<p> Rising costs and volatility in aviation fuel and increased regulations resulting from climate change  concerns have driven gas turbine engine manufacturers to focus on reducing fuel consumption.  Implementing centrifugal compressors as the last stage in an axial engine architecture allows for  reduced core diameters and higher fuel efficiencies. However, a centrifugal compressor's  performance relies heavily on its stationary diffusion system. Furthermore, the highly unsteady  and turbulent flow field exhibited in the diffusion system often causes CFD models to fall short of  reality. Therefore, rapid validation is required to match the speed at which engineers can simulate  different diffuser designs utilizing CFD. One avenue for this is through the use of additive  manufacturing in centrifugal compressor experimental research. This study focused on implementing a new generation of the Centrifugal Stage for Aerodynamic  Research (CSTAR) at the Purdue Compressor Research Lab that utilizes an entirely additively  manufactured diffusion system. In addition, the new configuration was used to showcase the  benefits of additive manufacturing (AM) in evaluating diffusion components. Two diffusion  systems were manufactured and assessed. The Build 2 diffusion system introduced significant  modifications to the diffusion system compared to the Build 1 design. The modifications included changes to the diffuser vane geometry, endwall divergence, and increased deswirl pinch and vane  geometries. The Build 2 diffusion system showed performance reductions in total and static  pressure rise, flow range, and efficiencies. These results were primarily attributed to the changes  made to the Build 2 diffuser. The end wall divergence resulted in end wall separation that caused  increased losses. The changes to the diffuser vane resulted in increased throat blockage and lower  pressure rise and mass flow rate. In addition to the experimental portion of this study, a computational study was conducted to study  the design changes made to the Build 2 diffusion system. A speedline at 100% corrected rotational  speed was solved, and the results were compared to experimental data. The simulated data matched  the overall stage and diffusion system performance relatively well, but the internal flow fields of  the diffusion components, namely the diffuser, were not well predicted. This was attributed to  16 using the SST turbulence model over BSL EARSM. The BSL EARSM model more accurately  predicted the diffuser flow field to the SST model.  </p>

The master thesis subject takes place in the automotive industry and specifically in the internal combustion engine area. The need of improving the efficiency of the engines leads to develop new technologies like turbo compressors. Some of the challenges to overcome are high rotational speed difficulties or extreme load and fatigue in the rotors. By design they are also prone to aerodynamic instabilities like compressor surge. These off design behaviors are not often studied by the manufacturers and therefore not so well known.  The aims are to understand, analyze and possible ameliorate the sources of compressor surge; to identify surge causes; to create a way to reproduce the phenomena with robustness and precision; to be able to study potential solutions to eliminate surge noises. A literature review has been carried out. This would give good metrics to identify surge cycles. Based on the theory developed by Fink et al. (1992) a simulation model has been generated, followed by a process of calibration carried out using data acquired during field experiments. This method uses a fully modifiable simulation model in order to be able to be adapted to a wide range of turbo compressors. The predicted data by the model shows a reasonable agreement with the experimental data. This allows to test control laws with a surge valve or a high pressure gas recirculating valve. The knowledge alongside the simulation would help the team to better apprehend the problem on the future engine generations and have means to avoid the unwanted surge phenomena to occur.

