AIAA 2002-4158 38th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference & Exhibit 7-10 July 2002, Indianapolis, Indiana AIAA 2002-4158 Improvements of Inducer Inlet Backflow Characteristics Using 3-D Inverse Design Method Kosuke ASHIHARA*, Akira GOTO* , Kenjiro KAMIJO** Hitoshi YAMADA***, Masaharu UCHIUMI**** ABSTRACT The three-dimensional inverse design method was applied to improve the inlet backflow characteristics of highly loaded turbopump inducers for a liquid hydrogen rocket engine. Flow mechanisms, both for conventional and inverse design inducers, were investigated experimentally by flow field measurements and flow visualization, as well as numerically by the application CFD. The conventional inducer, which had been designed for the H-IIA rocket LE-7A engine turbopump, had a strong inlet backflow at the design point. Optimizing the blade loading distribution using the 3-D inverse design method and a CFD analysis eliminated this inlet backflow. Water model tests confirmed the elimination of inlet backflow in the inverse design inducers. However, it was confirmed that the suppressed inlet backflow tended to make cavitation occur in the blade passages and reduced suction performance. Cavitation visualization and FFT analysis of unstable phenomena were also performed in this study. INTRODUCTION Inducers are important components to achieve high suction performance of turbopumps. Especially for a liquid rocket engine turbopump, a high-speed, highload and high-suction-performance inducer design is essential to achieve a lightweight rocket design. However, such an inducer is still a difficult component to design and it often causes unstable turbopump operation. It is a well-known fact that strong inlet * Ebara Research Co., Ltd. ashihara20004@erc.ebara.co.jp ** Tohoku University *** National Aerospace Laboratory **** National Space Development Agency of Japan Copyright © 2002 The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc. All rights reserved. backflow and rotating cavitation in inducers may cause mechanical failures in turbopumps and the entire pumping system. In conventional design practice, Inducer blades are often designed with helical surfaces, and a combination of a straight line and simple curves is chosen for the camber lines of highly loaded inducers. The suction performance of an inducer is a function of the blade angle β at the leading edge. Usually, the leading edge of the inducer is designed to have a knifeedge shape for high suction performance, and a positive incident angle α is adopted to avoid pressure surface cavitation(1). According to the design guideline(2), the ratio α/β is a characteristic parameter of a high suction performance inducer and the optimum ratio varies between 0.35 and 0.50. However, unstable phenomena of inducers are affected not only by the blade angle but also by several other factors. For example, the inlet backflow is strongly affected by the design inlet flow coefficient. So, it is important to design an inducer by considering and controlling several effects of inducer geometry on flow fields. Recently, computer technology and CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) technology have rapidly developed and complex internal flows within turbomachinery can be predicted with reasonable accuracy. The CFD-aided design has already become daily practice for turbomachinery design. It is possible to make a qualitative evaluation of an abnormal flow phenomenon such as inlet backflow. Conversely, flow fields with cavitation are very complex and difficult to predict numerically because they include a phase change between liquid and gas. A large number of flow models including cavitation has been investigated (3)(4). However, these flow models are limited to particular cases and numerical calculations of cavitating flows in 3-D rotating passages can still not be applied in practice. Consequently, it is common to examine CFD results 1 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Copyright © 2002 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. All rights reserved. for single-phase flows while paying attention to the low-pressure region in the blade passage to improve suction performance. On the other hand, a new approach of turbomachinery design using a three-dimensional (3D) inverse design method has been proposed (5). The 3-D blade shapes that satisfy specified blade loading distributions (and the required 3-D pressure fields) can be designed using the 3-D inverse design method. In this new design approach, it is easy to control