• Journal of Ship and Ocean Technology
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.19-30
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• 1997

The accurate prediction of the flow and the pressure distribution near the tip of the blade is crucial in determining the tip vortex cavitation inception which usually occurs on the blade tip or inside the core of the tip vortex just downstream of the blade tip. An improved boundary element method is applied to the prediction of the flow around propeller blades, with emphasis at the tip region. In the method, the Blow adapted grid and a higher order panel method, which combines a hyperboloidal panel geometry with a hi-quadratic dipole distribution, are used in order to accurately model the trailing wake geometry and the highly rolled-up regions in the wake. The method is applied to several propeller geometries and the results have been found to agree well to the existing experimental data. Inviscid flow methods are able to predict the pressures at the tip as well as the shape of the trailing wake. On the other hand, they are unable to determine the flow inside the viscous core of the tip vortex, where cavitation inception often occurs. Thus, a method is presented that treats the flow inside the viscous core. The inner flow is treated with a 2-D Clavier-stokes solution without making any assumptions for axisymmetric flow and conicity of the flow along the tip trajectory. The method can thus allow the treatment of general propeller blade configurations. The velocity and pressure distributions inside the core are shown and compared to those from other numerical methods.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.2 no.1 s.2
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• pp.73-80
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• 1999

Leakage vortices formed new blade tip causes an increase of total pressure loss near the casing endwall region and as a result, the efficiency of rotor decreases. The reduction of rotor efficiency is related to the size of the tip clearance. In this study, the three-dimensional flowfields in an axial flow rotor were calculated by varying the tip clearance under various flow rates, and the numerical results were compared with experimental ones. The effects of tip clearance and attack angle on the leakage vortex and overall performance, and the loss distributions were investigated through numerical calculations. In this study, tip leakage flow rate and total pressure loss by tip clearance were evaluated using numerical results and approximate equations were presented to evaluate the reduction of rotor efficiency by tip leakage flow.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.1383-1388
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• 2004

The flow characteristics in the blade passage of a low speed axial flow fan have been investigated by experimental analysis using a rotating hot-wire sensor for design and off-design operating conditions. The results show that the tip leakage vortex is moved upstream when flow rate is decreased, thus disturbing the formation of wake flow near the rotor tip. The tip leakage vortex interfaces with blade pressure surface, and results in high velocity fluctuation near the pressure surface. From the relative velocity distributions near the rotor tip, large axial velocity decay is observed at near stall condition, which results in large blockage compared to that at the design condition. Througout the flow measurements using a quasi-orthogonal measuring points to the tip leakage vortex, it is noted that the radial position of the tip leakage vortex is distributed between 94 and 96 percent span for all flow conditions. High spectrum density due to the large fluctuation of the tip leakage vortex is observed near the blade suction surface below the frequency of 1000 Hz at near stall condition.

• 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.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.535-544
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• 2004

The heat (mass) transfer characteristics in the tip-leakage flow region of a high-turning first-stage turbine rotor blade has been investigated by employing the naphthalene sublimation technique. The heat transfer data in the tip-leakage flow area for the tip clearance-to-span ratio, h/s, of 2.0% are compared with those in endwall three-dimensional flow region without tip clearance (h/s : 0.0 %). The result shows that the thermal load in the tip-leakage flow region for h/s = 2.0% is more severe than that in the endwall flow region for h/s : 0.0%. The thermal loads even at the leading and trailing edges for h/s = 2.0% are found larger than those for h/s = 0.0%. The tip-leakage flow results in heat transfer augmentations near the tip on both pressure and suction sides in comparison with the mid-span results.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.30 no.9 s.252
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• pp.913-920
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• 2006

Three-dimensional flow and aerodynamic loss in the tip-leakage flow region of a high-turning first-stage turbine rotor blade with a squealer tip have been measured with a straight miniature five-hole probe for the tip gap-to-chord ratio, h/c, of 2.0%. This squealer tip has a indent-to-chord ratio, $h/{st}/c$, of 5.5%. The results are compared with those for a plane tip $(h_{st}/c=0.0%)$. The squealer tip tends to reduce the mass flow through the tip gap and to suppress the development of the tip-leakage vortex. Therefore, it delivers lower aerodynamic loss in the near-tip region than the plane tip does. At the mid-span, however, the aerodynamic loss has nearly the same value for the two different tips.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.12a
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• pp.279-283
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• 2002

