• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.24 no.10
• /
• pp.1343-1350
• /
• 2000

The evolutionary structure of tip vortices has been investigated with a two-dimensional LDV system for a plain and a slotted blade, respectively. To analyze the effect of slots which bypasses a part of main stream into the tip face, velocity profiles, vortex sizes, their displacements and turbulence intensities during one revolution of the rotor were measured by the phase averaging process. For the comparison of circumferential velocity components of the plain blade and the slotted blade, the peak values of the slotted blade were lower than those of the plain blade, and axial velocity components of the slotted blade were considerably larger than those of the plain blade. The slotted rotor blade enlarged the core size and made the vortex delayed compared with those of the plain blade at the same wake ages. Turbulence profiles had peaks inside the core radii and decayed gradually in the radial direction of vortex coordinate. Also, using a quasi 3-D LDV measurement technique the budget of turbulence kinetic energy was analyzed in radial direction of the vortex core.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
• /
• 2008.03a
• /
• pp.160-167
• /
• 2008

The effects of squealer rim height on three-dimensional flows and aerodynamic losses downstream of a high-turning turbine rotor blade have been investigated for a typical tip gap-to-chord ratio of h/c=2.0%. The squealer rim height-to-chord ratio is changed to be $h_{st}/c$=0.00(plane tip), 1.37, 2.75, 5.51, and 8.26%. Results show that as $h_{st}/c$ increases, the tip leakage vortex tends to be weakened and the interaction between the tip leakage vortex and the passage vortex becomes less severe. The squealer rim height plays an important role in the reduction of aerodynamic loss when $h_{st}/c{\leq}2.75%$. In the case of $h_{st}/c{\geq}5.51%$, higher squealer rim cannot provide an effective reduction in aerodynamic loss. The aerodynamic loss reduction by increasing $h_{st}/c$ is limited only to the near-tip region within a quarter of the span from the casing wall.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
• /
• v.4 no.3
• /
• pp.307-316
• /
• 2011

In order to clarify the features of tip leakage vortex near blade tip region in a half-ducted axial fan with large bellmouth, the experimental investigation was carried out using a 2-dimensional LDV system. Three sizes of tip clearance (TC) were tested: those sizes were 1mm (0.55% of blade chord length at blade tip), 2mm (1.11% of blade chord length at blade tip) and 4mm (2.22% of blade chord length at blade tip), and those were shown as TC=1mm, TC=2mm and TC=4mm, respectively. Fan characteristic tests and the velocity field measurements were done for each TC. Pressure - flow-rate characteristics and two-dimensional velocity vector maps were shown. The vortex trace and the vortex intensity distribution were also illustrated. As a result, a large difference on the pressure - flow-rate characteristics did not exist for three tip clearance sizes. In case of TC=4mm, the tip leakage vortex was outflow to downstream of rotor was not confirmed at the small and reference flow-rate conditions. Only at the large flow-rate condition, its outflow to downstream of rotor existed. In case of TC=2mm, overall vortex behaviors were almost the same ones in case of TC=4mm. However, the vortex trace inclined toward more tangential direction. In case of TC=1mm, the clear vortex was not observed for all flow-rate conditions.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
• /
• 2004.11a
• /
• pp.1377-1382
• /
• 2004

Flow fields in a half ducted propeller fan have been investigated by three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations and a vortex core identification technique. The simulation at the design operating condition shows that the tip vortex onset point is located at 30 percent tip chord of the suction surface on the blade tip. There is no interaction between the tip vortex and the adjacent blade, so that the tip vortex smoothly convects to the rotor exit. However, the high vorticity in the tip vortex causes the wake and the tip leakage flow to be twined around the tip vortex and to interact with the pressure surface of the adjacent blade. This flow behavior corresponds well with experimental results by Laser Doppler Velocimetry. On the contrary, the simulation at the low-flowrate operating condition shows that the tip vortex onset point is located at the 60 percent tip chord of the suction surface. In contrast to the design operating condition, the tip vortex grows almost tangential direction, and impinges directly on the pressure surface of the adjacent blade.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.84-94
• /
• 2003