the performance of turbomachinery while keeping designated design specifications. Many successful applications have already been published (6)(7)(8) both for impellers and diffusers. In this study, a new approach of 3-D inducer design for controlling inlet backflow characteristic using the 3-D inverse design method and CFD was performed. The highly loaded inducers with the same design specification as the liquid hydrogen turbopump inducer of the Japanese H-IIA rocket engine LE-7A are designed with controlled blade loading distribution. The inlet backflow characteristics and suction performance of the inducers are examined numerically and experimentally, and compared with conventional design inducers including the LE-7A liquid hydrogen turbopump inducer. NOMENCLATURE B number of blades N rotation speed, min-1 NPSH net positive suction head, m P pressure, Pa Q flow rate, m3/min V absolute velocity, m/s U peripheral blade speed, m/s W relative velocity, m/s m meridional distance r radius, m α incidence angle, deg. β blade angle, deg. φ = V1m U 1t φ flow coefficient, U 12t σ cavitation number, σ = NPSH 2g ρ density, kg/m3 ρU 22t ψ head coefficient, ϕ = ( p 2 − p0 ) 2 η efficiency ν power coefficient Subscripts 0 inlet 1 inducer leading edge 2 inducer trailing edge m meridional component s static value t inducer tip θ circumferential component Superscripts A* normalized value A averaged value + pressure surface value suction surface value NUMERICAL METHOD Inverse Design Method The basic theory of the 3-D inverse design method proposed by Zangeneh (1991)(5) is briefly described here. In this theory, turbomachinery blades are represented by sheets of vorticity, whose strength is determined by a specific distribution of circumferencetially averaged swirl velocity rVθ defined as: 2π B B rVθ = ∫ rVθ dθ 2π 0 (1) The rVθ is related to the blade loading through the following expression in incompressible potential flows: + − Ps − Ps = 2π ∂rVθ ρWmbl B ∂m (2) Where, B is the number of blades, Wmbl is the meridional component of relative velocity on the blade. Blade loading or the pressure difference across the + − blade, ( Ps − Ps ) , can be optimized by controlling the distribution of ∂rVθ ∂m in Eq. (2). The blade shape represented by blade wrap angle or θ -coordinate of the blade camber is determined by integrating the first order hyperbolic partial differential equation, see Zangeneh (1991)(5) for details. This equation is obtained as a result of the application of the inviscid slip condition, which implies that the blade shape must be aligned with the local velocity vector induced by the vorticity. For this integration, a distribution of wrap angle should be specified along a quasi-orthogonal (e.g. along the trailing edge) as an initial condition. This initial condition of the wrap angle is called the “stacking condition” in the present method. The input data for this design method are : (i) loading distribution (distribution of bound circulation 2πrVθ ), (ii) meridional geometry, (iii) velocity 2 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics distribution at inlet, (iv) rotational speed, (v) blade thickness distribution, (vi) number of blades, and (vii) stacking condition. By controlling the loading distribution, it is possible to design turbomachinery blades having high efficiency, high suction performance, super compact machine size, etc. CFD Method The CFD code used in the present study is a Dawes code for incompressible steady flows (Walker and Dawes, 1990) (9), which solves Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations using the Baldwin-Lomax turbulence model and Chorin’s method of artificial compressibility. It calculates one flow passage of turbomachinery assuming periodic boundary conditions. The computational grid used in this study is the Htype, and the grid was automatically generated with non-uniform grids clustered near endwalls, blade surfaces, and blade leading and trailing edges. The number of grid points used in this study for the inducer analysis was 201,761 per blade pitch. An Inducer has a very small blade tip angle compared to other turbomachinery blades, so the CFD analysis of an inducer using the H-type grid may have grid distortion problems. The grid number dependence study of industrial inducer analysis using the Dawes code was performed prior to the study(10). The results showed that the grid number of 100,000 per blade pitch is enough to evaluate the total head and minimum static pressure of inducers within reasonable errors. The inducer tip clearance was 0.5 mm and four