The effects of finite gap at the tip of turbomachinery blades have long been topics of both theoretical and experimental research because tip clearance degrades turbomachinery performance. This paper presents an analytical study of radial flow redistribution in a high speed compressor stage with axisymmetric tip clearance. The flow is assumed to be inviscid and compressible. The stage is modeled as an actuator disc and the analysis is carried out in the meridional plane. Upon going through the stage, the radially uniform upstream flow splits into the tip clearance and passage flows. The tip clearance flow is modeled as a jet driven by blade loading, or pressure difference between the pressure and suction sides. The model takes into consideration the detached shocks which occur in the rotor passage at the design point. This shock model is used to calculate the density ratio across the stage. Thus, the model is capable of predicting the kinematic effects of tip clearance in the high speed compressor flow field.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.813-821
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• 1997

Three-dimensional turbulent incompressible flow through the tip clearance of a linear turbine rotor cascade with high turning angle has been analyzed numerically. As a preliminary study to predict the tip clearance loss realistically, a generalized k-.epsilon. model derived by RNG (renormalized group) method is used for the modeling of Reynolds stresses to account for the strain rate of turbulent flow. The effects of the tip clearance flow on the passage vortex, the total pressure loss are considered qualitatively. The existences of vena contract and tip clearance vortex have been confirmed and it has been shown that as the size of the tip clearance increases, the accumulated flow through the tip clearance and the total pressure loss downstream of the cascade increase.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.743-750
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• 2008

Asymmetric tip clearance in an axial compressor induces pressure and velocity redistributions along the circumferential direction in an axial compressor. This paper presents the mechanism of the flow redistribution due to the asymmetric tip clearance with a simple numerical modeling. The flow field of a rotor of an axial compressor is predicted when an asymmetric tip clearance occurs along the circumferential direction. The modeling results are supported by CFD results not only to validate the present modeling but also to investigate more detailed flow fields. Asymmetric tip clearance makes local flow area and resultant axial velocity vary along the circumferential direction. This flow redistribution 'seed' results in a different flow patterns according to the flow coefficient. Flow field redistribution patterns are largely dependent on the local tip clearance performance at low flow coefficients. However, the contribution of the main flow region becomes dominant while the tip clearance effect becomes weak as the flow coefficient increases. The flow field redistribution pattern becomes noticeably strong if a blockage effect is involved when the flow coefficient increases. The relative flow angle at the small clearance region decreases which result in a negative incidence angle at the high flow coefficient. It causes a recirculation region at the blade pressure surface which results in the flow blockage. It promotes the strength of the flow field redistribution at the rotor outlet. These flow pattern changes have an effect on the blade loading perturbations. The integration of blade loading perturbation from control volume analysis of the circumferential momentum leads to well-known Alford's force. Alford's force is always negative when the flow blockage effects are excluded. However when the flow blockage effect is incorporated into the modeling, main flow effects on the flow redistribution is also reflected on the Alford's force at the high flow coefficient. Alford's force steeply increases as the flow coefficient increases, because of the tip leakage suppression and strong flow redistribution. The predicted results are well agreed to CFD results by Kang and Kang(2006).

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.353-361
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• 2002

The tip leakage flow passing through the clearance between rotor blade tip and casing shroud has been known to occupy an important portion of the rotor overall loss. In this study, flow characteristics in axial flow rotors with different tip clearances is investigated by experimental and numerical methods. The experimental study was carried out to measure static pressure and velocity profiles at the real rotating test rig. The axial flow rotors used for the experiments have ten blades and three different rotor diameter. The tip clearance heights are 1mm, 3mm, and 4.5mm. Measurements were done using spherical type five-hole probe by non-nulling method. The numerical study was carried out to calculate pressure distributions and velocity vectors at the same condition as the experiments in the flow fields of axial flow rotors using Phoenics code.