• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.330-337
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• 2004

Analysis of flow phenomena in a centrifugal compressor impeller has been carried out with numerical simulation to understand the physics of flow near stall. Near stall point, tip leakage flow spills ahead of the leading edge of adjacent blade and other leakage flow passes over the clearance of the adjacent blade instead of rolling up into vortex within the passage. The tip leakage flow at the mid chord of impeller blade impinges against the pressure surface of the adjacent blade and then rolls up into vortex within the passage, which blocks the flow passage and generates viscous loss. The spillage of leakage flow ahead of the adjacent blade generates the recirculation of flow entering the impeller, which causes the power transferred into the flow by the impeller to decrease and blocks the flow passage. Near diffuser hub wall, flow recirculation occurs. As operating point goes to stall point, the core of recirculation approaches the impeller exit The length rises to peak point and then drops with mass flow reduction, while the height steadily rises.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.606-616
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• 2003

A numerical analysis has been conducted in order to simulate the characteristics of complex flow through linear cascades of high performance turbine blade with/without tip clearance by using a pressure-correction based, generalized 3D incompressible Wavier-Stokes CFD code. The development and generation of horseshoe vortex, passage vortex, leakage vortex, tip vortex within tip clearance, etc. are clearly identified through the present simulation which uses the RNG k-$\varepsilon$ turbulent model with wall function method and a second-order linear upwind scheme for convective terms. The present simulation results are consistent with the generally known tendency that occurs in the blade passage and tip clearance. A 3D model for secondary and leakage flows through turbine cascades with/without tip clearance is also suggested from the present simulation results, including the effects of tip clearance height.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.150-156
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• 2009

Precise leakage prediction for annular type seals of turbomachinery is necessary for enhancing their efficiency and various prediction methods have been developed. As the seal passage is designed intricately, the analysis based on Bulk-flow concept which has been mainly used in predicting seal leakage is limited. In order to improve the seal leakage prediction, full Navier-Stokes Equations with turbulent model derived in the seal flow passage have to be solved. In this study, 3D CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) analysis has been performed for predicting leakage of various non-contact type anular seals using FLUENT. Compared to the results by Bulk-flow model analysis, experiment, and 2D CFD analysis, the result of 3D CFD analysis shows improvement in predicting seal leakage, especially for the parallel grooved pump seal.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2002.08a
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• pp.593-596
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• 2002

Flows in a regenerative pump were calculated for several flow-rates, using the CFX-Tascflow. The calculated results show the vortex structure in the impeller and side channel. The predicted performance shows considerable discrepancy form the measured values for low flow rates. Main source of the difference is the leakage flow of pump strongly affecting the performance of pump. A simple correlation was proposed using calculated leakage flows through the parametric calculations of the simplified passage.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.41-47
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• 2010

The effect of incidence angle on the three-dimensional flow and aerodynamic loss in the tip leakage flow region downstream of a turbine rotor cascade has been investigated for two tip gap-to-chord ratios of h/c=0.0% (no tip gap) and 2.0%. The incidence angle is changed to be $i=-10^{\circ}$, $0^{\circ}$, and $5^{\circ}$. The results show that for $i=5^{\circ}$, secondary flows including the passage vortex are intensified noticeably, and there is a strong interaction between the passage and tip leakage vortices. For $i=-10^{\circ}$, however, the passage vortex is weakened significantly, so that there exists only a strong leakage-jet-like secondary flows near the casing wall. For h/c=0.0% and 2.0%, aerodynamic loss tends to increase with increasing i from $-10^{\circ}$ to $5^{\circ}$. A small increment of i in its positive incidence range results in a remarkable aerodynamic loss increase, while increasing i in the negative incidence range leads to a small change in the aerodynamic loss generation.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.979-989
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• 2004

