Available online at https://link.springer.

com/journal/42241
http://www.jhydrodynamics.com
Journal of Hydrodynamics,2019
https://doi.org/10.1007/s42241-019-0046-9

A discussion on the applicability of vortex identification methods for complex

vortex structures in axial turbine rotor passages

Yu-fan Wang1, Wei-hao Zhang1,2 ,*, Xia Cao1, Hong-kai Yang1

1. National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Aero-Engine Aero-thermodynamics, School of Energy
& Power Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
2. Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Aero-Engine, Beijing 100191, China

(Received March 18, 2019, Revised April 16, 2019, Accepted April 18, 2019, Published online April 28, 2019)
©China Ship Scientific Research Center 2019
Abstract: There are complex vortex structures in flow around turbine rotor passages, which may be weak or strong, large or small,
interacting with each other, and generate most of aerodynamic loss in turbomachines. Therefore,it is significant to identify the vortex
structures accurately for the flow field analysis and aerodynamic performance optimization in turbomachines. In this paper, by using 4
vortex identification methods (Q-criterion, Omega method, Liutex method and Omega-Liutex method), the vortices are identified in
turbine rotor passages. In terms of threshold selection, the results show that Omega method and Omega-Liutex method are more robust,
which can visualize strong and weak vortices simultaneously well over a wide range of thresholds. As for the display consistency of
vortex identification methods and streamlines, the results show that Liutex method coincide best with streamlines in identifying strong
vortices, while Omega-Liutex method are the most consistent with streamlines in identifying weak vortices. As to the relationship
among loss, vortices and shear, except for Q criterion, the other three methods can distinguish the vortical regions from high shear
regions. And the flow losses in turbine rotor passages are often related to high shear zones, while there is a small loss within the core of
vortex. In order to obtain the variation of vortices in the turbine rotor passages at different working points, Liutex method was applied
to 2 cases of a turbine with different angles of attack. The identification results show that the strength of tip leakage vortex and upper
passage vortex are weaker and the distance between them is closer at negative angle of attack. This indicates that the Liutex method is
an effective method which can be used to analyze the vortex structures and their evolution in turbine rotor passages.

Key words: Vortex identification, tip leakage vortex, turbine rotor passage, Liutex method, Omega-Liutex method

