John D. Denton

Loss mechanisms in turbomachines

The origins and effects of loss in turbomachines are discussed with the emphasis on trying to understand the physical origins of loss rather than on reviewing the available prediction methods. Loss is defined in terms of entropy increase and the relationship of this to the more familiar loss coefficients is derived and discussed. The sources of entropy are, in general: viscous effects in boundary layers, viscous effects in mixing processes, shock waves, and heat transfer across temperature differences. These are first discussed in general and then the results are applied to turbomachinery flows. Understanding of the loss due to heat transfer requires some discussion of cycle thermodynamics

Three-Dimensional Time-Marching Inviscid and Viscous Solutions for Unsteady Flows Around Vibrating Blades

A three-dimensional nonlinear time-marching method of solving the thin-layer Navier-Stokes equations in a simplified form has been developed for blade flutter calculations. The discretization of the equations is made using the cell-vertex finite volume scheme in space and the four-stage Runge-Kutta scheme in time. Calculations are carried out in a single-blade-passage domain and the phase-shifted periodic condition is implemented by using the shape correction method. The three-dimensional unsteady Euler solution is obtained at conditions of zero viscosity, and is validated against a well-established three-dimensional semi-analytical method

Some Limitations of Turbomachinery CFD

CFD is now an essential tool for the design of all types of turbomachinery. However, as engineers are exposed more and more to the results of CFD and less and less to experimental data there is a danger that they may not realise the limitations of CFD and so will view its predictions as more reliable than they really are and not question them sufficiently. This is particularly dangerous when CFD is use as part of an optimisation procedure. The objective of this paper is to try to expose some of the limitations of CFD as used for routine turbomachinery design. CFD is not an exact science. Errors can arise from the following sources: • Numerical errors due to finite difference approximations. • Modeling errors, where the true physics is not known or is too complex to model — e.g. turbulence modeling. • Unknown boundary conditions, such as inlet pressure or temperature profiles. • Unknown geometry such as tip clearances or leading edge shapes. • Assumption of steady flow. Each of these sources of error is discussed and examples of the differences they can cause in the predictions are shown. Despite these limitations CFD remains an extremely valuable tool for turbomachinery design but it should be used on a comparative basis and not trusted to give quantitative predictions of performance.Copyright

The interaction of turbine inter-platform leakage flow with the mainstream flow

Individual nozzle guide vanes (NGV???s) in modern aeroengines are often cast as a single piece with integral hub and casing endwalls. When in operation, there is a leakage flow through the chord-wise interplatform gaps. An investigation into the effect of this leakage flow on turbine performance is presented. Efficiency measurements and NGV exit area traverse data from a low-speed research turbine are reported. Tests show that this leakage flow can have a significant impact on turbine performance, but that below a threshold leakage fraction this penalty does not rise with increasing leakage flow rate. The effect of various seal clearances are also investigated. Results from steady-state simulations using a three-dimensional multiblock Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes solver are presented with particular emphasis paid to the physics of the mainstream/leakage interaction and the loss generation.

Control of Shroud Leakage Loss by Reducing Circumferential Mixing

Shroud leakage flow undergoes little change in the tangential velocity as it passes over the shroud. Mixing due to the difference in tangential velocity between the main stream flow and the leakage flow creates a significant proportion of the total loss associated with shroud leakage flow. The unturned leakage flow also causes negative incidence and intensifies the secondary flows in the downstream blade row. This paper describes the experimental results of a concept to turn the rotor shroud leakage flow in the direction of the main blade passage flow in order to reduce the aerodynamic mixing losses. A three-stage air model turbine with low aspect ratio blading was used in this study. A series of different stationary turning vane geometries placed into the rotor shroud exit cavity downstream of each rotor blade row was tested. A significant improvement in flow angle and loss in the downstream stator blade rows was measured together with an increase in turbine brake efficiency of 0.4 %.