Numerical simulations have been performed to investigate tip clearance effect on through-flow and performance of a centrifugal compressor which has the same configuration of impeller with six different tip clearances. Secondary flow and loss distribution have been surveyed to understand the flow mechanism due to the tip clearance. Tip leakage flow strongly interacts with mainstream flow and considerably changes the secondary flow and the loss distribution inside the impeller passage. A method has been described to quantitatively estimate the tip clearance effect on the performance drop and the efficiency drop. The tip clearance has caused specific work reduction and additional entropy generation. The former, which is called inviscid loss, is independent of any internal loss and the latter, which is called viscous loss, is dependent on every loss in the flow passage. Two components equally affected the performance drop as the tip clearances were small, while the efficiency drop was influenced by the viscous component alone. The additional entropy generation was modeled with all the kinetic energy of the tip leakage flow. Therefore, the present paper can provide how to quantitatively estimate the tip clearance effect on the performance and efficiency.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.883-892
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• 2003

The experiment using three-dimensional laser Dopperr velocimetery (LDV) measurements and the computation using the Reynolds stress model of the commercial code, FLUENT, were conducted to give a clear understanding on the structure of tip leakage flow in a forward-swept axial-flow fan operating at the maximum efficiency condition. The tip leakage vortex was generated near the position of the minimum wall static pressure, which was located at approximately 12% chord downstream from the leading edge of blade suction side, and developed along the centerline of the pressure trough within the blade passages. A reverse flow between the blade tip region and the casing, induced by tip leakage vortex, acted as a blockage on the through-flow. As a result, high momentum flux was observed below the tip leakage vortex. As the tip leakage vortex proceeded to the aft part of the blade passage, the strength of tip leakage vortex decreased due to the strong interaction with the through-flow and casing boundary layer, and the diffusion of tip leakage vortex caused by high turbulence. In comparison with LDV measurement data, the computed results predicted the complex viscous flow patterns inside the tip region, including the locus of tip leakage vortex center, in a reliable level.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.845-850
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• 2003

Unsteady nature of a tip leakage vortex in an axial flow fan operating at a design and off-design operating conditions has been investigated by measuring the velocity fluctuation in a blade passage with a rotating hotwire probe sensor. Two hot-wire probe sensors rotating with the fan rotor were also introduced to obtain the cross-correlation coefficient between the two sensors located in the vortical flow as well as the fluctuating velocity. The results show that the vortical flow structure near the rotor tip can be clearly observed at the quasi-orthogonal planes to a tip leakage vortex. The leakage vortex is enlarged as the flow rate is decreased, thus resulting in the high blockage to main flow. The spectral peaks due to the fluctuating velocity near the rotor tip are mainly observed in the reverse flow region at higher flow rates than the peak pressure operating condition. However, no peak frequency presents near the rotor tip for near stall condition.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.9 no.3 s.36
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• pp.14-21
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• 2006

Leakage reduction through annular type seals of turbomachinery is necessary for enhancing their efficiency and the precise prediction method of seal leakage is needed. The analysis based on Bulk-flow concept has been mainly used in predicting seal leakage. However, full Navier-Stokes Equations with turbulent model derived in the seal flow passage have to be solved for improving the prediction of seal leakage. FLUENT 6 which is commercial CFD(Computational Fluid Dynamics) code based on FVM(Finite Volume Method) and SIMPLE algorism has been used to analyze leakage of various non-contact-type seals in this presentation. Comparing with the results of Bulk-flow model analysis and experiment, the result of CFD analysis shows good agreement with that of existing theoretical analysis for the incompressible grooved seal and compressive plain and staggered seal. The CFD analysis also shows improvement on the leakage prediction of the incompressible plain seal and compressive see-through-type labyrinth seal.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.27 no.8
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• pp.1015-1022
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• 2003

Flows in a regenerative pump were calculated for several flow-rates, using the CFX-Tascflow. The calculated results show the vortex structure in the impeller and side channel. The predicted performance shows considerable discrepancy from the measured values for low flow rates. Main source of the difference is the leakage flow of pump strongly affecting the performance of pump. A simple correlation was proposed using calculated leakage flows through the simplified passage. One dimensional analysis were made for the recirculating flow and angular momentum transfer using calculated three dimensional data base.