Investigation of the Unsteady Rotor Flow Field in a Single HP Turbine Stage

Author(s):  
Friedrich Kost ◽  
Frank Hummel ◽  
Maik Tiedemann

Within a European project a high-pressure turbine stage was investigated at DLR, Göttingen. The investigations consisted primarily of experiments carried out in the windtunnel for Rotating Cascades (RGG), but some numerical work was also performed. Detailed measurements were carried out at mid section of a turbine rotor using a Laser-2-Focus device which served as a velocimeter measuring 2D-velocity vectors and turbulence quantities and as a tool to determine the concentration of coolant ejected at the trailing edge of the stator blades. The measurement of coolant concentration downstream of the stator and inside the rotor provided a detailed picture of the stator wake development and its interaction with the moving rotor. Axial measurement locations reached from the stator exit through the rotor to a downstream measurement plane. Measurement results are presented as instantaneous flow values. Unsteady flow vectors and turbulence intensities could be related at 16 time instants representing one rotor blade passsing period to the wake development made visible by the coolant concentration. The measured unsteady flow vectors and unsteady pressures, measured with semi-conductor pressure transducers, are compared with results from a numerical calculation using the Navier-Stokes code “TRACE-U” which allows the computation of the unsteady flow field. The measured steady and unsteady flow quantities served to validate the Navier-Stokes code. A comparison of the wake entropy trajectories outside the blade boundary layers and at the wall gives an impression of the lag between the arrival time of the wake in the freestream near the blade surface and the time the boundary layer quantities at the blade surface itself are affected.

2000 ◽  
Vol 123 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. De´nos ◽  
T. Arts ◽  
G. Paniagua ◽  
V. Michelassi ◽  
F. Martelli

The paper focuses on the unsteady pressure field measured around the rotor midspan profile of the VKI Brite transonic turbine stage. The understanding of the complex unsteady flow field is supported by a quasi-three-dimensional unsteady Navier–Stokes computation using a k-ω turbulence model and a modified version of the Abu-Ghannam and Shaw correlation for the onset of transition. The agreement between computational and experimental results is satisfactory. They both reveal the dominance of the vane shock in the interaction. For this reason, it is difficult to identify the influence of vane-wake ingestion in the rotor passage from the experimental data. However, the computations allow us to draw some useful conclusions in this respect. The effect of the variation of the rotational speed, the stator–rotor spacing, and the stator trailing edge coolant flow ejection is investigated and the unsteady blade force pattern is analyzed.


Author(s):  
R. Dénos ◽  
T. Arts ◽  
G. Paniagua ◽  
V. Michelassi ◽  
F. Martelli

The paper focuses on the unsteady pressure field measured around the rotor mid-span profile of the VKI Brite transonic turbine stage. The understanding of the complex unsteady flow field is supported by a quasi-3D unsteady Navier-Stokes computation using a k-? turbulence model and a modified version of the Abu-Ghannam and Shaw correlation for the onset of transition. The agreement between computational and experimental results is satisfactory. They both reveal the dominance of the vane-shock in the interaction. For this reason, it is difficult to identify the influence of vane-wake ingestion in the rotor passage from the experimental data. However, the computations allow to draw some useful conclusions in this respect. The effect of the variation of the rotational speed, the stator-rotor spacing and the stator trailing edge coolant flow ejection is investigated and the unsteady blade force pattern is analyzed.


Author(s):  
P. Gaetani ◽  
G. Persico ◽  
V. Dossena ◽  
C. Osnaghi

An extensive experimental analysis was carried out at Politecnico di Milano on the subject of unsteady flow in high pressure (HP) turbine stages. In this paper the unsteady flow measured downstream of a modern HP turbine stage is discussed. Traverses in two planes downstream of the rotor are considered and, in one of them, the effects of two very different axial gaps are investigated: the maximum axial gap, equal to one stator axial chord, is chosen to “switch off” the rotor inlet unsteadiness, while the nominal gap, equal to 1/3 of the stator axial chord, is representative of actual engines. The experiments were performed by means of a fast-response pressure probe, allowing for two-dimensional phase-resolved flow measurements in a bandwidth of 80 kHz. The main properties of the probe and the data processing are described. The core of the paper is the analysis of the unsteady rotor aerodynamics; for this purpose, instantaneous snapshots of the rotor flow in the relative frame are used. The rotor mean flow and its interaction with the stator wakes and vortices are also described. In the outer part of the channel only the rotor cascade effects can be observed, with a dominant role played by the tip-leakage flow and by the rotor tip passage vortex. In the hub region, where the secondary flows downstream of the stator are stronger, the persistence of stator vortices is slightly visible in the maximum stator-rotor axial gap configuration, while in the minimum stator-rotor axial gap configuration the interaction with the rotor vortices dominates the flow field. A fair agreement with the wakes and vortices transport models has been achieved. A discussion of the interaction process is reported giving particular emphasis to the effects of the different cascade axial gaps. Some final considerations on the effects of the different axial gap over the stage performances are reported.