grid cells were placed in the gap region. The calculation time for one case was approximately three hours using a typical engineering workstation. DESIGN SPECIFICATION AND CFD ANALYSIS Tab.1 Design specification INDUCER Design Blade Surface Rotating speed N min-1 Design flow rate Q m3/min Inlet flow coefficient φ1 Inlet tip diameter D1t mm Inlet hub diameter D1h mm Exit tip diameter D2t mm Exit hub diameter D2h mm Inlet tip blade angle β1t deg Exit tip blade angle β2t deg Blade number Z A B Conventional Conventional design design Helical 42161 31.7 0.067 174 50 174 80 6.4 11.1 3 Helical 42161 31.7 0.08 161.8 50 168 88 7.5 11.5 3 C D 3-D 3-D Inverse Inverse Design Design 3-D Ruled 42161 42161 31.7 31.7 0.08 0.08 161.8 161.8 50 50 168 168 88 88 3 3 Fig.1 Geometry of the studied inducers Inducer Design Specifications Four different inducers, designed for the liquid hydrogen turbopump, were examined. Table 1 shows the design specification of each inducer. Inducers A and B are conventional helical-type inducers, while Inducers C and D are 3-D Inverse design inducers. Figure 1 shows the geometry of these four inducer models. The helical Inducer A had been designed by a conventional method for the liquid hydrogen turbopump of LE-7A engine. The meridional shroud shape is an axial-flow one, and inlet and exit diameter is 0.174m. The design flow coefficient of Inducer A is 0.067. Inducer A is known to have an unstable inlet backflow problem. The other conventional helical Inducer B had been designed to improve the back flow characteristic of Inducer A. The meridional shroud shape is a mixedflow one, and inlet diameter is 0.1618m and exit diameter is 0.168m. The design flow coefficient is 0.080 and the head coefficient is smaller than that of Inducer A. Inducer C, designed by the 3-D inverse method, has a 3-D blade surface. The meridional shroud shape is the same as that of Inducer B. The design flow coefficient of Inducer C is 0.080 and the head coefficient is the same as that of Inducer B. The blade loading at the leading edge was set to zero to achieve a no incidence condition. More than 50 cases were studied to optimize the blade loading. Inducer D was also designed by the 3-D inverse design method, but its blade surface was modified to a 3 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics ruled surface by linearly connecting the hub and the tip to improve productivity and structural strength. The design flow coefficient of Inducer D is 0.080 and the head coefficient was increased from Inducer C. The meridional shape along the shroud is the same as those of Inducers B and C, while the hub radius was increased from the inlet to achieve a high pressure rise (see Fig.3). The leading edge blade loading was maximized within the limit of backflow suppression so that it has larger incidence to avoid pressure surface cavitation. The leading edges of Inducers A and B were finished to knife-edge shapes and had sweep back configurations, while the leading edges of Inducers C and D had one-fourth elliptic shapes and linear meridional configurations. CFD analysis CFD analyses by Dawes 3-D N-S code were performed for the four inducers at the flow rates of Q*=1.00(design point), Q*=0.94(minimum flow rate), and Q*=1.06(maximum flow rate). Figure 2 shows the total head coefficients of CFD results. The predicted total head coefficient for each inducer at design point Q*=1.00 was A:0.332, B:0.267, C:0.266, and D:0.292. Inducer A has a very large head coefficient and Inducer B has a smaller head coefficient than Inducer A, because of its smaller exit diameter. It is confirmed that Inducer C has almost the same head coefficient as Inducer B, and Inducer D has a larger head coefficient than Inducer B with the same exit diameter. a) Q*=0.94 Fig.2 CFD results – Head coefficient Flow streamline predictions Figure 3 shows the CFD analysis results of flow streamlines at Q*=0.94, 1.00, and 1.06. Here, the streamlines were calculated based on circumferentially averaged meridional velocities. Closed streamlines can be predicted if the inducers have an inlet backflow. At the design flow rate of Q*=1.00, a large backflow region is observed upstream of Inducer A. In the case of Inducer B, which has a larger design flow coefficient than Inducer A, the backflow region became smaller than that of Inducer A, but it still can be observed. In the case of Inducer C, designed by the 3-D inverse design method, with zero bladeloading at the leading edge (i.e., no incidence condition), backflow is not observed. In the case of Inducer D, although it