J. of T h e r m a l Science Vol.7, No.

J l ~ ,j~'~

Multigrid Navier-Stokes C a l c u l a t i o n for T w o

Dimensional Cascades

Yang Ce Lao Dazhong Jiang Zikang

T h e r m a l E n g i n e e r i n g D e p a r t m e n t , T s i n g h u a U n i v e r s i t y , Beijing, 100084, C h i n a

A fast and accurate numerical method for solving the two dimensional Reynolds averaged Navier-
Stokes is applied to calculate the internal fluid of turbines and compressors. The code is based on
an explicit, time-marching, finite volume technique. In order to accelerate convergence, local time
stepping, multigrid method is employed. Four stage Runge-Kutta method is implemented to extend
the stability domain. Test cases of Hobson's impulse cascade, NASA Rotor 37 and Sanz's supercriticaI
compressor cascade are presented. Results of Mach number distribution on blade surfaces and Mach
number contour plots indicate good agreement with experimental data. Compared with full three 3D
Navier-Stokes (N-S) codes, the two dimensional code only takes a short time to obtain predicted re-
sults. This code can be used widely in practical engineering design.

Keywords: numerical method, two dimension, Navier-Stokes equation, turbomachinery.

INTRODUCTION Because some problems of three dimensional viscous

Over the past 20 years steady progress has been
made in the development of CFD codes for t u r b o m a -
chinery blade rows. The numerical methods that have
been the most highly developed and have provided
the greatest advancements in turbomachinery field are
the time marching solvers based on a fully conserva-
tive form of governing equation. They provide a sin-
gle approach for subsonic, transonic, and supersonic
flows, and they inherently provide natural shock cap-
turing capability. Issues of solution accuracy, geomet-
ric complexity, speed (cost), unsteadiness, turbulence
(in particular near-wall modelling, separated region
modelling) and overall time to analyze a design still
exist. T h e eventual goal of CFD codes is time accu-
rate model of the three-dimensional flow through the
blade rows.
The conventional two and quasi-three dimensional
methods has been extensively used in the development
of turbomachinery blading. The design of modern tur-
bomachines with high efficiency and power make it in-
creasingly i m p o r t a n t t h a t a three dimensional method
be used in the prediction of the flow in real blading.
Received October, 1997.
codes cann't be solved, which include turbulence mod-
eling and the large amount of time still necessary,
two and quasi-three dimensional method is still used
widely by turbomachinery designer.
This paper described an two dimensional viscous
code. It solves the governing equations for compress-
ible flow on a blade to blade stream surface. The
general b l a d e - t o - b l a d e surface geometry is shown in
Fig.1. The stream tube thickness, the distance be-
tween stream surface and axial described by Fig.1
are allowed to change along with axis direction. The
code of solution chosen for turbine and compressor
fluid field presented here is based on an explicit,
time-marching, finite volume method. The fully con-
servative form of governing equations uses a cell-
corner finite-flume discretization coupled with a flex-
ible multi-stepping scheme. Viscous effects is sim-
ulated by a very simple two-layer algebraic turbu-
lence model (Baldwin and Lomax). To extend the
stability limit and accelerate convergence, local time
stepping, multigrid and residual averaging are applied.
The multigrid m e t h o d which contributes much to the
efficiency of our calculation will be described in the
following paragraph. To verify the capabilities of the
Yang Ce et al. Multigrid Navier-Stokes Calculation for Two Dimensional Cascades 17

numerical method used in this paper, Hobson's im- 2 r OWm IOW¢]

pulse cascade, NASA rotor 37 transonic compressor
rotor and Sanz's supercritical compressor cascade are
calculated. In addition, a comparison will be made
between experimental data and simulation prediction.
II1
. Z
Fig.1 Blade-to-blade surface revolution
GOVERNING EQUATIONS
~mm=~.[2~---~ r ~J'
F°W¢ l OWm ]
TmC = VC~m= # L Om + r 0¢ J'
where v iscell volume, s is area of control volume face,
We, tangential direction (¢) and Wm meridional (rn)
velocity, c is thickness of adjacent stream surface, 0
is angle between streamline of m and rotating axial
of Z, ~- is shear stress, # is total eddy viscosity, and
# = ]'~L "q- # T "
The governing equations used in this study are the
two-dimensional N-S equations coupled with coriolis
and centrifugal force terms in momentum equations.
Relative velocity components are retained as depen-
dent variables in a system attached to a rotating or
stationary blade row. The equations solved are: con-
tinuity equation, momentum equations in the merid-
ional and tangential direction. To decrease extra com-
putational cost, the energy equation is replaced by the
assumption of constant stagnation enthalpy inside sta-
tor blade and constant relative stagnation enthalpy
inside rotor blade. For a perfect gas, we can write

