• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.279-284
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• 2010

Tip clearance losses occur in every turbomachine. To estimate the losses in efficiency it is important to understand the mechanism of this secondary flow. Tip clearance losses are mainly caused by a spiral vortex formed on the suction side of the blade of a turbomachine, which induces a drag and also has an influence on the incident flow of the blades. In this paper a physical based scaling method is developed out of an analytical ansatz for the tip clearance losses. This scaling method is validated by measurements on an axial fan with five different tip clearances.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1998.12a
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• pp.240-247
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• 1998

Leakage vortices formed near blade tip causes an increase of total pressure loss near casing endwall region and as a result, the efficiency of rotor decreases. The reduction of rotor efficiency is related to the size of tip clearance. In this study, the three-dimensional flowfields in an axial flow rotor were calculated with varying tip clearance under various flow rates, and the numerical results were compared with experimental ones. The effects of tip clearance and attack angle on the leakage vortex and overall performance, and the less distributions were investigated through numerical calculations. In this study, tip leakage flow rate and total pressure loss by tip clearance were evaluated using numerical results and aprroximate equations were presented to evaluate the reduction of rotor efficiency by tip leakage flow.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.735-745
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• 2004

A linear cascade of NACA 65-1810 profiles are investigated for tip leakage flow characteristics. and calculation results are compared with experimental result. STAR-CD commercial code was used to solve the three dimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes equation that was adopted for steady flow and high Reynolds $\kappa$- $\varepsilon$turbulent model. Numerical calculation of a linear cascade is carried out to investigate effect of tip clearance on pitchwise variations of velocity Profiles. and static pressure distributions on the blade surface at spanwise positions. In case of evolution of tip vortex core location. tip vortex geometry and static pressure at the center of the tip vortex core compared with experimental results. Calculation results are agreed well with the experimental data, and validated. The static pressure losses by tip leakage flow at 2% tip clearance were more than those at 1% tip clearance.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.23 no.9
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• pp.1106-1112
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• 1999

Substantial losses behind axial flow rotor are generated by the wake, various vortices in the hub region and the tip leakage vortex in the tip region. Particularly, the leakage vortex formed near blade tip is one of the main causes of the reduction of performance, generation of noise and aerodynamic vibration in downstream. In this study, the three-dimensional flow fields in an axial flow rotor were calculated with varying tip clearance under various flow rates, and the numerical results were compared with experimental ones. The numerical technique was based on SIMPLE algorithm using standard $k-{\varepsilon}$ model(WFM) and Launder & Sharma's Low Reynolds Number $k-{\varepsilon}$ model(LRN). Through calculations, the effects of tip clearance and attack angle on the 3-dimensional flow fileds behind a rotor and leakage flow/vortex were investigated. The presence of tip leakage vortex, loci of vortex center and its behavior behind the rotor for various tip clearances and attack angles was described well by calculation.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2002.08a
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• pp.619-622
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• 2002

It has been recognized that the flow in the blade passage of an axial turbomachinery rotor is very complex and is influenced by various flow phenomena, of which the tip leakage flow passing through the gap between rotor blade tip and casing plays a significant role. The losses produced due to the existence of the clearance have been known to be a large contributor of the rotor overall losses. Despite several experimental studies on non-rotating blade in the cascade configuration, and on actual rotating blades, the detailed nature of the complex flow phenomena associated with tip leakage, however, remains largely unresolved. Thus, a single-stage compressor test rig was built and measurements were taken at upstream and downstream of the rotor of this compressor at the aerodynamics laboratory of University of New South Wales. A five-hole probe and a hot-wire probe were used to measure mean and fluctuating flow parameters. The results show that tip leakage losses rise rapidly beyond tip gap of 0.01 Furthermore, the present project also identifies the regions in the wake behind the rotor of the axial compressor where such losses are concentrated. These results should be useful in the better design of rotors for improved performance of axial compressor.