Author(s):  
Dilip Prasad ◽  
Gavin J. Hendricks

The flow field in a low-speed turbine stage with a uniform inlet total pressure is studied numerically. A circular hot streak is superposed on the vane inlet flow. In agreement with previous experimental and numerical work, it is observed that while the streak passes through the vane unaltered, significant radial transport occurs in the rotor. Furthermore, despite the unsteady nature of the flow field, the steady theory of Hawthorne (1974) is found to predict the radial transport velocity well. Making use of this theory, it is shown that the secondary vorticity in the rotor may be attributed to the effects of density stratification, the spatial variation of the vane exit flow angle and the relative eddy. It then follows that the extent of radial transport in the rotor may be influenced by altering the vane exit flow angle distribution. The present study examines one means by which this may be effected, viz., varying the vane twist across the span. It is shown that a “reverse” twist, wherein the flow angle at the vane exit is larger near the tip than it is at mid-span reduces the secondary flow (and consequently, radial transport) in the blade passage. On the other hand, “positive” twist, in which the vane exit flow angle decreases with span is found to markedly worsen the radial transport in the blade. It is to be noted that varying the vane twist is but one method to obtain the desired exit flow angle; possibilities for altering other aspects of the vane geometry also exist.


Author(s):  
Brian R. Green ◽  
John W. Barter ◽  
Charles W. Haldeman ◽  
Michael G. Dunn

The unsteady aero-dynamics of a single-stage high-pressure turbine blade operating at design corrected conditions has been the subject of a thorough study involving detailed measurements and computations. The experimental configuration consisted of a single-stage high-pressure turbine and the adjacent, downstream, low-pressure turbine nozzle row. All three blade-rows were instrumented at three spanwise locations with flush-mounted, high frequency response pressure transducers. The rotor was also instrumented with the same transducers on the blade tip and platform and the stationary shroud was instrumented with pressure transducers at specific locations above the rotating blade. Predictions of the time-dependent flow field around the rotor were obtained using MSU-TURBO, a 3D, non-linear, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. Using an isolated blade-row unsteady analysis method, the unsteady surface pressure for the high-pressure turbine rotor due to the upstream high-pressure turbine nozzle was calculated. The predicted unsteady pressure on the rotor surface was compared to the measurements at selected spanwise locations on the blade, in the recessed cavity, and on the shroud. The rig and computational models included a flat and recessed blade tip geometry and were used for the comparisons presented in the paper. Comparisons of the measured and predicted static pressure loading on the blade surface show excellent correlation from both a time-average and time-accurate standpoint. This paper concentrates on the tip and shroud comparisons between the experiments and the predictions and these results also show good correlation with the time-resolved data. These data comparisons provide confidence in the CFD modeling and its ability to capture unsteady flow physics on the blade surface, in the flat and recessed tip regions of the blade, and on the stationary shroud.


2006 ◽  
Vol 129 (3) ◽  
pp. 580-590 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Gaetani ◽  
G. Persico ◽  
V. Dossena ◽  
C. Osnaghi

An extensive experimental analysis was carried out at Politecnico di Milano on the subject of unsteady flow in high pressure (HP) turbine stages. In this paper, the unsteady flow measured downstream of a modern HP turbine stage is discussed. Traverses in two planes downstream of the rotor are considered, and, in one of them, the effects of two very different axial gaps are investigated: the maximum axial gap, equal to one stator axial chord, is chosen to “switch off” the rotor inlet unsteadiness, while the nominal gap, equal to 1/3 of the stator axial chord, is representative of actual engines. The experiments were performed by means of a fast-response pressure probe, allowing for two-dimensional phase-resolved flow measurements in a bandwidth of 80kHz. The main properties of the probe and the data processing are described. The core of the paper is the analysis of the unsteady rotor aerodynamics; for this purpose, instantaneous snapshots of the rotor flow in the relative frame are used. The rotor mean flow and its interaction with the stator wakes and vortices are also described. In the outer part of the channel, only the rotor cascade effects can be observed, with a dominant role played by the tip leakage flow and by the rotor tip passage vortex. In the hub region, where the secondary flows downstream of the stator are stronger, the persistence of stator vortices is slightly visible in the maximum stator-rotor axial gap configuration, whereas in the minimum stator-rotor axial gap configuration their interaction with the rotor vortices dominates the flow field. A good agreement with the wakes and vortices transport models has been achieved. A discussion of the interaction process is reported giving particular emphasis to the effects of the different cascade axial gaps. Some final considerations on the effects of the different axial gap over the stage performances are reported.


