Ahmad Fikri Mustaffa and Vasudevan Kanjirakkad
This paper aims to understand the aerodynamic blockage related to near casing flow in a transonic axial compressor using numerical simulations and to design an optimum casing…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to understand the aerodynamic blockage related to near casing flow in a transonic axial compressor using numerical simulations and to design an optimum casing groove for stall margin improvement using a surrogate optimisation technique.
Design/methodology/approach
A blockage parameter (Ψ) is introduced to quantify blockage across the blade domain. A surrogate optimisation technique is then used to find the optimum casing groove design that minimises blockage at an axial location where the blockage is maximum at near stall conditions.
Findings
An optimised casing groove that improves the stall margin by about 1% can be found through optimisation of the blockage parameter (Ψ).
Originality/value
Optimising for stall margin is rather lengthy and computationally expensive, as the stall margin of a compressor will only be known once a complete compressor map is constructed. This study shows that the cost of the optimisation can be reduced by using a suitably defined blockage parameter as the optimising parameter.
Details
Keywords
Ishaq Jarallah and Vasudevan P Kanjirakkad
This paper aims to offer the aerodynamic testing community a new procedure for manufacturing high-quality aerodynamic probes suitable for 3D flow measurements with consistent…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to offer the aerodynamic testing community a new procedure for manufacturing high-quality aerodynamic probes suitable for 3D flow measurements with consistent geometry and calibration by taking advantage of the additive manufacturing technology.
Design/methodology/approach
The design methodology combines the advantages and flexibilities of computer aided design (CAD)/computer aided manufacturing (CAM) along with the use of computational fluid dynamics to design and analyse suitable probe shapes prior to manufacturing via rapid prototyping.
Findings
A viable procedure to design and possibly batch manufacture geometrically accurate pneumatic probes with consistent calibration is shown to be possible through this work. Multi-jet modelling prototyping methods with wax-based support materials are found to be a cost-effective method when clean and long sub-millimetre pressure channels are to be cut.
Originality/value
Utilisation of the geometry consistency that is made possible by 3D printing technology for the design and development of pneumatic probes is described. It is suggested that the technique could lead to batch production of identical probes, thus avoiding precious time of a skilled labourer and elaborate individual calibration requirement.