• 연구논문집
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• s.25
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• pp.55-65
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• 1995

Three-dimensional incompressible turbulent flow fields within the passage of the steam turbine nozzle with/without tip clearance have been simulated by solving the Navier-Stokes equations with SIMPLE scheme. The extended k-e model is applied to modeling the Reynolds stresses. Grids in the computational domain are generated by solving the Poisson's equations to improve the smoothness and orthogonality. Flow losses, secondary flow, velocity profiles, and deviation angles are obtained. The computated results without tip clearance show good agreement with the experimental data.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.260-270
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• 2010

Reducing the losses of the tip clearance flow is one of the keys in an unshrouded centrifugal compressor design and development because tip clearances are large in relation to the span of the blades and also centrifugal compressors produce a sufficiently large pressure rise in single stage. This problem is more acute for a low flow high-pressure ratio impeller design. The large tip clearance would cause flow separations, and as a result it would drop both the efficiency and surge margin. Thus a design of a high efficiency and wide operation range low flow coefficient centrifugal compressor is a great challenge. This paper describes a recent development of high efficiency and wide surge margin low flow coefficient centrifugal compressor. A viscous turbomachinery optimal design method developed by the authors for axial flow machine was further extended and used in the centrifugal compressor design. The compressor has three main parts: impeller, a low solidity diffuser and volute. The tip clearance is under a special consideration in this design to allow impeller insensitiveness to the clearance. A patented three-dimensional low solidity diffuser design method is used and applied to this design. The compressor test results demonstrated to be successful to extend the low solidity diffusers to high-pressure ratio compressor. The compressor stage performance showed the total to static efficiency of the compressor being about 85% and stability range over 35%. The test results are in good agreement with the design.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.70-79
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• 2017

The output power of turbine is greatly affected by the losses generated within the passage. In order to develop a better turbine or loss models, an experimental study was conducted using a linear cascade experimental apparatus. The total pressure loss and flow structures were measured at two cross-sectional planes located downstream of blade row. Measurement was conducted in a steady state for the several different locations of the blade row along the rotational direction. The blade row moved by 20 % of the pitch, and tip clearance was varied from 2% to 8%. Axial-type blades were used and its blade chord was 200mm. A square nozzle was applied and its size was $200mm{\times}200mm$. The experiment was conducted at a Reynolds number of $3{\times}10^5$ based on the chord. Nozzle flow angle sets to $65^{\circ}$ based on the axial direction and the solidity of blade row was 1.38. From the experimental results, the total pressure loss was greatly varied in the receding region than in the entering region. The flow properties within the blade passage were strongly changed according to the location of blade row.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.3357-3368
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• 1994

Total pressure losses required to calculate the total-to-total efficiency are estimated by integrating empirical loss coefficients of four loss mechanisms along the mean-line of blades as follows; blade profile loss, secondary flow loss, end wall loss and tip clearance loss. The off-design points are obtained on the basis of Howell's off-design performance of a compressor cascade. Also, inlet-outlet air angles and camber angle are obtained from semi-empirical relations of transonic airfoils' minimum loss incidence and deviation angles. And nominal point is replaced by the design point. It is concluded that relatively simple loss models and Howell's off-design data permit us to calculate the off-design performance with satisfactory accuracy. And this method can be easily extended for off-design performance prediction of multi-stage compressors.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.39-45
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• 2009

Leakage flow through turbine blade tip gap causes strong leakage vortex near the blade suction side and induces large aerodynamic losses. In this study, the conventional plane tip and various squealer tip blades were tested in a linear cascade in order to measure the effect of the tip shape on the total pressure loss. Three tip gap clearances of 0.6%, 1.3%, and 2.0% of blade span were tested. Flow measurement was conducted at one chord downstream from the trailing edge with a five-hole probe. Results showed that the leakage vortex was stronger than passage vortex and the mass averaged overall total pressure loss through the cascade was the lowest for suction side blade tip case. For all tested cases, the area averaged overall total pressure loss was increased as the tip clearance increased.