The integral form of governing equations in a ro-

tating cylindrical coordinate system can be written as
where h is rothalpy.
Turbulence is modeled by a two-layer algebraic
0 mixing length eddy viscosity model (Baldwin and Lo-
O--~iCdv+~.~s= f qddv+/~.~ss (1)
max). This type of turbulence model has the advan-
tage of increasing a little more computational cost
conservation variables ¢, flux vector ~ , source term than that of an inviscid codes, but it can simulate all
level of turbulence viscosity appropriately. It has be-
kV, viscous force term ;J~ are given by
come advantageous for solving the Reynolds-averaged
N-S equations for turbulent shear flows. It is still be-
¢ = (p, pw¢, pWm) r, ing used in both external and internal flows. The total
eddy viscosity consists of a laminar part #L and a tur-
U = Fi, + Gim, bulent part #T" The laminar viscosity is modeled by
Sutherland's law in which #L is a function of the lo-
F = (pW,,p + p w L p w m w , ) T, cal static temperature. The turbulence viscosity # r is
obtained by
c = (pwm,pw¢wm,p + pw~) ~,

¢ = (0,-PWmsinO[W¢ + 2wr], { (#r)i .... Y<-Ycrossove~

,T = (3)
p de p "~T (#r)oute* Y > Y.........
-P sin O[W¢ + wr] 2 + -h d--mm+ - s i n e ]
r r
where y is the normal distance from the nearest wall
T = T~i~ + Tmim, and ycrossove, is the smallest value of y at which val-
ues from inner and outer formulas are equal. ( # r ) i . . . .
Tm= (0,-rm¢, _ ~ ) r , and (#r)oute~ are the inner layer and the outer layer
eddy viscosity, respectively. The inner turbulent vis-
T¢ = (0,--T¢,¢,--Tern) T, cosity is defined as
2 [ IOW¢ OWmj],
T¢¢ = ~ # i 2 r 0¢ Om ('T)'nner = Pt 2 I~1 (4)
18 Journal of ThermM Science, Vol. 7, No.l, 1998

where [f~[ is the magnitude of the vorticity and l =
kv( - + =
The outer turbulent viscosity is defined as
(#T)O**t~ = O.O168C~ppF,~ak~Fk
accuracy not to decrease for rapid changes of mesh
spacing. A system of ordinary differential equations
can be obtained by applying Eq.(1) to each cell and
approximating the surface integral with a finite vol-
(5) ume scheme,

where dp_ 1 4
v Z (8)
F~,~ke = YmaxFmax (6) i=1

F m a x in Eq.(6) is the m a x i m u m value of F = y [ f ~ ] ( t -

e -y+/A+ ), and y ..... is the value of y corresponding to d(pWm) 1 4
F, .... . The Klebanoff intermittence factor is given by dt - v{ Z 3),
/=1
4

+ E ~tASmtAS,,a
• ~" Y m a x ~ J
(9)
The various constants are taken as k = 0.41,A + =
26, C~p = 1.6, Ck = 0.3.
p dh + P7 sin ¢] }
NUMERICAL ALGORITHM
d(pl/V¢) 1 4
The algorithm used to solve the governing equations l=1
is an explicit, time-marching, finite volume method. 4
4 (10)
The principle of a time marching method is to con-
sider the solution of a stationary problem as the so- /=1

lution after a sufficient long calculation time of the -V. -Pwm sinO(W¢ + 2wr)]
instationary equations describing this problem. The r

computation starts from a rough approximation of the (8), (9) and (10) have the form
final solution, considered as a large p e r t u r b a t i o n of the
steady flow field, and develops under certain bound- d(V.~) +Q=0 (ll)
ary conditions until convergence. In our study, we use dt
H mesh to discretize equations. This type of mesh has In order to suppress the tendency for spurious odd
the advantage of easy generation, and it can be used and even point oscillations, and to prevent unsightly
to ahnost all kinds of geometrical shape. In this pa- overshoots near shock wave, the scheme is augmented
per, H mesh is made up by two family planes, one is by a dissipative t e r m so that E q . ( l l ) becomes
the revolution surfaces (blade-to-blade) and the other
is quasi orthographic surfaces. One disadvantage of d(V . ¢ )
H mesh is t h a t for thick leading edge and trailing d~ + Q - D = 0 (12)
edge the errors m a y b e incur due to using a highly
where V is the volume of element volume and A S
sheared H mesh. It can be overcome by using suffi-
is the area of cell face. Q is the net flux out of tile
cient mesh points or placing cusps at the leading and
cell. D is the dissipation. Eqs.(8), (9), (10) are inte-
trailing edge. The nodes can be chosen at a typical
grated in time by a four stage R u n g e - K u t t a explicit
locations of the elements, such as cell-centres, cell-
scheme. The aim of using multi-stage R u n g e - K u t t a
vertices or mid-sides. In our investigation, nodes are
method is that it can extend computational stability
located at each cell of the 4 corners. The fluxes of
limit. Jameson et al. (1981) developed and imple-
mass and m o m e n t u m through each face are found us-
mented this technique for the Euler equations. This
ing averages of the independent variables of equations
technique has received widespread acceptance for b o t h
stored at the corners of that face. Denton (1982) first
external and internal flows, including turbomachinery
used this method. Compared with the old method of
flOWS.
Jiang (1985), Huang and Jiang (1995), Chen (1995),
which stores variables at cell center, the cells of cov-
ering whole domain don't overlap in new method so MULTIGRID METHOD
that the new method shortens computational time. In
addition, the new method can guarantee the formal Besides local time stepping method, multigrid tech-
 Yang Ce et al. Multigrid Navier-Stokes Calculation for Two Dimensional Cascades 19

