An Innovative Passive Tip-Leakage Control Method for Axial Turbines:Basic Concept and Performance Potential

The present paper introduces a new concept for passive turbine tip-leakage control. The basic idea of the method is the connection of the blade leading edge and the blade tip by an internal channel. Due to the difference between the stagnation pressure at the leading edge and the low pressure at the blade tip, a small amount of the working fluid is extracted from the blade passage. At the blade tip, a jet is injected roughly perpendicular to the tip gap flow driven by the blade pressure difference. It is proposed that the jet blocks at least a part of the tip gap flow. Since the tip-leakage losses are proportional to the tip gap mass flow rate, the tip injection results in a reduction of the associated losses. After the introduction of the concept, an analytical model is presented which describes the reduction of the tip gap discharge coefficient due to the tip injection. Furthermore, the analytical model is supported by the results of a preliminary CFD analysis. Finally, the potential of the efficiency improvement by the passive blade tip injection method is reported.

Numerical Simulation of Clocking Effect on Blade Unsteady Aerodynamic Force in Axial Turbine

To give an insight into the clocking effect and its influence on the wake transportation and its interaction, the unsteady three-dimensional flow through a 1.5-stage axial low pressure turbine is simulated numerically by using a density-correction based, Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations commercial CFD code. The 2nd stator clocking is applied over ten equal tangential positions. The results show that the harmonic blade number ratio is an important factor affecting the clocking effect. The clocking effect has very small influence on the turbine efficiency in this investigation. The difference between the maximum and minimum efficiency is about 0.1%. The maximum efficiency can be achieved when the 1st stator wake enters the 2nd stator passage near blade suction surface and its adjacent wake passes through the 2nd stator passage close to blade pressure surface. The minimum efficiency appears if the 1st stator wake impinges upon the leading edge of the 2nd stator and its adjacent wake of the 1st stator passes through the mid-channel in the 2nd stator. The wake convective transportation and the blade circulation variation due to its impingement on the subsequent blade are the main mechanism affecting the pressure variation in blade surface.

Characterization of component interactions in two-stage axial turbine

This study concerns the characterization of both the steady and unsteady flows and the analysis of stator/rotor interactions of a two-stage axial turbine. The predicted aerodynamic performances show noticeable differences when simulating the turbine stages simultaneously or separately. By considering the multi-blade per row and the scaling technique, the Computational fluid dynamics(CFD) produced better results concerning the effect of pitchwise positions between vanes and blades. The recorded pressure fluctuations exhibit a high unsteadiness characterized by a space–time periodicity described by a double Fourier decomposition. The Fast Fourier Transform FFT analysis of the static pressure fluctuations recorded at different interfaces reveals the existence of principal harmonics and their multiples, and each lobed structure of pressure wave corresponds to the number of vane/blade count. The potential effect is seen to propagate both upstream and downstream of each blade row and becomes accentuated at low mass flow rates. Between vanes and blades, the potential effect is seen to dominate the quasi totality of blade span, while downstream the blades this effect seems to dominate from hub to mid span. Near the shroud the prevailing effect is rather linked to the blade tip flow structure.

Investigations of Interaction of the Main Flow with Root and Tip Leakage Flows in an Axial Turbine Stage by Means of a Source/Sink Approach for a 3D Navier-Stokes Solver

The effect of interaction of the main flow with root and tip leakage flows on the performance of an high pressure (HP) stage of an impulse turbine is studied numerically. The flow in blade-to-blade channels and axial gaps is computed with the aid of a 3D Navier-Stokes solver FlowER. The numerical scheme is modified to include the source/sink-type boundary conditions in places at the endwalls referring to design locations of injection of leak- age and windage flows into, or extract from, the blade-to-blade passage. The turbine stage is computed in three configurations. First, computations are made without tip leakage and windage flows with source/sink slots closed. Second, tip leakage slots are open. Third, both tip leakage and windage flow slots are open, and the obtained flow characteristics including kinetic energy losses in the stage are compared so as to estimate the interaction of the main and leakage flows.

