The application relates generally to gas turbine engines and, more particularly, to recirculating flow systems for the compressors of such engines.
Tandem stators (i.e. two stator rows located in immediate succession) are sometimes used in compressors with very high pressure ratios, when high flow turning and/or high Mach number flow is required. However, when such compressors are operating at off-design conditions, there can be large distortions in the flow at the inlet to the first stator and/or downstream of the compressor rotor.
Obtaining an acceptable performance and operating range from tandem stator designs can therefore be challenging, given that physical constraints on engine weight and overall compressor length can impose restrictions on stator length, number of stators, gas path size/shape, etc.
There is accordingly provided a method of operating a compressor of a gas turbine engine comprising: directing a main airflow through tandem stator rows in a gaspath of the compressor, the tandem stator rows including a first stator row located upstream of a second stator row; extracting a first portion of the main airflow from a first location proximate radially inner roots of stators of the first or second stator rows; extracting a second portion of the main airflow from a second location proximate the radially inner roots of the stators of the first or second stator rows, the second location downstream of the first location relative to the main airflow; combining the first and second portions together to form a mixed recirculation flow; and re-injecting the recirculation flow back into the main airflow at a third location, the third location upstream of the first and second locations and upstream of a leading edge of stators of the first stator row.
There is also provided a method of operating a compressor of a gas turbine engine, the compressor having a rotor and tandem stator rows downstream of the rotor, the method comprising: extracting air from a main airflow passing through the compressor, the extracting occurring at two different locations axially spaced from one another, a first location disposed upstream of a second location relative to the main airflow, the first and second locations disposed downstream of a leading edge of stators of an upstream stator row of the tandem stator rows and disposed upstream of a trailing edge of stators of a downstream stator row of the tandem stator rows; and re-injecting the air extracted from the first and second locations back into the main airflow at a location upstream of the leading edge of the upstream stators of the tandem stator rows.
There is further provided a compressor for a gas turbine engine comprising: a rotor rotatable about an axis, the rotor including a hub and fan blades protruding from the hub and extending through a gaspath passage; tandem stator rows located downstream of the rotor relative to a direction of airflow through the gaspath passage, the tandem stator rows including a first stator row located upstream of a second stator row, each of the first and second stator rows having stators with a vane airfoil extending through the gaspath passage from a radially inner root to a radially outer tip; and a flow recirculation system including a first extraction conduit, a second extraction conduit, and a recirculation conduit, the first extraction conduit extending from a first inlet opening in the gaspath passage to a junction, the first inlet opening located near the radially inner root of the stators of the first stator row, the second extraction conduit extending from a second inlet opening in the gaspath passage to the junction, the second inlet opening located near the radially inner root of the stators of the second stator row, the second inlet opening being downstream of the first inlet opening, and the recirculation conduit extending from the junction to an outlet opening in the gaspath passage, the outlet opening located upstream of the first and second inlet openings and upstream of a leading edge of the stators of the first stator row.
Reference is now made to the accompanying figures in which:
The compressor section 14 includes one or more compressor rotors 12, 22 each having stators 24 downstream thereof. The exemplary gas turbine engine 10 of
As will be described in further detail below, the compressor section 14 of the gas turbine engine 10 includes at least one compression stage having a tandem stator assembly 124 (which may be alternately referred to as a dual stator assembly), composed of two individual stators 24 in immediate flow-wise succession (i.e. without any rotor therebetween). In the embodiment depicted in
Referring now to
The terms “downstream” and “upstream” as used herein are all with reference to a direction of the main airflow through the main gaspath 30 of the compressor 14, that is the main airflow direction 51 in
Referring to
More particularly, a first inlet opening 52 and a second inlet opening 54 are disposed in the radially inner wall 31 of the main gaspath 30, proximate the radially inner roots 21 (or simply “roots”) of the first and second stators 26 and 28. The first inlet opening 52 is located at the first location 46 and the second inlet opening 54 is located at the second location 48. As can be seen in
The first and second inlet openings 52 and 54 accordingly permit air to be extracted from the main airflow within the gaspath 30 at two different stream-wise locations, each of which will extract air at a different pressure.