nique is also utilized for accelerating the convergence tion /3 = 438 °, outlet static pressure P2 1.01325 -=

to steady state, multigrid method is the most effective
technique of accelerating convergence. The multigrid
technique can have several levels, one kind of sim-
plified multigrid technique and two levels of grid are
used in our codes. Define residual R = (Q - D ) / V .
For a coarse grid, its residual can be expressed by
ft
Re = X Rf, where Ry is the flux change of fine grid
i=1
and R,, is the change of coarse grid, n is the number of
fine grid inside one coarse grid. The final change of a
fine grid is obtained by R} = R I + k- Re, where k is a
coefficient, some test cases indicate that this method
is able to reduce about one third of computation time
comparing with single-level grid method.
MPa. Detailed cascade geometry data is given by
Hobson (1972). Both Euler method and N-S method
are utilized to calculate the flow field. Mesh points
chosen in our calculation is 13 x 58. 798 and 776 it-
erative steps are needed for convergence to engineer-
ing accuracy of two methods, respectively. Both of
the methods only took less then 1 rain to produce re-
sults. Computed results and accurate analytical solu-
tions are showed in Fig.2. The results of relative Mach
number distribution on cascade surface in Fig.2 indi-
cates that the flow predictions are reasonably good.
1.2- z~ Design
o Euler

1.0 ¸ n ~ n N-S

BOUNDARY CONDITIONS 0.8 ¸

'.e
For cascade calculations, four types of boundaries 0.6-
are usually encountered: wall, periodic, inlet and out-
let. All solid surfaces are modeled as rigid, nonslip, 0.4-
and impermeable. For periodic boundaries, equiva-
lent flow variables are imposed at corresponding cells. 0.2 i i i i i
0.0 02 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
At the inlet boundary, the relative stagnation pressure
Relative chord .V/ C
and relative stagnation temperature are specified, in
addition, the relative flow direction or relative swirl Fig.2 Relative Mach number distribution
velocity is also specified. Static pressure is extrap- near the cascade surface
olated from the points inside the flow field. At the
downstream boundary the static pressure is fixed and
Sanz's supercritical compressor cascade.
held constant at the hub surface and simple radial
The second test case is the computation of the flow in
equilibrimn is supplemented. Other variables are ob-
the supercritical compressor cascade of Sanz (1984).
tained by extrapolation fi'om the points inside the flow
Inlet is ambient condition. The main characteris-
field.
tics of the flow are the following: inlet Mach number
M1 = 0.711, inlet flow angle fl = 30.81 °, outlet Math
number M2 = 0.544. In blade-to-blade direction, 16
RESULTS

Three test cases are calculated in order to verify 1.2 z~ z~ ]', z~ ~ ~ ComPutation
that the method described in this paper can be applied
to predict internal fluid in stators and rotors. The 1.0
first case presented here is Hobson's impulse cascade.
The next case examine Sanz's supercritical compressor 0.8
cascade. Lastly, we demonstrates an isolated rotor
0,6-
(NASA Rotor 37).
Hobson's impulse cascade. Hobson's impulse
0.4
cascade is usually used by many papers as a test case
because it offers accurate analytical solutions. Calcu-
0.2 i
lation is performed on a pentium personal computer 0.0 0.2 0:4 0:6 08 1.0
of main frequency 100 MHz and 32 Mk memory space. Relative chord .r / C
The values of some major parameters used in our cal-
culation are: inlet total pressure P~v = 1.26853 MP, Fig.3 Relative Mach number distribution
inlet total temperature T~v = 640 K, inlet flow direc- near the cascade surface
20 Journal of Thermal Science, Vol. 7, No.l, 1998