Experimental and Numerical Analysis of Cavity/Mean-Flow Interaction in Low Pressure Axial Flow Turbines

The increasing performance of modern aeroengines led the research towards the optimization of machine components not deeply analyzed in the past.In this context,the mechanisms driving the interaction process between the secondary flows evolving at the hub of low-pressure turbines with the rotor-stator cavity systems have been poorly investigated in the literature.In this work,an experimental and numerical analysis of the interaction between the endwall near wall flow and the leakage flow of a real cavity system is presented.The experimental results were carried out in the annular low-pressure axial flow turbine of the University of Genova.Experimental blade loading and pressure distributions into the cavity,as well as the measured total pressure loss coefficient,have been used for a proper validation of CFD results.Both steady and unsteady calculations were carried out through the commercial solver Numeca.Particularly,several numerical approaches have been tested into this work:RANS,Non Linear Harmonic(NLH),and URANS.The most promising CFD techniques have been firstly identified by comparison with experimental results and then systematically employed to extend the analysis of secondary flow-cavity flow interaction to positions and quantities not available from the experiments.Losses characterizing the mean flow-cavity flow interaction process will be shown to cover a great amount of the overall stage losses and should be properly accounted for the design of future optimized cavity configurations.

Aerodynamic and heat transfer performances of a highly loaded transonic turbine rotor with upstream generic rim seal cavity

In turbine disk cavity,rim seals are fitted between the stator and its adjacent rotor disk.A coolant air injected through the turbine disk cavity to prevent the ingress of mainstream hot gases.The purpose of this paper is to investigate numerically the effect of the upstream purge flow on the aero and thermal performances of a high pressure turbine rotor.The investigations are conducted on a generic rim seal cavity inspired from a realistic turbofan engine.Four purge fractions(PF)equal to 0.2%,0.5%,1.0%and 1.5%of the mainstream are considered.The simulations are done by solving the three-dimensional Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes and energy transport equations.The results include the effect of the PF on the cooling effectiveness,the sealing effectiveness,the secondary flows with losses and the heat transfer behavior,within the cavity and across the rotor passage.The low PF of 0.2%provided a low cooling effectiveness,a moderate sealing effectiveness and minimum losses.The high PF of 1.5%gave a high cooling effectiveness,a best sealing effectiveness and maximum losses.The medium PF of 1.0%supplied a compromise between the aerodynamic and thermal design needs with good cooling and sealing efficiencies and a tolerable level of losses.

Control of LP Turbine Rotor Blade Underloading Using Stator Blade Compound Lean at Root

Due to a large gradient of reaction, LP rotor blades remain underloaded at the root over some range of volumetric flow rates. An interesting design to control the flow through the root passage of the overloaded stator and underloaded moving blade row is compound lean at the root of stator blades. The paper describes results of numerical investigations from a 3D NS solver FlowER conducted for several configurations of stator blade compound lean. The computations are carried out for a wide range of volumetric flow rates, accounting for the nominal operating regime as well as low and high load. It is found that compound lean induces additional blade force, streamwise curvature and redistribution of flow parameters in the stage, including pressure and mass flow rate spanwise that can improve the flow conditions in both the stator and the rotor. The obtained efficiency improvements depend greatly on the flow regime, with the highest gains in the region of low load.

An Experimental Investigation of the Dissipation Mechanisms in the Suction Side Boundary Layer of a Turbine Blade

The present work is part of an extensive experimental activity carried out by the authors in recent years aimed at investigating the boundary layer transition phenomenon in turbine blades. The large scale of the cascade and the use of advanced LDV instrumentation and precision probe traversing mechanism resulted in high degree of spatial resolution and high accuracy of measurements. The main dissipation mechanism determining the profile losses in turbomachinery blades is the work of deformation of the mean motion within the boundary layer operated by both viscous and turbulent shear stresses. In the present paper, the local viscous and turbulent deformation works have been directly evaluated from the detailed measurements of boundary layer mean velocity and Reynolds shear stress. The results show the distributions and the relative importance of the viscous and turbulent contributions to the loss production, in relation with the boundary layer states occurring along the turbine profile.