Optimization of the hole exit shape of the vortex generator jets in a compressor cascade

Vortex generator jets usually use a circular hole. The hole exit shape is also an important parameter, so the change of the shape will have a significant influence on the control effect of the compressor. In this article, the optimization design of the hole exit shape is studied in order to find the optimal geometry. The 2D hole exit shape is represented with a binary coded and initialized with the B-spline. The surrogate-based optimizer consists of a parametric design code, a computational fluid dynamics solver, a Kriging model, an infill sample criterion, and a genetic algorithm. First, the design of the symmetric hole is studied in a low ratio of the jet to inlet mass flow. The circumferential length of the designed hole is fixed. Second, both the symmetric hole and the asymmetric hole are studied. And the area of the hole exit shape is fixed. The results show that the optimal hole shape can enhance the strength of the jet vortex and reduce the total pressure loss of the compressor cascade. A better control effect can also be obtained in a high jet mass flow.

Numerical Investigation of Steady and Harmonic Vortex Generator Jets Flow Separation Control

Active flow control of canonical laminar separation bubbles by steady and harmonic vortex generator jets (VGJs) was investigated using direct numerical simulations. Both control strategies were found to be effective in controlling the laminar boundary-layer separation. However, the present results indicate that using the same blowing amplitude, harmonic VGJs were more effective and efficient at reducing the separated region than the steady VGJs considering the fact that the harmonic VGJs use less momentum than the steady case. For steady VGJs, longitudinal structures forming immediately downstream of the injection location led to the formation of hairpin-type vortices, causing an earlier transition to turbulence. Symmetric hairpin vortices were shown to develop downstream of the forcing location for the harmonic VGJs, as well. However, the increased control effectiveness for harmonic VGJs’ flow control strategy is attributed to the fact that the shear-layer instability mechanism was exploited. As a result, disturbances introduced by VGJs were strongly amplified, leading to the development of large-scale coherent structures, which are very effective at increasing the momentum exchange, thus limiting the separated region.

Control of Laminar Boundary-Layer Separation Using Steady and Harmonic Vortex Generator Jets

Active flow control of canonical laminar separation bubbles by steady and harmonic vortex generator jets (VGJs) was investigated using direct numerical simulations. Both control strategies were found to be effective in controlling the laminar boundary-layer separation. However, the present results indicate that using the same blowing amplitude, harmonic VGJs were more effective and efficient in reducing the separated region than the steady VGJs considering the fact that the harmonic VGJs use less momentum than the steady case. For steady VGJs, longitudinal structures formed immediately downstream of injection location led to formation of hairpin-type vortices causing an earlier transition to turbulence. Symmetric hairpin vortices were shown to develop downstream of the forcing location for the harmonic VGJs as well. However, the increased control effectiveness for harmonic VGJs flow control strategy is attributed to the fact that shear-layer instability mechanism was exploited. As a result, disturbances introduced by VGJs were strongly amplified leading to development of large-scale coherent structures, which are very effective in increasing the momentum exchange, thus, limiting the separated region.

Control of Laminar Boundary-Layer Separation Using Steady and Harmonic Vortex Generator Jets

Active flow control of canonical laminar separation bubbles by steady and harmonic vortex generator jets (VGJs) was investigated using direct numerical simulations. Both control strategies were found to be effective in controlling the laminar boundary-layer separation. However, the present results indicate that using the same blowing amplitude, harmonic VGJs were more effective and efficient in reducing the separated region than the steady VGJs considering the fact that the harmonic VGJs use less momentum than the steady case. For steady VGJs, longitudinal structures formed immediately downstream of injection location led to formation of hairpin-type vortices causing an earlier transition to turbulence. Symmetric hairpin vortices were shown to develop downstream of the forcing location for the harmonic VGJs as well. However, the increased control effectiveness for harmonic VGJs flow control strategy is attributed to the fact that shear-layer instability mechanism was exploited. As a result, disturbances introduced by VGJs were strongly amplified leading to development of large-scale coherent structures, which are very effective in increasing the momentum exchange, thus, limiting the separated region.

Effect of the end-wall vortex generator jets on the performance of a high subsonic compressor cascade

This paper presents a numerical and experimental result of the end-wall vortex generator jets for controlling corner separation and enhancing the aerodynamic performance in a high subsonic (Ma = 0.7) compressor cascade. The experiments were carried out on a compressor cascade at design point ( i = 0°) and off-design points ( i = −2°, 2°, and 4°). At design point, the total pressure loss coefficient could be reduced up to 12.1%.With the increase in the incidence, the control effect is enhanced first and then reduced. The maximum total pressure loss reduction is up to 14.6% when the incidence is 2°. The numerical study is further conducted to analyze the flow pattern and the vortex structure. The jet vortex is formed downstream of the jet hole using the vortex generator jets, the cross flow on the end wall is also suppressed.

Endwall Secondary Flow Control in a High Speed Compressor Cascade With Vortex Generator Jets

This paper presents a numerical investigation of secondary flow control in a high speed compressor cascade for different incoming flow incidences by means of endwall vortex generator jets (VGJs). The inlet Reynolds number is 560,000 in corresponding to an inlet Mach number of 0.67. Based on the detail analysis of the flow field and cascade performance, two effect mechanisms of the vortex induced by the VGJ are proposed. The first is to enhance the mixing between the endwall boundary layer and the mainstream. The second is to block the cross flow as an air obstacle. Therefore, the low energy fluids accumulation in the corner region could be decreased significantly, weakening the separation on the suction side and reducing the losses effectively. This benefit becomes more obvious with the increase of the incidence from i = −2° to 4°. Additionally, a more uniform flow angle as well as static pressure profile along the blade height is obtained at the cascade outlet. The maximum loss reduction is up to 12.9% while i = 4° with a jet mass flow ratio of 0.2%. However, the unfavorable impact of the VGJs is also detected in the up-washed region, where the loss is increased by the mixing processes between the mainstream fluids and the low energy fluids. For the case i = −4°, a strengthened induced vortex is generated due to the increased angle between the jet and incoming flow, resulting in loss increase in the up-washed region. Besides, a more rapid corner boundary layer development appears in the rear part of the passage, contributing to severe separation and loss enhancement, which suggests that the VGJ should be switched off for this incidence. Therefore, the advice to the application of the VGJ according the incidence is further obtained.

Active Flow Separation Control Using Endwall Vortex Generator Jets in Highly Loaded Compressor Cascades

An active flow control technique of endwall vortex generator jets (VGJs) was used in two kinds of highly loaded compressor cascades. Numerical investigations were carried out on a NACA 65 profile with a large camber angle at low subsonic and high subsonic speeds, and a CDA profile at high subsonic speed respectively. The results indicate that the endwall VGJs can restrain flow separation effectively by reenergizing the boundary layer fluid and resisting the transverse movement of endwall secondary flow. At Mach number 0.23, the results of the jet blowing ratio study illustrate that the increasing jet velocity shows noteworthy potential to improve the cascade aerodynamic performance. The double jets structures were investigated yet gains weaker beneficial effects than single jet. It is probably attributed to the complex flow structure, leading to strong disturbance and large-scale mixing loss. Under −5°, 0° and +5° angles of attack, the loss coefficients are maximally reduced by 4.1%, 9.5% and 17.3% respectively. Under high subsonic conditions, the endwall VGJs still has significantly positive effects on NACA 65 profile. Considering the small separation region of CDA, the loss coefficients increase slightly although the flow separation is weakened further by VGJ.