The Importance of Shroud Leakage Modeling in Multistage Turbine Flow Calculations

Three-dimensional steady multistage calculations, using the mixing plane approach, are compared with experimental measurement in a low-speed three-stage model turbine. The comparisons are made with two levels of shroud seal clearance, one representative of a real turbine and one with minimal seal clearance and almost no shroud leakage. Three different calculations are compared. The first computes the main blade path with no modeling of shroud leakage. The second includes a simple model of shroud leakage using sources and sinks on the end-walls, and the third is a multiblock calculation with all leakage paths and cavities computed. It is found that neglect of shroud leakage makes the computed velocity profiles and loss distributions significantly different to those measured. Simple modeling of shroud leakage gives some improvement but full calculation of the leakage flows and cavities is necessary to obtain good agreement between calculation and measurement.

An Experimental and Computational Study of the Formation of a Streamwise Shed Vortex in a Turbine Stage

Shear layers shed by aircraft wings roll up into vortices. A similar, though far less common, phenomenon can occur in the wake of a turbomachine blade. This paper presents experimental data from a new single-stage turbine that has been commissioned at the Whittle Laboratory. Two low-aspect ratio stators have been tested with the same rotor row. Surface flow visualization illustrates the extremely strong secondary flows present in both NGV designs. These secondary flows lead to conventional passage vortices, but also to an intense vortex sheet which is shed from the trailing edge of the blades. Pneumatic probe traverses show how this sheet rolls up into a concentrated vortex in the second stator design, but not in the first. A simple numerical experiment is used to model the shear layer instability and the effects of trailing edge shape and exit yaw angle distribution are investigated. It is found that the latter has a strong influence on shear layer rollup: inhibiting the formation of a vortex downstream of NGV 1 but encouraging it behind NGV 2.

The effect of stator-rotor hub sealing flow on the mainstream aerodynamics of a turbine

An investigation into the effect of stator-rotor hub gap sealing flow on turbine performance is presented. Efficiency measurements and rotor exit area traverse data from a low speed research turbine are reported. Tests carried out over a range of sealing flow conditions show that the turbine efficiency decreases with increasing sealant flow rate but that this penalty is reduced by swirling the sealant flow. Results from time-accurate and steady-state simulations using a three-dimensional multi-block RANS solver are presented with particular emphasis paid to the mechanisms of loss production. The contributions toward entropy generation of the mixing of the sealant fluid with the mainstream flow and of the perturbed rotor secondary flows are assessed. The importance of unsteady stator wake/sealant flow interactions is also highlighted.Copyright

The Influence of Shroud and Cavity Geometry on Turbine Performance: An Experimental and Computational Study— Part II: Exit Cavity Geometry

Imperfections in the turbine annulus geometry, caused by the presence of the shroud and associated cavity, have a significant influence on the aerodynamics of the main passage flow path. In this paper, the datum shroud geometry, representative of steam turbine industrial practice, was systematically varied and numerically tested. The study was carried out using a three-dimensional multiblock solver, which modeled the flow in a 1.5 stage turbine. The following geometry parameters were varied: inlet and exit cavity length, shroud overhang upstream of the rotor leading edge and downstream of the trailing edge, shroud thickness for fixed casing geometry and shroud cavity depth, and shroud cavity depth for the fixed shroud thickness. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of the above geometric modifications on mainstream aerodynamics and to obtain a map of the possible turbine efficiency changes caused by different shroud geometries. The paper then focuses on the influence of different leakage flow fractions on the mainstream aerodynamics. This work highlighted the main mechanisms through which leakage flow affects the mainstream flow and how the two interact for different geometrical variations and leakage flow mass fractions.

Inviscid-Viscous Coupled Solution for Unsteady Flows Through Vibrating Blades: Part 1—Description of the Method

An efficient coupled approach between inviscid Euler and integral boundary layer solutions has been developed for quasi-3-D unsteady flows induced by vibrating blades. For unsteady laminar and turbulent boundary layers, steady correlations are adopted in a quasi-steady way to close the integral boundary layer model. This quasi-steady adoption of the correlations is assessed by numerical test results using a direct solution of the unsteady momentum integral equation. To conduct the coupling between the inviscid and viscous solutions for strongly interactive flows, the unsteady Euler and integral boundary layer equations are simultaneously timemarched using a multistep Runge-Kutta scheme, and the boundary layer displacement effect is accounted for by a first order transpiration model