was designed for a higher head coefficient and a larger incidence angle than Inducer C, b) Q*=1.00 CFD results – Flow streamline 4 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Fig.3 c) Q*=1.06 backflow was also avoided at the design flow rate. At the minimum flow rate of Q*=0.94, the backflow regions of Inducers A and B expanded from Q*=1.00, but backflow was not observed in the cases of Inducers C and D. At the maximum flow rate of Q*=1.06, the backflow regions of Inducers A and B shrank from Q*=1.00, but they can still be observed. However, backflow was not observed in the cases of Inducers C and D at all flow rates. From these results, it is expected that the controlled leading edge loading design using the 3-D inverse design method (Inducers C and D) is effective to improve the inlet backflow characteristic of the inducer from the conventional design inducer (Inducers A and B). Inlet velocity predictions Figure 4 shows CFD results for the inlet velocity distribution at 5mm upstream from the leading edge at the hub. The figure shows the radial distribution from hub to tip of the tangential velocity and the axial velocity at flow rates of Q*=0.94, 1.00, and 1.06. The tangential velocity CT and the axial velocity CZ are normalized using the peripheral velocity at the trailing edge tip. A velocity distribution change can be predicted if the inducer has an inlet backflow. In the case of Inducer A, all flow rate results show that regions with large tangential and negative axial velocities exist at the tip side. In the case of Inducer B, similar velocity changes as Inducer A are observed at the flow rates of Q*=1.00 and 0.94, but these are much smaller than those of Inducer A. In the cases of Inducers C and D, velocity change is not observed at all flow rates. Experimental facility The test models of Inducers A, B, C, and D were made by cutting a block of stainless steel using a 5axis numerically controlled milling machine, and water model tests were performed according to ISO standards. The model inducers were scaled down by 40% from the design scale and tested at a rotational speed of 3,000rpm and 3,600rpm. Similar to the actual rocket engine turbopump layout, a guide vane was arranged downstream from the inducer. The scaled down model of the actual guide vane was made by Rapid Prototyping using Selective Laser Sintering (SLS). EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSION a) Q*=0.94 Fig.5 b) Q*=1.00 Fig.4 c) Q*=1.06 CFD results – Inlet velocity Experimental set-up Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of the experimental set-up. The overall performance test and the flow velocity measurements were performed at a rotational speed of 3,000 rpm and the suction performance test and the FFT analysis test were performed at a rotational speed of 3,600 rpm. The wall static pressure difference between the suction pipe and the discharge pipe (downstream from the guide vane) was measured in the Q-H performance tests and the suction performance tests. The inlet flow velocities 3 mm upstream from the leading edge of the 5 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics hub were measured using a 3-hole Pitot tube. The model inducers were scaled down by 40% from the design scale so that this Pitot tube location corresponds to 5 mm upstream from the leading edge of the hub in the design scale. The FFT analysis of wall static pressure oscillation under cavitating conditions was performed using a pressure sensor located 28.5mm upstream from the leading edge at the hub. observed at all flow rates. In the case of Inducer D, a small backflow region is observed at the minimum flow rate of Q*=0.94. Overall performance results Figure 6 shows the experimental results of headflow and efficiency-flow characteristics. All test data were showed in non-dimensional coefficients. Inducer D showed almost the same head coefficient as Inducer A in the operating range between Q*=0.94 and 1.06, and it is confirmed that Inducer D achieved a very high loading with a small exit diameter compared to other inducers. The efficiency of Inducer C was lower than those of other inducers due to the zero incidence design at the leading edge. Note here that the guide vane best matched the original Inducer A. a) Q*=0.94 b) Q*=1.00 Fig.7 Fig.6 Experimental results – Overall performance Inlet velocity measurement results Figure 7 shows the results of the inlet velocity measurements. The figure shows the radial distributions from hub to tip of tangential and axial velocities at flow rates of Q*=0.94, 1.00, and 1.06. The