Radial Turbine-Diffuser Interaction: Effect of Tip Gap

This document contains the final Master Thesis Report to obtain the Master of Science on Aerospace Engineering (Flight Performance &amp; Propulsion - Propulsion &amp; Power) at the Delft University of Technology.<br/><br/>The research work focuses on characterizing the interaction of a radial inlet turbine with a downstream diffuser through the...

A multi-disciplinary design optimization framework with integrated structural transformation for highly loaded radial turbines

The use of CFD-based optimizations is becoming a standard for turbomachinery design. Although the use of such optimizations can lead to great improvements of the machine performances, there are still several shortcomings in the common design procedure of turbomachines. In fact, this entails the optimization of the component shape, and only a...

Multi-Point Fluid-Dynamic Shape Optimization for Turbomachinery

This work sets out the creation, verification and demonstration of an automated end-to-end tool for the multi-point fluid-dynamic optimization of turbomachinery. Taking into account multiple operating conditions during optimization aims to benefit the overall performance of turbomachines which are characterized by off-design operation and to...

Data-driven boundary layer loss model for organic rankine cycle turbomachines

There is a requirement for localised efficient electricity generation systems that increase the efficiency of power plants and reduce wasted heat from other engineering applications such as cement manufacturing units and brick kilns. Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) power systems use organic fluids and low-grade heat sources to accomplish this. Lack...

Adjoint-based 3D Shape Optimization for Turbomachinery Applications

In order to reduce the carbon foot-print of turbo-generators to global warming, a step-change in the design process is needed. Extensive CFD simulations coupled with optimization algorithms are required, resorting to novel techniques to capture the complex flow phenomena occurring in the passage. However, the computation of the optimization...

Assessment of SU2 for radial compressor performance prediction

The open-source SU2 suite has been subject to extensive verification and validation studies in the past few years. Through such studies, the ability of the SU2 CFD solver to produce high-fidelity results for external flows has been substantiated by data from numerous testcases. Interest in applying the suite to turbomachinery flow analysis and...