Influence of Open and Closed Shroud Cavities on the Flowfield in a 2-Stage Turbine With Shrouded Blades

Author(s):  
Dieter E. Bohn ◽  
Ingo Balkowski ◽  
Hongwei Ma ◽  
Christian Tu¨mmers ◽  
Michael Sell

An important goal of the development of turbine bladings is to increase the efficiency for an optimized use of energy resources. This necessitates the most possible insight into the complex flow phenomena in multi-stage turbine bladings. This paper presents a combined numerical and experimental investigation of the flow field in a 2-stage axial turbine with shrouded blades, where the axial gap between the shroud and the endwall is varied between 1mm (closed cavities) and 5 mm (opened cavities). In the experimental setup at the Institute of Steam and Gas Turbines, Aachen University, the turbine is operated at a low pressure ratio of 1.4 with an inlet pressure of 3.2 bar. The rotating speed is adjusted by a water brake, which is integrated into a swing frame running in hydrostatic bearings. The rotor power dissipates in the water brake, which enables a very accurate angular momentum determination. The mass flow is measured through a calibrated nozzle installed upstream of the turbine inlet at an accuracy of better than 1%, from which stage efficiencies can be derived. For both geometric configurations (open and closed shroud cavities), the flow field at both inlet and outlet is measured using 5-hole probes as well as temperature probes at three operating conditions. The test rig is especially designed to investigate the influence of the cavity size. Therefore, the radial gaps between shroud and casing is held near zero in order to prevent an axial flow through the cavities. The experimental results are used as boundary conditions for corresponding numerical multi-stage calculations of the 3D flow through the 2-stage turbine, using the highly accurate steady Navier-Stokes inhouse computer code, CHT-Flow. The flow field measurements and the numerical simulations give deeper insight into some of the cavity-related flow field phenomena. The measurement results as well as the simulations indicate that the stator leading edge has little influence on the inlet flow field. The flow through the shroud cavities has a significant influence on the field and therefore on the machine’s performance.

2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Subenuka Sivagnanasundaram ◽  
Stephen Spence ◽  
Juliana Early ◽  
Bahram Nikpour

This paper describes an investigation of map width enhancement and a detailed analysis of the inducer flow field due to various bleed slot configurations and vanes in the annular cavity of a turbocharger centrifugal compressor. The compressor under investigation is used in a turbocharger application for a heavy duty diesel engine of approximately 400 hp. This investigation has been undertaken using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of the full compressor stage, which includes a manual multiblock-structured grid generation method. The influence of the bleed slot flow on the inducer flow field at a range of operating conditions has been analyzed, highlighting the improvement in surge and choked flow capability. The impact of the bleed slot geometry variations and the inclusion of cavity vanes on the inlet incidence angle have been studied in detail by considering the swirl component introduced at the leading edge by the recirculating flow through the slot. Further, the overall stage efficiency and the nonuniform flow field at the inducer inlet have been also analyzed. The analysis revealed that increasing the slot width has increased the map width by about 17%. However, it has a small impact on the efficiency, due to the frictional and mixing losses. Moreover, adding vanes in the cavity improved the pressure ratio and compressor performance noticeably. A detail analysis of the compressor with cavity vanes has also been presented.


1996 ◽  
Vol 118 (4) ◽  
pp. 835-843 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. V. Marathe ◽  
B. Lakshminarayana ◽  
Y. Dong

The objective of this investigation is to understand the nature of the complex flow field inside each element of the torque converter through a systematic experimental and numerical investigation of the flow field. A miniature five-hole probe was used to acquire the data at the exit of the stator at several operating conditions. The flow field is found to be highly three dimensional with substantial flow deviations, and secondary flow at the exit of the stator. The secondary flow structure, caused by the upstream radial variation of the through flow, induces flow overturning near the core. Flow separation near the shell causes flow underturning in this region. The rate of decay of stator wake is found to be slower than that observed in the wakes of axial flow turbine nozzles. The flow predictions by a Navier–Stokes code are in good agreement with the pressure and the flow field measured at the exit of the stator at the design and the off-design conditions.