It is known that tip clearance flows reduce the pressure rise, flow range and efficiency of the turbomachinery. So, the clear understanding about flow fields in the tip region is needed to efficiently design the turbomachinery. The Navier-Stokes code with the proper treatment of the boundary conditions has been developed to analyze the three-dimensional steady viscous flow fields in the transonic rotating blades and a numerical study has been conducted to investigate the detail flow physics in the tip region of transonic rotor, NASA Rotor 67. The computational results in the tip region of transonic rotors show the leakage vortices, leakage flow from pressure side to suction side and their interaction with a shock. Depen ding on the operating conditions, toad distributions and the position of shock-wave on the blade surface are very different close to the blade tip of the transonic compressor rotor. The load distribution and the shock-wave position close to the blade tip had the close relationship with the starting position of leakage vortex and the direction of leakage flow.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.35 no.7
• /
• pp.709-715
• /
• 2011

In order to observe the wake interaction between tip vortices generated by a two-bladed rotor with slightly different pitch angles, the velocity components of the tip vortices were measured by using a two-dimensional LDV system. It was observed that the swirl velocity components of the ensuing blade deviated from the Vatistas' n = 2 vortex model and the axial velocity components of the preceding blade deviated from the Gaussian profile. It was also found that in the wake-age range of $200^{\circ}$ to $240^{\circ}$, the filament of the ensuing blade tip vortex was stretched as result of the closing in of two vortices. The results from these observations suggest the possibility that a similar wake interaction is generated in actual rotor blades, especially, in the ones with articulated hubs.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
• /
• v.39 no.3
• /
• pp.210-217
• /
• 2011

Evolution of tip vortex generated by a model rotor blade which has a symmetric blade section has been investigated by use of the laser doppler anemometry. Swirl and axial velocity components of tip vortex were measured by the phase averaging technique within one revolution of a rotor blade. It was found that tip vortex becomes matured until 27 degrees and diffuses afterwards with diffusing rate becoming slower compared to the case of the asymmetric blade section, but the tip loss was expected to become more substantial. Swirl velocity components were well fit to n=2 model of Vatistas within measured wake ages, showing the self-similarity exists for the swirl velocity components. The axial components were followed with Gaussian profiles, but had much higher peak values than those of the symmetric blade section.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.33 no.5
• /
• pp.686-695
• /
• 2009

Flow characteristics in linear axial cascade have been studied using large eddy simulation(LES) based on finite element method(FEM) to investigate details of the leakage flow in the tip clearance of axial flow rotor. STAR-CD(FVM) and PAT-Flow(FEM) have been adopted to solve the Navier-Stokes equations for the simulation of the unsteady turbulent flow. Numerical results from the present study have been compared with the existing experimental results to investigate a tip clearance effect on velocity profile and static pressure distribution on blade surface at various spanwise positions. Both simulation results agree well with the experimental data. However, it has been shown that the results of finite-element large-eddy simulation agree better with experimental data than $k-{\varepsilon}$ turbulent model based on finite volume method regarding the tip vortex geometry and static pressure distribution at the center of the tip vortex core. As a result of this study, it is shown that finite-element large-eddy simulation method can predict more exactly on the tip leakage vortex flow and behind flow field.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Visualization
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.19-24
• /
• 2017

In this study, we conduct a numerical experiment of the single 5MW NREL wind turbine and compare the performance of various vortex core identification for the wake behind the wind turbine. In the kinetic analysis of wind turbine, 20% velocity deficit at 200 s is observed, showing wake which contains tip vortex near blade tip and rotor vortex at the center of the wind turbine. Time series of velocity and turbulent intensity show numerical simulation converge to a quasi-steady state near 200 s. In the comparison between methods for vortex identification, ${\lambda}_2$-method has good performance in terms of tip vortex, rotor vortex, vortex during its cascade process compared to vorticity magnitude criteria, ${\Delta}$-method. We conclude that ${\lambda}_2$-method is suitable for vortex identification method for wake visualization.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.295-310
• /
• 2015

In the present study, an unstructured mixed mesh flow solver was used to conduct a numerical prediction of the aerodynamic performance of the S-76 rotor in hover. For the present mixed mesh methodology, the near-body flow domain was modeled by using body-fitted prismatic/tetrahedral cells while Cartesian mesh cells were filled in the off-body region. A high-order accurate weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) scheme was employed to better resolve the flow characteristics in the off-body flow region. An overset mesh technique was adopted to transfer the flow variables between the two different mesh regions, and computations were carried out for three different blade configurations including swept-taper, rectangular, and swept-taper-anhedral tip shapes. The results of the simulation were compared against experimental data, and the computations were also made to investigate the effect of the blade tip Mach number. The detailed flow characteristics were also examined, including the tip-vortex trajectory, vortex core size, and first-passing tip vortex position that depended on the tip shape.