Unsteady measurement techniques for turbomachinery flows

• Main Author: Jaffa, Nicholas Andrew
• Language: EN
• Published: University of Notre Dame 2015
• Subjects: Aerospace engineering|Mechanical engineering
• Online Access: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3732212

<p> Accurate unsteady measurements are required for studying the flows in high speed turbomachines, which rely on the interaction between rotating and stationary components. Using statistics of phase locked ensembles simplifies the problem, but accurate frequency response in the 10-100 kHz range significantly limits the applicable techniques. This research advances the state of the art for phase resolved measurement techniques using for high speed turbomachinery flows focusing on the following areas: development, validation, and uncertainty quantification. Four methods were developed and implemented: an unsteady total pressure probe, the multiple overheat hot-wire method, the slanted hot-wire method, and the phase peak yaw hot-wire method. These methods allow for the entire phase locked average flow field to be measured (temperature, pressure, and velocity components, swirl angle, etc.). No trusted reference measurement or representative canonical flow exists for comparison of the phase resolved quantities, making validation challenging. Five different validation exercises were performed to increase the confidence and explore the range of applicability. These exercises relied on checking for consistency with expected flow features, comparing independent measurements, and cross validation with CFD. The combined uncertainties for the measurements were quantified using uncertainty estimates from investigations into the elemental error sources. The frequency response uncertainty of constant temperature hot-wire system was investigated using a novel method of illuminating the wire with a laser pulse. The uncertainty analysis provided estimates for the uncertainty in the measurements as well as showing the sensitivity to various sources of error.</p>