• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2004.03a
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• pp.622-627
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• 2004

There are many difficulties in realizing Ultra-micro gas turbine system. Among them, the effects of tip clearance upon the micro turbine flowfield are discussed in this paper. The flowfield was investigated numerically with the Reynolds-averaged three-dimensional thin-layer Navier-Stokes equations. Calculations were conducted with clearance height from 0％ to 10% of the passage height. Leakage mass flow and deterioration of efficiency are proportional to the clearance height for the clearance height larger than 4%. However, in the case of 2% clearance, leakage flow is significantly reduced due to relative motion of the casing and as a result deterioration of efficiency is very small. It is difficult to control tip clearance in micro turbines, but the results of this study indicate that if the clearance height is controlled within a few per-cent of passage height, deterioration of stage performance will be small.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.12a
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• pp.173-177
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• 2005

The heat/mass transfer characteristics on the plane tip surface of a high-turning first-stage turbine rotor blade has been investigated by employing the naphthalene sublimation technique. The heat/mass transfer coefficient is measured for four tip clearance height-to-chord ratios of h/c = 1.0%, 2.0%, 3.0%, and 4% at the Reynolds number of $2.09{\times}105$. The result shows that at lower h/c, there exists a strong flow separation/re-attachment process, which results in severe thermal load along the pressure-side comer. As h/c increases, the re-attachment is occurred further downstream of the pressure-side comer with lower thermal load. At higher h/c, a pair of vortices on the tip surface near the leading edge are found along the pressure-side and suction-side comers, and the pressure-side tip vortex have significant influence even on the mid-chord local heat transfer.

• 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.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.03b
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• pp.240-243
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• 2008

In this paper, the design of Centrifugal Compressor which is used in sizes 50 horse power has 8 pressure ratio and numerical analysis of the flow within compressor varying tip clearance length are performed. To get high pressure ratio with low power the exit height of impellers is low but compressor has very high speed of revolution. So compressor has high specific speed although mass flow rate is very small. The shape of impellers at the first stage is carried out. Flow and performance characteristics of impellers has been analyzed by using a commercial CFD program, $Fine^{TM}$/turbo. The result shows that loss coefficient is affected by tip clearance length and compressor has proper tip clearance length. It is possible to decrease loss by selecting apt tip clearance length.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.41-45
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• 2012

The effects of inducer tip clearance on the suction performance of a pump for turbopumps are investigated. Experiments for the pump with inducer tip clearances of 1.8% and 1.4% of blade height were performed. The experimental results showed that the suction performance of the pump increased as the tip clearance decreased. It seems that the suction performance of the pump becomes better with smaller tip clearances because the strength of the inducer backflow becomes weak with the decreased tip clearance.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.7-12
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• 2013

This paper presents a numerical investigation of the influences of various non-uniform tip clearances on the performance and flow field in a centrifugal compressor. Numerical simulations were conducted for three centrifugal compressor impellers in which the tip clearance height varied linearly from the leading edge to the trailing edge. The numerical result was compared with the experimental data for validation. Although the performance improved for low tip clearances, a smaller tip clearance at the trailing edge reduced the overall tip leakage flow more effectively than a smaller tip clearance at the leading edge. Therefore, a smaller tip clearance at the trailing edge lowered the mixing loss caused by interactions between the tip leakage flow and the main passage flow.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.389-397
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• 2003

Effect of tip leakage flow on through flow and performance of a centrifugal compressor impeller was numerically studied using CFX-TASC flow. Seven different tip clearances were used to consider the influence of tip clearance on performance. Secondary flow and loss factor were evaluated to understand the loss mechanism inside the impeller due to tip leakage flow. The calculated results were circumferentially averaged along the passage and at the impeller exit for quantitative discussion. Tip clearance effect on Performance could be decomposed into inviscid and viscous components using one dimensional equation. The inviscid component is related with the specific work reduction and the viscous component is related with the additional entropy generation. Two components affected Performance equally. while efficiency drop was mainly influenced by viscous loss. Performance and efficiency drop due to tip clearance were proportional to the ratio of tip clearance to exit blade height. A simple model suggested in the present study predict performance and efficiency drop quite successfully.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.7 no.5 s.26
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• pp.36-42
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• 2004

The effect of tip clearance height on the three-dimensional flow and aerodynamic loss in the wake region of a high-turning turbine rotor cascade has been investigated with a miniature cone-type five-hole probe. Distributions of velocity magnitude, secondary velocity vectors, and total-pressure loss coefficient are presented for three tip gap-to-span ratios of h/s = 0.0, 0.5 and 1.0 percent. The result shows that with the increment of h/s, tip leakage vortex tends to be intensified and aerodynamic loss due to the leakage vortex is increased as well. In the case of h/s = 1.0 percent, aerodynamic loss in the tip-leakage flow region is found dominant in comparison with that in the passage vortex region. With increasing h/s, mass-averaged secondary loss coefficient has a greater portion in the mass-averaged total-pressure loss coefficient.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.90-95
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• 2011

The Navier-Stokes equations are solved to study the flow characteristics of a micro viscous pump. The viscous micropump is consisted of a stationary disk with a spiral shaped channel and a rotating disk. A simple geometrical model for the tip clearance is proposed and validated by comparing computed flow rate with corresponding experimental data. Present numerical solutions show satisfactory agreement with the corresponding experimental data. The tip clearance effect is found to become significant as the rotational speed increases. As the pressure load increases, a reversed flow region is seen to form near the stationary disk. The height of the channel is shown to be optimized in terms of the flow rate for a given rotational speed and pressure load. The optimal height of the channel becomes small as the rotational speed decreases or the pressure load increases. The flow rate of the pump is found to be in proportion to the width of channel.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.357-363
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• 2016

In this study, we perform a series of aero-thermo-mechanical analyses to predict the running-tip clearance and the effects of impeller deformation on the performance using a centrifugal compressor. During operation, the impeller deformation due to a combination of the centrifugal force, aerodynamic pressure and the thermal load results in a non-uniform tip clearance profile. For the prediction, we employ the one-way fluid-structure interaction (FSI) method using CFX 14.5 and ANSYS. The predicted running tip clearance shows a non-uniform profile over the entire flow passage. In particular, a significant reduction of the tip clearance height occurred at the leading and trailing edges of the impeller. Because of the reduction of the tip clearance, the tip leakage flow decreased by 19.4%. In addition, the polytrophic efficiency under operating conditions increased by 0.72%. These findings confirm that the prediction of the running tip clearance and its impact on compressor performance is an important area that requires further investigation.