A miniature centrifugal compressor is a key component of a reverse Brayton cycle cryogenic cooling system. The system is commonly used to generate a low cryogenic temperature environment for electronics to increase their efficiency, or generate, store and transport cryogenic liquids, such as liquid hydrogen and oxygen, where space limit is also an issue. Because of space limitation, the compressor is composed of a radial inlet guide vane, a radial impeller and an axial-direction diffuser (which reduces the radial size because of smaller diameter). As a result of reduction in size, in order to obtain the required static pressure ratio/rise, the rotating speed of the impeller is as high as 313 KRPM, if Helium is used as the working fluid. Two main characteristics of the compressor – miniature and high-speed, make it distinct from conventional compressors. Higher compressor efficiency is required to obtain a higher COP (coefficient of performance) system. Even though miniature centrifugal compressors start to draw researchers' attention in recent years, understanding of the performance and loss mechanism is still lacking. Since current experimental techniques are not advanced enough to capture details of flow at miniature scale, numerical methods dominate miniature turbomachinery study. This work numerically studied a high speed miniature centrifugal compressor. The length and diameter are 7 cm and 6 cm, respectively. The study was done on the same physical compressor but with three different combinations of working fluid and operating speed combinations: air and 108 KRPM, helium and 313 KRPM, and neon and 141 KRPM. The overall performance of the compressor was predicted with consideration of interaction between blade rows by using a sliding mesh model. It was found that the specific heat ratio needs to be considered when similarity law is applied. But Reynolds number effect can be neglected. The maximum efficiency observed without any tip leakage was 70.2% for air 64.8% for helium 64.9% for neon. The loss mechanism of each component was analyzed. Loss due to turning bend was found to be significant in each component, even up to 30%. Tip leakage loss of small scale turbomachines has more impact on the impeller performance than that of large scale ones. Use of 10% tip gap was found to reduce impeller efficiency from 99% to 90%. Because the splitter was located downstream of the impeller leading edge, any incidence at the impeller leading edge leads to poorer splitter performance. Therefore, the impeller with twenty blades had higher isentropic efficiency than the impeller with ten blades and ten splitters. Based on numerical study, a four-row vaned diffuser was used to replace a two-row vaned diffuser. It was found that the four-row vaned diffuser had much higher pressure recovery coefficient than the two-row vaned diffuser. However, most of pressure is found to be recovered at the first two rows of diffuser vanes. Consequently, the following suggestions were given to further improve the performance of the miniature centrifugal compressor. 1. Redesign inlet guide vane based on the numerical simulation and experimental results. 2. Add de-swirl vanes in front of the diffuser and before the bend. 3. Replace the current impeller with a twenty-blade impeller. 4. Remove the last row of diffuser.

Modem high-performance military aircraft are subjected to rapid flight maneuvers which place great operational demands on their compression system by producing highly distorted flow to the compressor. Inlet distortion generally reduces the engine compressor stability margin and may induce compressor surge at high rotational speeds, or rotating stall at lower rotational speeds. Therefore, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) based compressor simulation would be very useful in the design, test, and analysis process since it gives additional information with inexpensive modifications. A new CFD simulation called the Turbine Engine Analysis Compressor Code (TEACC) was designed to meet these requirements. This code solves the compressible 3D Euler equations modified to include turbomachinery source terms which simulates the effect of the compressor blades. The source terms are calculated for each blade row by the application of a streamline curvature code. A methodology was developed for calculating turbomachinery source terms and distributing them axially, radially, and circumferentially while maintaining a sensitivity to strong inlet distortion. TEACC was compared with experimental data from NASA Rotor 1 B, a transonic rotor. Experimental data from Rotor 1 B were available for comparison with TEACC results for a clean inlet and for an inlet distortion produced by a 90-degree, one-per-revolution screen. TEACC results compared very well with experimental data with a clean inlet. Comparison with experimental data with inlet distortion demonstrated TEACC's ability to characterize the compressor overall, and to accurately predict the magnitude and shape of exit total temperature and exit total pressure in the distorted region. TEACC calculated the overall character of exit total pressure and exit total temperature in the nondistorted region, identifying the location of the largest value just after the inlet distortion and the decrease in exit total values through the nondistorted region in the direction of rotation. / Ph. D.

Loss models used in compression system performance prediction codes are often developed from the study of two-dimensional cascades. The physical mechanisms that affect the flow in supersonic compressor cascades have been reviewed, including the changes in shock geometry that will occur with back pressure for both started and unstarted operation. Compressible fluid mechanics has been applied to the known shock geometry to obtain a physics-based engineering shock loss model that is applicable over the entire supersonic operating range of the cascade. Predictions from the present method have been compared to measurements and Navier-Stokes analyses of the L030-4 and L030-6 cascades, and very good agreement was demonstrated for unstarted operation. Son1e of the started comparisons exhibited good agreement, while others did not. A clear improvement has been demonstrated over previously published shock loss models, both in the accuracy of the predictions and in the range of applicability. The dramatic increase in overall loss with increasing inlet flow angle is shown to be primarily the result of increased shock loss, and much of this increase is caused by the detached bow shock. For a given Mach number, the viscous profile loss is nearly constant over the entire unstarted operating range of the cascade, unless a shock-induced boundary layer separation occurs near stall. Shock loss is much more sensitive to inlet Mach number than is viscous profile loss. The present shock loss model has been used as the basis of an overall loss prediction method by adding a constant value, representative of the viscous profile loss, to the predicted shock loss characteristics. The overall loss characteristics obtained in this manner showed good agreement with the experimental values over the most useful operating range of the cascade. / Ph. D.