grid points were used. U p s t r e a m of the leading edge,
there are 30 grid points; there axe 61 grid points in-
side passage, and there are 30 grid points downstream
of the trailing edge. A total of 121 grid points in
streamwise direction were employed. This is a total of
1936 grid points; The main difficulty of this test is to
compute the deceleration on the suction side without
numerically generating a shock. Fig.3 shows the very
good agreement between the computed Mach n u m b e r
distribution on cascade surface and the exact solution.
No shock appears on the suction side during the de-
celeration.
N A S A R o t o r 37. Rotor 37 was designed and
tested at NASA Lewis, which is a l o w - a s p e c t - r a t i o
rotor. It has been as a test case for a careful assess-
ment of the ability of the various turbomachinery C F D
codes by ASME in 1994. The rotor has 36 blades
with a design pressure ratio of 2.106 and mass flow
of 20.19 k g / s at 100% rotor speed, corresponding to
17,188 r p m with a tip relative Mach number 1.48. It
is the third rotor of a compressor with a pressure ratio
of about 20. Other main design d a t a are: total tem-
perature ratio 1.27, hub to tip ratio 0.7, aspect ratio
1.19, peak efficiency 0.876. The extensive test d a t a

fl ~ V t"
{ ./;7/~ I _

~ ~' 30%Span !
J l/.I l,,,,,x "0,98

( b ) Tcs,t

Fig.4 Relative Mach number contour plots for NASA rotor 37

at 30 percent span at the design point

\\, \ "/J
24/ ..:;
k ug// /,..
kL\ .;;i,
Fig.5 Relative Mach number contour plots for NASA rotor 37
at 70 percent span at the design point
 Yang Ce et al. Multigrid Navier-Stokes Calculation for Two Dimensional Cascades
available from laser measurements are provided by
ASME. The simulation employed 2,125 grid points; 25
points in the blade-to-blade direction and 85 points
in the streamline direction. The solution converged to
engineering accuracy in approximately 1500 iterations
and required 5 min on a pentium personal computer.
In this paper, we only calculated peak efficiency point
flow field. The comparisons made at 30 and 70 percent
span are shown in Fig.4(a) and Fig.5(a). Experimen-
tal data at the same span are indicated in Fig.4(b)
and Fig.5(b). Although the agreement is better at 30
percent span, overall agreement is good.
CONCLUSION
A cell-corner explicit, time-marching, finite volume
technique for solving two dimensional Reynolds aver-
aged N-S equations has been presented. The eddy
viscosity is simulated by a two layer, algebraic tur-
bulence model. Three test cases, including Hobson's
impulse cascade, NASA Rotor 37 and Sanz's super-
critical compressor cascade, have been presented. The
outstanding advantage of this code is that it only take
a short time to obtain the calculating result, and the
agreement between the predicted flow field and test
data or design d a t a is good. The simplified multigrid
method can accelerate convergence effectively. Cal-
culated results indicate that this method described in
this paper can be used to predict the internal flow field
of turbine cascade, compressor cascade, and isolated
21
compressor rotor. Additional solutions such as simu-
lating fan using this code will be performed immedi-
ately.
REFERENCES
[1] Chen Naixing, Huang Weiguang, Zhou Qian, "Numeri-
cal Computation of 3D Turbulent Flow in a Transonic
Single Rotor Compressor," Journal of Aerospace Power,
10, No.2, pp.109-112, (in Chinese), (1995).
[2] Denton, J.D., "An Improved Time Marching Method
for Turbomachinery Flow Calculation," ASME Paper
No.82-GT-239, (1982).
[3] D.E. Hobson, "Hodograph Design Method for Transonic
Turbine Cascade," CUED/A-Turbo/TR, 40, (1972).
[4] Huang Diangui, Jiang Zikang, "The Calculation of
Three-Dimensional Flow for Turbine Multistages,"
Journal of Engineering Thermophysics, 16, No.l,
pp.39-43, (in Chinese), (1995).
[5] Jameson, A., Schmidt, W., and Turkel, E., "Numeri-
cal Solutions of the Euler Equations by Finite Volume
Methods Using Runge-Kutta Time Stepping Schemes,"
AIAA Paper 81-1259, (1981).
[6] Jiang Zikang, Zhu Qin, "A Computational Method
for Three Dimensional Flow Fields of Transonic Tur-
bine Stages and its Application," Journal of Engineer-
ing Thermophysics, 7, No.4, pp.314-319, (in Chinese),
(1986).
[7] Jose M. Sanz, "Improved Design of Subcriticai and
Supercritical Cascades Using Complex Characteristics
and Boundary-Layer Correction," AIAA Journal, 22,
pp.950-959, (1984).