tangential velocity CT and the axial velocity CZ are normalized using the peripheral velocity at the trailing edge tip. In the case of Inducer A, it is confirmed that regions with large tangential and negative axial velocities exist at the tip side at all flow rates. This negative axial velocity region indicates the onset of inlet backflow. In the case of Inducer B, the backflow region is not observed at the design flow rate of Q*=1.00 and the maximum flow rate of Q*=1.06, but a medium-sized backflow region is observed at the minimum flow rate of Q*=0.94. In the case of Inducer C, the backflow region is not c) Q*=1.06 Experimental results – Inlet velocity A comparison of CFD results (See Fig.4) and experimental results confirms that the velocity distribution in the backflow region of Inducer A did not show such a good agreement in terms of absolute value, but the qualitative tendency of backflow region size showed a good agreement. In the case of Inducer C, both CFD results and experimental results showed uniform velocity distributions with no inlet backflow. However, in the case of Inducers B and D, the qualitative tendency of backflow region did not show such a good agreement between CFD results and experimental results. At the design flow rate of Q*=1.00, CFD results overestimated the backflow region of Inducer B, and at the minimum flow rate of Q*=0.94, CFD results underestimated the backflow region of Inducer D. From these results, it is confirmed that the controlled leading edge loading design using the 3-D inverse design method (Inducers C and D) is effective to improve an inlet backflow characteristic of the inducer from that of the conventionally designed inducer (Inducers A and B). In particular, the zero leading edge loading design (Inducer C) can suppress inlet backflow over the whole range of operating flow rates of the inducer. 6 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics =0.04 and showed high suction performances at all flow rates. However, In the case of Inducers C and D, the head coefficients started decreasing at a relatively high cavitation number and showed lower suction performances than Inducers A and B. The suction performance of Inducers C and D depended on the flow rate and they rapidly deteriorated at the maximum flow rate of Q*=1.06. a) Q*=0.94 b) Q*=1.00 Fig. 9-a Cavitation visualization at Q*=0.94 Fig.8 c) Q*=1.06 Experimental results – Suction performance Tab.2 Cavitation number at 10% head INDUCER A B C D FLOW RATE Q* 0.94 1.00 1.06 0.0253 0.0199 0.0194 0.0296 0.0294 0.0305 0.0448 0.0455 0.0581 0.0416 0.0541 0.0762 Suction performance results Figure 8 shows the suction performance test results. The suction performance tests were performed at flow rates of Q*=0.94, 1.00, and 1.06, and these graphs present the head coefficient change for various inlet pressure conditions (represented by cavitation number). Table 2 shows the suction performances of the inducers, which were evaluated by calculating the cavitation number at 10% head-drop points. In the case of Inducers A and B, the head coefficients were kept high under a very low cavitation number of σ Fig. 9-b Cavitation visualization at Q*=1.00 7 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics cavitation mainly occurred at the front suction surfaces of the leading edge region and did not spread into the blade passages at all flow rates. However, in the cases of Inducers C and D, which are designed using the 3-D inverse design method and for which backflow characteristics were improved, it was confirmed that cavitation occurred in the blade passages and spread toward the trailing edges of the inducers. This tendency increased at larger flow rates. Note here that tip vortex cavitation, typically observed in conventional inducers, was not clearly observed for the inverse design Inducers C and D. Fig. 9-c Cavitation visualization at Q*=1.06 Cavitation visualization results Figure 9 shows the cavitation visualization results. The tests were performed at flow rates of Q*=0.94, 1.00, and 1.06, and the inlet conditions were chosen at a cavitation number of σ=0.04. In the cases of Inducers A and B, which are designed by a conventional method and tend to have inlet backflow, a) Q*=0.94 FFT analysis results of inlet pressure Figure 10 shows the FFT analysis results for inlet pressure at flow rates of Q*=0.94, 1.00, and 1.06, and a cavitation number of σ =0.04. Inducer A has broadband noise and a strong peak at 73.7Hz at the design flow rate of Q*1.00. The broadband noise was due to the large inlet backflow, and