An experimental investigation into the effects of inlet temperature transients on the stall and stall recovery aerodynamics of a low speed multi-stage axial flow compressor has been presented. Experiments were conducted on a low speed multi-stage axial flow compression system to demonstrate how a compressor dynamically stalls or recovers from a rotating stall operating condition during an inlet temperature transient. The specific effects of the inlet temperature transients on the compressor rotor blade flow physics during the dynamic stall or rotating stall recovery events of the axial flow compression system have been presented. In one experiment, a full recovery from a rotating stall operating condition was successfully accomplished on the low speed multistage axial flow compressor. Explanations for the axial flow compression system dynamic stall and rotating stall recovery processes during inlet temperature transients have been presented. The method utilized for inducing the rotating stall recovery on the compression system has been proposed as a possible new technique for active recovery from rotating stall for single and multi-stage axial flow compression systems. / Ph. D.

Striving to improve performance and lower weight of aircraft engines, modern compressor blades become thinner and lighter but higher loaded resulting in an increased vulnerability towards flutter. This trend is further aggravated through blisk designs that diminish structural damping and therewith flutter margin. Modern 3D wide-chord blade designs result in complex structural behaviors that add to the difficulty of correctly predicting flutter occurrence. To counteract above tendencies by driving the physical understanding of flutter and thereby helping to improve aero engine design tools, free flutter as well as forced response will be investigated in the 1.5 stage transonic compressor at TU Darmstadt. Aim of the forced response campaign is to determine the system damping in the stable compressor regime. Hence a novel excitation system capable of dynamically exciting specific rotor blade modes is needed. It is aim of the present work to find a promising concept for such a system. In the present work, the requirements for an excitation system to be used in the TUD compressor are defined with respect to achievable frequency, phase controllability, transferred excitation level, mechanical robustness, integrability and cleanliness. Different excitation system concepts, i.e. oscillating VIGVs, rotating airfoils, tangential and axial air injection are investigated numerically. An evaluation of the results obtained through 2D numerical studies proposes axial air injection as the most favorable concept. / Master of Science

This research involves the study of a one- and two-cylinder convertible reciprocating Freon compressor for air conditioning or refrigeration purposes. The main concern is the reduction of the vibration (noise) caused during the operation of the compressor. Vibration is a main concern when the compressor is shifted from the one-cylinder operation to the two-cylinder operation mode and the reverse of this shift. The objectives for this research are (1) to investigate the shaking force due to the reciprocating mass at high frequencies, which are up to 4600 Hz (80w) in this research; (2) to determine the dominant force for compressor vibration among the three possible sources of shaking force due to reciprocating mass, impact forces due to clearance at the connecting rod - piston joint, and the z-axis force from the motor torque due to the rotor's conductor rods being skewed at an angle; (3) to minimize the difference in change of kinetic energies when switching between the one- and two-cylinder operating modes of the compressor. The properties of the vibration in one- and two-cylinder operation have been studied and results have been analyzed in terms of kinetic energies generated in different setting of operation of the compressor. Dynamic simulation for the impact force is computed using SIMULINK. The Z-axis force due to the motor is computed. Results indicated that shaking force due to the reciprocating mass is the dominant force for only the first two harmonics (w, 2w). An optimization routine based on Hooke and Jeeves pattern search method is developed and an optimized setting of angle, force, and torque for balancing of the crankshaft to achieve objective (3) is determined. / Master of Science

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