1 Copyright 2014 by ASME

Proceedings of ASME Turbo Expo 2014: Turbine Technical Conference and Exposition
GT2014
June 16 20, 2014, Dsseldorf, Germany
GT2014-26725
NON-AXISYMMETRIC ENDWALL CONTOURING IN A COMPRESSOR CASCADE
WITH TIP GAP
Mahesh K. Varpe and A. M. Pradeep
Department of Aerospace Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
Mumbai, India 400 076
Email: ampradeep@aero.iitb.ac.in
ABSTRACT
This paper describes the design of a non-axisymmetric hub
contouring in a shroudless axial flow compressor cascade
operating at near stall condition. Although, an optimum tip
clearance reduces the total pressure loss, further minimization
of the losses using hub contouring was achieved. The design
methodology presented here combines an evolutionary principle
with a three-dimensional CFD flow solver to generate different
geometric profiles of the hub systematically. The total pressure
loss coefficient was used as a single objective function to guide
the search process for the optimum hub geometry. The resulting
three dimensionally complex hub promises considerable
benefits discussed in detail in this paper. A reduction of 15.2%
and 16.23% in the total pressure loss and secondary kinetic
energy, respectively, was achieved in the wake. The blade
loading was observed to improve by about 4.53%. Other
complementary benefits are also listed in the paper. The results
confirm that non-axisymmetric contouring is an effective method
for reducing the losses and thereby improving the performance of
the cascade.
NOMENCLATURE
C Bladechord, m
C
p
Static pressure coefficient, =(P
2
-P
1
)/(U
2
/2)
C
p0
Total pressure coefficient, =(P
01
-P
02
)/(U
2
/2)
C
p0
,
ref
Midspan total pressure coefficient in the
wake for t =0
C
SKE
Secondary kinetic energycoefficient,
=KE-sec/KE
1
CFD Computational fluid dynamics
EA Evolutionary algorithm module
h Blade span with TC =1%, m
H Blade span with no tip gap, m
i Incidence angle, deg.
KE Kinetic energy
KE-sec Kinetic energy of secondary flow
= [M (v
2
+w
2
)] / (M
1
V
1
2
)
LE Leading edge
M mass flow rate, kg/s
MUSCL Monotone Upstream-centered Schemes for
Conservation Laws
P.S Pressuresurface of the blade
P
1
,P
2
Static pressure at the inlet and wake, Pa
P
01
, P
02
Total pressureat the inlet and wake, Pa
Re Reynolds number based on chord length
s Pitch of blade, m
S.S Suction surface of the blade
SIMPLE Semi-Implicit Method for Pressure-Linked
Equations
SIMPLEC SIMPLE Consistent
t Tip gap, m
TC Tip clearance ratio, t/H
TE Trailing edge
TLV Tip leakage vortex
u, v ,w Velocity components in (x,y,z) coordinate
system, m/s
U Mean velocity, m/s
x
n
, y
n
, z
n
Normalized coordinates w.r.t C, s
and corresponding span.

2
Exit flow angle, deg.

2, ref
Mid-span exit flow angle in the
wake, at t =0, deg.
* Deviation from the reference exit flow angle,
(
2, -

2, ref
), deg.

2, ref
Vorticity along
2, ref
, 1/s
Subscript
1 Inlet location
2 Downstream location
ref reference
ske Secondary kinetic energy