the strong peak at 73.7Hz was caused by rotating cavitation. A high-speed camera also confirmed that there was rotating cavitation. Rotating cavitation was strong enough to cause a vibration problem in the present experimental facility. At all flow rates, rotating cavitation was observed in the case of Inducer A. In the case of Inducer B, only rotation frequency (60Hz) b) Q*=1.00 Fig.10 Experimental results - FFT analysis results 8 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics c) Q*=1.06 and low noise were observed, and there was no evidence of rotating cavitation at all flow rates. In the cases of Inducers C and D, the results showed extremely low-level noise and no evidence of rotating cavitation at all flow rates. Discussion From these experimental results, it is confirmed that the design with no loading (or controlled loading) at the leading edge using the 3-D inverse design method is effective to suppress the inlet backflow of the inducer. However, there is a trade-off relationship between the inlet backflow characteristic and the suction performance. These results were obtained in the water model tests, but the actual rocket inducer operates in liquid hydrogen. It is well known that the thermodynamic effect of liquid hydrogen suppresses cavitation occurrence and improves suction performance significantly. However, inlet backflow phenomena of an inducer may reduce the thermodynamic effect and the suction performance in reality. In the case of Inducer C or D with suppressed inlet backflow, it was confirmed that cavitation appeared in the blade passages and reduced the suction performance in water model tests. However, if the thermodynamic effect of liquid hydrogen is to be improved due to the suppression of inlet backflow, the suction performance may be improved for Inducers C and D under the actual environment of liquid hydrogen. The effects of inlet backflow on the thermodynamic effect need to be clarified in a future study. CONCLUDING REMARKS The 3-D inverse design method was applied for designing highly loaded turbopump inducers for rocket engine application. The conventional inducer, which had been designed for the LE-7A rocket engine turbopump, had a strong inlet backflow at the design point. This inlet backflow was eliminated by optimizing the blade loading distribution using the 3-D inverse design method and a CFD analysis. Water model tests confirmed the elimination of inlet backflow in the inverse design inducers. Pressure oscillation was maintained at a very low level and no evidence of rotating cavitation was observed. However, the suppressed backflow tended to make cavitation occur in the blade passages and reduced suction performance. The value of inlet backflow suppression design needs to be evaluated including its effects on the thermodynamic effects of liquid hydrogen. REFERENCES (1) Brennen, C., “Hydrodynamics of pumps”, 1994, Concepts ETI, Inc., pp. 132-138. (2) Jakobsen, J. K., 1971, “Liquid rocket engine turbopump inducers”, NASA SP-8052, pp.17-24. (3) He, W., 1997, “The Improvement of the Cavitation Performance of a Cooling Water Circulation Pump “, FEDSM97-3381. (4) Singhal, A. K., Vaidya, N., Leonard, A. D., 1997, “Multi-Dimensional Simulation of Cavitating Flows Using a PDF Model for Phase Change”, FEDSM97-3272. (5) Zangeneh, M., 1991, “A Compressible Three Dimensional Blade Design Method for Radial and Mixed Flow Turbo-machinery Blades,” Int. J. Numerical Methods in Fluids, Vol. 13, pp. 599-624. (6) Zangeneh, M., Goto, A., and Harada, H., 1998, “On the Design Criteria for Suppression of Secondary Flows in Centrifugal and Mixed-Flow Impellers,” ASME Journal of Turbomachinery, Vol.120, pp723-735. (7) Goto. A., and Zangeneh, M., 1998, “Hydrodynamic Design of Pump Diffuser Using Inverse Design Method and CFD”, ASME FEDSM984854. (8) Ashihara, K., Goto, A., 1999, ”Improvements of Pump Suction Performance Using 3D Inverse Design Method,” ASME FEDSM99-6846. (9) Walker, P. J. and Dawes, W. N., 1990, “The Extension and Application of Three-Dimensional Time-Marching Analysis to Incompressible Turbomachinery Flows,” ASME Journal of Turbomachinery, Vol. 112, pp. 385-390. (10) Ashihara, K., Goto, A., 2002, “Effects of Blade Loading on Pump Inducer Performance and Flow Fields,” ASME FEDSM2002-31201 9 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics word版下载:http://www.ixueshu.com 免费论文查重:http://www.paperyy.com 3亿免费文献下载:http://www.ixueshu.com 超值论文自动降重:http://www.paperyy.com/reduce_repetition PPT免费模版下载:http://ppt.ixueshu.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------