Introduction turbine, researchers have done a substantial number of

The flow field in the turbine passage is extremely
complex, which contains multi-scale and
multi-intensity vortices, and the interaction among
these vortices often arise loss in the flow field. In
addition, the evolution mechanism of each vortex is
different, and it will be affected by the endwall
boundary layer and rotor blade rotation, which causes
the flow field to be strongly three-dimensional,
strongly sheared and strongly unsteady[1]. The most of
vortex structures are located in the endwall and cause
great endwall losses in turbine passages. Denton[2]
estimates that endwall losses can account for 2/3 of
total flow losses. In order to reduce the flow losses in
*Project supported by the National Science Foundation of
China (No. 51406003).
Biography:Yu-fan Wang (1997-), Male, Master Candidate,
E-mail:17801004634@163.com
Corresponding author:Wei-hao Zhang,
E-mail:zhangweihao@buaa.edu.cn
research on blade three-dimensional modeling[3],
end-wall modeling[4], leading edge modification[5],
and tip modeling[6-7]. In the process of research,
secondary flow structure and its evolution are
inevitable topics, and the accurate identification of
vortex structure is extremely important.
Since Helmholtz[8] proposed "vortex motion" in
his three vorticity theorems, more scholars began to
pay attention to the definition and identification of
vortices. Brachet[9] defined vortices as the region
dominated by negative velocity gradient. Babiano[10]
proposed that vortices are any region where vorticity
is greater than a certain threshold. For a long time
thereafter, vorticity has been regarded as a method
which can reliably identify vortices. In 1989,
Robinson[11] pointed out that in the turbulent boundary
layer, especially in the region near wall, the
association between the large vorticity region and the
actual vortices is rather weak. In recent studies,
Dong[12-13]also pointed out and verified that there is no
necessary relationship between vortices and vorticity
through the study of transition section of boundary
layer, and that vorticity cannot be applied to identify
vortices or rotation regions. With the recognition of
this key issue, how to identify the vortices has become
a controversial issue, which has also prompted the
subsequent proposals of various vortex identification
methods. Since 1988, researchers have proposed Q
criterion[14],  criterion[15], 2 criterion[16] and ci
criterion[17]. Up to now, a series of criteria based on
velocity gradient tensor have been proposed for vortex
identification, and various criteria for vortex
identification are often used in the analysis of flow
field in turbine passage. However, there are some
common defects in the above-mentioned vortices
identification methods, such as the difficulty of
threshold selection and the misidentification of strong
shear zone, which are troublesome for the study of
internal flow field in turbine passage.
In 2016, a vortex identification method called
Omega method, which has high robustness, is first
proposed by Liu[18]. Later, Zhang[19-20] et al. applied
this method to flow field analysis of reversible pump
turbine, and verified the robustness of Omega method
and the ability of identifying simultaneouslystrong
and weak vortices. Recently, Liu and his team[21-24]
further proposed the third generation vortex
identification method[25]—Liutex method whose
identification parameter is a vector. Gao[26]et al.
compared Liutex method with vortex identification
methods based on eigenvalue of velocity gradient
tensor in mathematical and physical sense. The
conclusion is that Liutex eliminates the contamination
by shear compared with other methods, which make
Liutex be able to quantify accurately the local
rotational strength. Dong[27] et al. put forward a new
normalized vortex identification method named
Omega-Liutex method, which is based on the Liutex
and Omega methods.
Liutex and Omega-Liutex have been used in the
vortex identification of flow transition and swirling jet,
while they have not been applied to the analysis of
complex flow fields such as flow fields in turbines.
The applicability of Liutex method in the analysis of
complex flow fields with multi-scale and
multi-intensity vortices needs to be verified.In this
paper, the Q criterion and the latest three kinds of
vortex identification methods are applied to the
identification of the vortices in turbine rotor passages.
The identification results are compared and analyzed,
and the advantages and disadvantages of these
methods are summarized. Subsequently, the Liutex
method is applied to different working conditions, and
the applicability of this method in turbine rotor
passage is verified by the analysis of identification
results and flow field.
1. Numerical method
Steady-stateRANS computations were performed
in ANSYS CFX 12.0 employing the Shear Stress
Transport(SST) turbulence model.The N-S equation is
discretized by the finite volume method and the "high
precision" scheme in CFX is adopted.The wall
boundary is set to be adiabatic, ignoring the effect of
wall heat transfer.
In the numerical simulation, a single blade
passage was modeled, including rotor and stator
domains. Periodic conditions were assumed at the
boundaries with the adjoining passages, while the
mixing plane approach was employed at the
stator-rotor interface.The commercial software
NUMECA Autogrid5 is used to generate the static
sub-domain computational grid, while the ICEM is
used to generate the rotor domain computational grids.
The mesh elements in both domains are hexahedrons.
The number of grids in rotor domain is about
1.96  106 , and that in stator domain is about 6.4  105 .
The grids are shown in Fig.1. In order to obtain the
flow details of tip clearance region, the mesh of
clearance region was specially refined in ICEM, and
32 cells were used in the radial direction of tip
clearance.
Mass flow-averaged total pressure and
circumferential average total temperature were
imposed in the inlet plane, and the turbulence intensity
was set to 5%. The exit static pressure was adjusted
for the average total-to-total pressure ratio of 4.
2. Resultsand Discussions
2.1 Identification of vortex structures in turbine rotor
passages
In order to accurately identify the vortex
structures in the turbine rotor passage, this section will
adopt 4 methods, i.e. Q-criterion, Omega method,
Liutex method and Omega-Liutex method for vortex
identification.
Q criterion, proposed by Hunt[14] et al. in 1988, is
a common method for vortex identification, which is
based on the second invariant of the eigenvalue
equation of the velocity gradient tensor. The Q
criterion represents the extent to which the amplitude
of local vorticity term exceeds that of local strain term,
which can be expressed as:
1 2 2
Q  ( B F  A F) (1)
2
where  F represents the Frobenius norm and A is
the symmetric part of velocity gradient tensor and B is
the anti-symmetric part.
The Omega method was first proposed by Liu[18]
in 2016, and was proved to be Galilean invariant[28].
This method has been applied in the boundary layer