1997 ◽  
Vol 119 (2) ◽  
pp. 214-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Zaccaria ◽  
B. Lakshminarayana

The two-dimensional steady and unsteady flow field at midspan in a turbine rotor has been investigated experimentally using an LDV with an emphasis on the interaction of the nozzle wake with the rotor flow field. The velocity measurements are decomposed into a time-averaged velocity, a periodic velocity component, and an unresolved velocity component. The results in the rotor passage were presented in Part I. The flow field downstream of the rotor is presented in this paper. The rotor wake profiles and their decay characteristics were analyzed. Correlations are presented that match the decay of the various wake properties. The rotor wake velocity defect decays rapidly in the trailing edge region, becoming less rapid in the near and far wake regions. The rotor wake semi-wake width increases rapidly in the trailing edge region and then grows more gradually in the near and far wake regions. The decay of the maximum unresolved unsteadiness and maximum unresolved velocity cross correlations is very rapid in the trailing edge region and this trend slows in the far wake region. In the trailing edge region, the maximum periodic velocity correlations are much larger than the maximum unresolved velocity correlations. But the periodic velocity correlations decay much faster than the unresolved velocity correlations. The interactions of the nozzle and rotor wakes are also studied. While the interaction of the nozzle wake with the rotor wake does not influence the decay rate of the various wake properties, it does change the magnitude of the properties. These and other results are presented in this paper.


Author(s):  
Hao Sun ◽  
Jun Li ◽  
Zhenping Feng

The clearance between the rotor blade tip and casing wall in turbomachinery passages induces leakage flow loss and thus degrades aerodynamic performance of the machine. The flow field in turbomachinery is significantly influenced by the rotor blade tip clearance size. To investigate the effects of tip clearance size on the rotor-stator interaction, the turbine stage profile from Matsunuma’s experimental tests was adopted, and the unsteady flow fields with two tip clearance sizes of 0.67% and 2.00% of blade span was numerical simulated based on Harmonic method using NUMECA software. By comparing with the domain scaling method, the accuracy of the harmonic method was verified. The interaction mechanism between the stator wake and the leakage flow was investigated. It is found that the recirculation induced by the stator wake is separated by a significant “interaction line” from the flow field close to the suction side in the clearance region. The trend of the pressure fluctuation is contrary on both sides of the line. When the stator wakes pass by the suction side, the pressure field fluctuates and the intensity of the tip leakage flow varies. With the clearance size increasing, the “interaction line” is more far away from the suction side and the intensity of tip leakage flow also fluctuates more strongly.


Author(s):  
Emanuele Guidotti ◽  
Mark G. Turner

A multistage frequency domain (Nonlinear Harmonic) Navier-Stokes unsteady flow solver has been used to analyze the flow field in the MIT (rotor/rotor) aspirated counter-rotating compressor. The numerical accuracy and computational efficiency of the Nonlinear Harmonic method implemented in Numeca’s Fine/Turbo CFD code has been demonstrated by comparing predictions with experimental data and nonlinear time-accurate solutions for the test case. The comparison is good, especially considering the big savings in time with respect to a time accurate simulation. An imposed inlet boundary condition takes into account the flow change due to the IGV (not simulated in the computational model). Details of the flow field are presented and physical explanations are provided. Also, suggestions and recommendations on the use of the Nonlinear Harmonic method are provided. From this work it can be concluded that the development of efficient frequency domain approaches enables routine unsteady flow predictions to be used in the design of modern turbomachinery.


2000 ◽  
Vol 122 (4) ◽  
pp. 667-673 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dilip Prasad ◽  
Gavin J. Hendricks

The flow field in a low-speed turbine stage with a uniform inlet total pressure is studied numerically. A circular hot streak is superposed on the vane inlet flow. In agreement with previous experimental and numerical work, it is observed that while the streak passes through the vane unaltered, significant radial transport occurs in the rotor. Furthermore, despite the unsteady nature of the flow field, the steady theory of Hawthorne (1974) is found to predict the radial transport velocity well. Making use of this theory, it is shown that the secondary vorticity in the rotor may be attributed to the effects of density stratification, the spatial variation of the vane exit flow angle, and the relative eddy. It then follows that the extent of radial transport in the rotor may be influenced by altering the vane exit flow angle distribution. The present study examines one means by which this may be effected, viz., varying the vane twist across the span. It is shown that a “reverse” twist, wherein the flow angle at the vane exit is larger near the tip than it is at midspan, reduces the secondary flow (and consequently, radial transport) in the blade passage. On the other hand, “positive” twist, in which the vane exit flow angle decreases with span, is found to worsen the radial transport in the blade markedly. It is to be noted that varying the vane twist is but one method to obtain the desired exit flow angle; possibilities for altering other aspects of the vane geometry also exist. [S0889-504X(00)00104-5]


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