Air extracted from the main airflow via the first inlet opening 52 feeds into a first conduit portion 60, which, in the exemplary embodiment of
The first conduit portion 60 and the second conduit portion 62 therefore meet at the junction 64 such that a first portion of the main gas flow which is extracted through the first conduit portion 60 and a second portion of the main gas flow which is extracted through the second conduit portion 62 meet at this junction 64. These two extracted airflows therefore combine and mix together at or immediately downstream of the junction 64. However, the air extracted via the second inlet opening 54 will have a greater initial pressure that the air extracted via the first inlet opening 52, given that the second inlet opening 54 is further downstream within the compressor than the first inlet opening 52. Accordingly, in order to maximize the efficiency of the extraction flow through both the first and second conduit portions 60 and 62 in at least the depicted embodiment the first conduit portion 60 is a diverging passage and the second conduit portion 62 is a converging passage. A cross-sectional area of the first conduit 60 at the junction point 64 is therefore greater than a cross-sectional area of the first inlet opening 52 which feeds the first conduit 60. Conversely, a cross-sectional area of the second conduit 62 at the junction point 64 is therefore smaller than a cross-sectional area of the second inlet opening 54 which feeds the second conduit 62. As such, the first portion of the main airflow which is extracted via the first inlet opening 52, and flows through the first conduit portion 60, is decelerated as it flows from the inlet opening 52 to the junction point 64, which thereby increases the pressure of this first extracted flow. Conversely, the second portion of the main airflow which is extracted via the second inlet opening 54 and flows through the second conduit portion 62, is accelerated as it flows from the second inlet opening 54 to the junction point 64, thereby decreasing the pressure of this second extracted flow. In a particular embodiment, the size, length and configurations of each of the first and second conduit portions 60 and 62 are chosen such that the pressure of the first and second extracted flows is substantially equal by the team the reach the junction point 64 and mix together. This may also help prevent any unwanted flow reversal within the conduits of the flow recirculation system 40 (which could happen if, for example, flow within one of the two passages 60 and 62 is significantly higher than the other, which might cause the flow to reverse directions in the lower pressured passage).
Once the air flows extracted through the first and second conduits 60 and 62 meet at the junction point 64, they combine together to form a mixed recirculation flow, which is then directed through a common recirculation conduit portion 66 that extends from the junction 64 to an outlet opening 56 formed in the radially inner wall 31 of the main gaspath passage 30. In the depicted embodiment, the recirculation conduit portion 66 converges from the junction point 64 to the outlet opening 56, thereby causing the mixed recirculation flow therein to accelerate and thus decrease in pressure. Accordingly, once the mixed recirculation flow reaches the outlet opening 56 it may have a pressure that is substantially the same or slightly greater than the pressure of the main airflow within the main gaspath at this specific location.
As noted above, the outlet opening 56 is located upstream of the leading edge 23 of the first stator 26, and the first and second inlet openings 52 and 54 are axially located between the leading edge 23 of the first, or upstream, stator 26 and the trailing edge 29 of the second, or downstream, stator 28.
In one particular embodiment, as depicted in
It is to be understood that each of the first inlet opening 52, second inlet opening 54 and outlet opening 56 may in fact be composed of as few as one (e.g. a single annular slot) or as many as a plurality of separately formed holes or apertures in the inner wall 31. In one particular embodiment, as best seen in
The first conduit portion 60, the second conduit portion 62 and the recirculation conduit portion 66, in one particular embodiment, together form a single flow passage or conduit which redirects flow extracted from the two different locations 48, 46 upstream to the common exit location 50 near the leading edge 23 of the first stator 26.
This reintroduced flow into the main gaspath may add additional momentum flow to re-energize the inlet end wall boundary layer, near the roots 21 of the stators at the radially inner side of the annular gaspath passage. Additionally, hub/root wake off the first stator 26 may also be reduced as a result of the re-introduced air, and secondary flow on the suction side of the second stator 28 may also be reduced and/or eliminated. End wall flow deficiencies, namely flow deficiencies which might otherwise form near the roots 21 of the stators 26, 28 of the compressor 14 may be reduced due to the flow re-injection at the exit location 50 as described above. This may be particularly useful at off-design conditions, when large deficiencies in pressure and/or flow can occur near the walls of main gas path through the compressor, particularly dual or tandem stator configurations (which are often optimized for a specific inlet Mach number and required flow turning conditions at the design point(s)).
In the embodiment of
Referring now to
Referring now to
In this embodiment, the first conduit portion 260 is a diverging passage, the second conduit portion 262 is a converging passage, and the third conduit 265 is also converging. In order for the pressures of the three extracted flows to be substantially equal by the time they mix together at the junction points 264 and 267, the third conduit 265 may converge a greater extent than the second conduit portion 262 (i.e. flow in the third conduit is accelerated more than in the second conduit). Stated different, the pressure of the extracted flow increases more through the third conduit 265 than the second conduit 262.
The flow recirculation system 240 having an additional flow extraction further downstream may enable a shortened overall compressor duct and/or engine, thereby resulting in potential weight reduction.
As described herein, therefore, there is provided a method of extracting flow from the radially inner root of tandem stators, at two different locations, and recirculating the extracted flow upstream of first stator. There is also described a system that extracts air from two different locations within a tandem stator compressor configuration, one location being disposed further downstream (in the main gas path flow) relative to the other, and recirculating this extracted flow upstream for re-ingestion into the main gas path at a location upstream of the leading edge of the first stator (and therefore downstream of the trailing edge of the rotor located upstream of both stators. The method therefore extracts flow from the radially inner roots of tandem stators and recirculates this extracted flow to a location upstream of first stator.
The above description is meant to be exemplary only, and one skilled in the art will recognize that changes may be made to the embodiments described without departing from the scope of the invention disclosed. Still other modifications which fall within the scope of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art, in light of a review of this disclosure, and such modifications are intended to fall within the appended claims.
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