Volume 32, Issue 4 -

Axial Velocity Density Ratio (AVDR) is an important parameter to check the two-dimensionality of cascade flows. It can have significant influence on the cascade performance and the secondary flow structure. In the present study, the effect of AVDR has been investigated on a highly loaded Controlled Diffusion airfoil compressor cascade. Detailed 3D Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) studies were carried out with the cascade at five different AVDRs. Key aerodynamic performance parameters and flow structure through the cascade were analyzed in detail. CFD results of one AVDR were validated with the experimental cascade test data and were seen to be in good agreement. Loss characteristics of the cascade varied significantly with change in AVDR. Increase in AVDR postponed the point of separation on the suction surface, produced thinner boundary layers and caused substantial drop in the pressure loss coefficient. Strong end wall vortices were noticed at AVDR of 1.177. At higher AVDRs, the flow was well guided even close to the end wall and the secondary flows diminished. The loading initially improved with increase in AVDR. Beyond a certain limit, further increase in AVDR offered no improvements to the loading but rather resulted in drop in diffusion and deviation.

This paper investigates Bayesian model selection for fatigue life estimation of gas turbine blades considering model uncertainty and parameter uncertainty. Fatigue life estimation of gas turbine blades is a critical issue for the operation and health management of modern aircraft engines. Since lots of life prediction models have been presented to predict the fatigue life of gas turbine blades, model uncertainty and model selection among these models have consequently become an important issue in the lifecycle management of turbine blades. In this paper, fatigue life estimation is carried out by considering model uncertainty and parameter uncertainty simultaneously. It is formulated as the joint posterior distribution of a fatigue life prediction model and its model parameters using Bayesian inference method. Bayes factor is incorporated to implement the model selection with the quantified model uncertainty. Markov Chain Monte Carlo method is used to facilitate the calculation. A pictorial framework and a step-by-step procedure of the Bayesian inference method for fatigue life estimation considering model uncertainty are presented. Fatigue life estimation of a gas turbine blade is implemented to demonstrate the proposed method.

A closed-loop control law employing compressor guided vanes is firstly investigated to solve unacceptable fuel flow dynamic change in single fuel control for turbo-shaft engine here, especially for rotorcraft in variable rotor speed process. Based on an Augmented Linear Quadratic Regulator (ALQR) algorithm, a dual-input, single-output robust control scheme is proposed for a turbo-shaft engine, involving not only the closed loop adjustment of fuel flow but also that of compressor guided vanes. Furthermore, compared to single fuel control, some digital simulation cases using this new scheme about variable rotor speed have been implemented on the basis of an integrated system of helicopter and engine model. The results depict that the command tracking performance to the free turbine rotor speed can be asymptotically realized. Moreover, the fuel flow transient process has been significantly improved, and the fuel consumption has been dramatically cut down by more than 2% while keeping the helicopter level fight unchanged.

As typical pump with large flow rate and high reliability, centrifugal pumps in fuel system of aero-engines mostly regulate flow rate by flow bypass, which leads to low efficiency and large fuel temperature rise especially at low flow rate. An innovative fuel centrifugal pump with variable impeller width is a more effective way to regulate flow rate than flow bypass. To find external characteristics of the centrifugal pump with variable impeller width proposed in this paper, flow domain within the pump is simulated numerically and some primary performance parameters and their correlation are analyzed. Results show that flow rate of the pump can be regulated by variable impeller width and that efficiency for this scheme is higher than that for flow bypass. The higher outlet static pressure the pump runs at, the wider range of flow rates can be obtained with stronger nonlinear relationship between flow rate and impeller width.

In this paper, a new measuring method of ablation rate was proposed based on X-ray three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction. The ablation of 4-direction carbon/carbon composite nozzles was investigated in the combustion environment of a solid rocket motor, and the macroscopic ablation and linear recession rate were studied through the X-ray 3D reconstruction method. The results showed that the maximum relative error of the X-ray 3D reconstruction was 0.0576%, which met the minimum accuracy of the ablation analysis; along the nozzle axial direction, from convergence segment, throat to expansion segment, the ablation gradually weakened; in terms of defect ablation, the middle ablation was weak, while the ablation in both sides was more serious. In a word, the proposed reconstruction method based on X-ray about C/C nozzle ablation can construct a clear model of ablative nozzle which characterizes the details about micro-cracks, deposition, pores and surface to analyze ablation, so that this method can create the ablation curve in any surface clearly.

The casing groove is a highly effective method for improving the stall margin with the least detrimental effect on the peak efficiency in an axial compressor. In this work, a single casing groove with different heights and positions was numerically tested to evaluate effects of each geometric parameter on the stall margin in a transonic compressor. Validation between the simulation and experiment was conducted with a smooth casing as a reference case, and the computed and experimental results were compared in terms of performance curves, downstream flow properties and Mach number contours. Subsequently, the performance curves for each test case with a single casing groove were obtained from the numerical results and compared with each other to determine the appropriate position and height of the groove for increasing the stall margin. A casing groove installed near the leading edge was found to be effective for expanding the stable operating range in a transonic compressor, giving about 3% point improvement in the stall margin at the cost of a small drop in efficiency at the design point. An attempt was also made to understand the underlying mechanism of the casing groove based on the analysis of the numerical flow data.