Compressor Guide Vane Shroud Contouring for Secondary Flow Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing turbomachine guide vanes struggle with secondary flows such as channel vortices and inefficiencies due to raised regions, requiring complex and costly manufacturing processes.
Innovation Solution
A guide vane element with an extended shroud having an inner surface with sidewall contouring, featuring elevations or depressions, which extends axially beyond the airfoil, providing enhanced flow guidance and reduced leakage paths, manufactured through additive manufacturing for cost-effectiveness and stability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If raised regions are provided in the annular channel to influence flow conditions, then flow conditions are improved, but manufacturing complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The shroud is extended in the axial direction beyond the airfoil, creating an additional dimensional space. The sidewall contouring is formed on this extended axial portion of the shroud, allowing flow influence features to be created in a new dimensional space rather than requiring complex radial modifications to the airfoil or housing.
Solution Approach 2:
The sidewall contouring features (elevations and depressions) are formed as integral copies of the desired flow control geometry directly on the shroud surface through additive manufacturing. This eliminates the need for separate manufacturing steps or assemblies to create the flow-influencing raised regions.
2Ease of manufacture
If the inner surface of the shroud has the same axial extension as the airfoil, then manufacturing is simpler, but flow guidance and leakage path control are insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The shroud extends beyond the airfoil in the axial direction, utilizing additional axial space to provide effective flow guidance. This dimensional extension allows the sidewall contouring to be positioned upstream of the airfoil leading edge, creating a longer effective flow path without adding radial or circumferential complexity.
3Manufacturing precision
If conventional manufacturing processes are used for guide vane elements with flow control features, then manufacturing precision can be achieved, but manufacturing cost and time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The guide vane element integrates multiple functions into a single component: the airfoil for primary flow direction, the extended shroud for structural support and flow guidance, and the sidewall contouring features for secondary flow control. This merging of functions into one additively manufactured part eliminates multiple manufacturing steps and assemblies while maintaining precision.
Solution Approach 2:
Additive manufacturing enables the creation of complex geometries with precise dimensional control that would be difficult or expensive to achieve with conventional manufacturing. The process allows for direct fabrication of the extended shroud and sidewall contouring features with high precision without requiring tooling or multiple operations.
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a guide vane element for a compressor of a turbomachine, comprising an airfoil and a shroud arranged at a radially outer end of the airfoil, wherein, on an outer radial side, the shroud has a fastening section for connecting to a housing of the turbomachine; on a radial inner side, the shroud has an inner surface which, in a sectional view perpendicular to the circumferential direction, has at least one elevation projecting radially inward; and the inner surface of the shroud has a longer axial extension than the axial width of the airfoil.