge around the leading edge of the second-stage vanes, compared to the clocking position of minimum efficiency where the ingested wakes pass halfway of the second-stage vanes.

Research implications include understanding the effects of stacking, axial spacing and clocking in axial turbine stages, improving the expansion properties by determining the adequate spacing and locating the leading edge of vanes and blades in both first and second stages with respect to the maximum efficiency clocking positions.

Practical implications include improving the aerodynamic design of high-pressure axial turbine stages.

The expansion process in a two-stage high-pressure axial turbine and the effects of blade–row spacing and clocking are elucidated thoroughly.