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Aerodynamic topology optimization on tip configurations of turbine blades

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Abstract

The topology optimization (TopOpt) is adopted in this article to design tip geometries of a turbine blade. Its principle is to modify the porosity, which is one for fluid and is zero for solid. A CFD method coupled with source terms is implemented for numerical simulations. Moreover, to update the porosity, a quasi-sensitivity and an adjoint sensitivity analysis schemes are integrated with the method of moving asymptotes algorithm, respectively. The TopOpt is conducted to design the tip profile of a 2D tip model and of nine axial sections in a 3D turbine blade. Optimized tips are reconstructed and their performance is verified by experiments and CFD. Results indicate that the re-designed novel tip, which has a convex-concave-convex form and is different from flat and cavity tips, has good performance due to getting rid of flow separations above the tip. Hence, the optimized tip can lower total pressure loss in the gap region.

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Abbreviations

C ax :

Blade axial chord

Cps:

Static pressure coefficient = (P-Pout)/(Pt,in-Ps,out)

C pt :

Total pressure loss coefficient = (Pt,in-Pt)/(Pt,in-Ps,out)

h :

Blade height

p :

Blade pitch

P s :

Static pressure

P t :

Total pressure

Q w :

Wall heat flux

T w :

Wall temperature

W grid :

Width of the uniform grid cell

BCFD :

CFD using body-fitted meshes

AS :

Adjoint sensitivity

CFD :

Computational fluid dynamics

EXP :

Experiment

MMA :

Method of moving asymptotes

PS :

Blade pressure surface

QS :

Quasi sensitivity

SCFD :

Source based CFD

SS :

Blade suction surface

TLV :

Tip leakage vortex

TopOpt :

Topology optimization

UPV :

Upper passage vortex

UTV :

Upper trailing vortex

α :

Inverse permeability

γ :

Fluid porosity

λ :

Thermal conductivity

t :

Tip gap height

Ω d :

Design space

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, Grant No. 51876021) for funding this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Ocean Energy Utilization and Energy Conservation of Ministry of Education, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning, China

    Min Zhang, Yan Liu & Jinguang Yang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning, China

    Yuefang Wang

Authors
  1. Min Zhang
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  2. Yan Liu
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  4. Yuefang Wang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yan Liu.

Additional information

Min Zhang is a Post Doctor of the School of Energy and Power, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning, China. She received her Ph.D. in Fluid Machinery and Engineering from Dalian University of Technology. Her research interests is turbomachinary aero-thermal dynamics.

Yan Liu is a Professor of the School of Energy and Power, Dalian University of Technology, China. She received her Ph.D. in Computational Fluid Dynamics from University of Warwick, UK. Her research interests includes turbomachinery aero-thermal dynamics, design and optimization and computational fluid dynamics.

Jinguang Yang is an Associate Professor of the School of Energy and Power, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning, China. He received his Ph.D. in Aerospace Mechanics and Engineering from Northwestern Polytechnical University. His research interests includes turbomachinery aerodynamics, computational fluid dynamics, design and optimization.

Jinguang Yang is a Professor of Department of Engineering Mechanics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning, China. He received his Ph.D. in Structural Mechanics from Dalian University of Technology. His research interests includes computational dynamics, nonlinear vibration analysis, multiphysical optimization.

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Zhang, M., Liu, Y., Yang, J. et al. Aerodynamic topology optimization on tip configurations of turbine blades. J Mech Sci Technol 35, 2861–2870 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-021-0609-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-021-0609-x

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