Author(s):  
Subenuka Sivagnanasundaram ◽  
Stephen Spence ◽  
Juliana Early ◽  
Bahram Nikpour

This paper describes an investigation of map width enhancement and a detailed analysis of the inducer flow field due to various bleed slot configurations and vanes in the annular cavity of a turbocharger centrifugal compressor. The compressor under investigation is used in a turbocharger application for a heavy duty diesel engine of approximately 400hp. This investigation has been undertaken using a CFD model of the full compressor stage which includes a manual multi-block structured grid generation method. The influence of the bleed slot flow on the inducer flow field at a range of operating conditions has been analysed, highlighting the improvement in surge and choked flow capability. The impact of the bleed slot geometry variations and the inclusion of cavity vanes on the inlet incidence angle have been studied in detail by considering the swirl component introduced at the leading edge by the recirculating flow through the slot. Further, the overall stage efficiency and the non-uniform flow field at the inducer inlet have been also analysed. The analysis revealed that increasing the slot width has increased the map width by about 17%. However, it has a small impact on the efficiency due to the frictional and mixing losses. Moreover, adding vanes in the cavity improved the pressure ratio and compressor performance noticeably. A detail analysis of the compressor with cavity vanes has also been presented.


Author(s):  
Michele Marconcini ◽  
Filippo Rubechini ◽  
Andrea Arnone ◽  
Seiichi Ibaraki

The flow field of a high pressure ratio centrifugal compressor for turbocharger applications is investigated using a three-dimensional Navier-Stokes solver. The compressor is composed of a double-splitter impeller followed by a vaned diffuser. The flow field of the transonic open-shrouded impeller is highly three-dimensional, and it is influenced by shock waves, tip leakage vortices and secondary flows. Their interactions generate complex flow structures which are convected and distorted through the impeller blades. Both steady and unsteady computations are performed in order to understand the physical mechanisms which govern the impeller flow field while the operation ranges from choke to surge. Detailed Laser Doppler Velocimetry (LDV) flow measurements are available at various cross-sections inside the impeller blades at both design and off-design operating conditions.


Author(s):  
Damir Novak ◽  
Michael Loetzerich ◽  
Matthias Boese

A 22-stage axial flow compressor with a pressure ratio 35:1 has been designed, built and successfully tested for a heavy-duty gas turbine application. Advanced technology and aero engine design tools have been used. The compressor has been designed using an “arbitrary” airfoil blading including 3D design features, like leading edge re-camber, lean, sweep and flowpath contouring. The compressor performance and part load behavior have been improved by accurate stage matching based on whole compressor 3D analyses. The new compressor has been tested in a scaled down rig and validated in the Alstom Test Power Plant (ATPP).The compressor met all design objectives and demonstrated excellent performance. This paper describes the aerodynamic design and test results.


Author(s):  
B. V. Marathe ◽  
B. Lakshminarayana ◽  
Y. Dong

The objective of this investigation is to understand the nature of the complex flow field inside each element of the torque converter through a systematic experimental and numerical investigation of the flow field. A miniature five-hole probe was used to acquire the data at the exit of the stat or at several operating conditions. The flow field is found to be highly three-dimensional with substantial flow deviations, and secondary flow at the exit of the stator. The secondary flow structure, caused by the upstream radial variation of the through flow, induces flow overturning near the core. Flow separation near the shell causes flow underturning in this region. The rate of decay of stator wake is found to be slower than that observed in the wakes of axial flow turbine nozzles. The flow predictions by a Navier-Stokes code are in good agreement with the pressure and the flow field measured at the exit of the stator at the design and the off-design conditions.


1978 ◽  
Vol 100 (2) ◽  
pp. 212-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. D. Denton

The development of a streamline curvature throughflow program to predict the flow through the low pressure stages of large steam turbines is described. The program can also be used for gas turbines. Difficulties encountered in dealing with transonic flow and multiple high pressure ratio stages are discussed. Comparisons of the predictions of the program with flow measurements in steam and gas turbines show reasonably good agreement with most of the discrepancies being attributable to errors in the empirical data input to the program.


Author(s):  
G. D. Stringham ◽  
B. N. Cassem ◽  
T. C. Prince ◽  
P. F. Yeung

A nine stage industrial axial flow compressor with a pressure ratio of 9.1:1 was designed, built and rig tested. The modern technology and design tools developed by government/aircraft engine compressor technologists were used for an industrial gas turbine application. The compressor was designed with “arbitrary” airfoil blading including CFD analysis in all blade rows. Flowpath contouring in the hub region of the rotors was used to decrease losses. The compressor rig was tested at the Compressor Research Facility at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. Extensive testing included determining the impact of stator leading edge instrumentation on performance. The compressor demonstrated excellent efficiency and stall margin in its first build. This paper describes the aerodynamic design, test instrumentation and test results.


Author(s):  
Dieter E. Bohn ◽  
Karsten A. Kusterer

A leading edge cooling configuration is investigated numerically by application of a 3-D conjugate fluid flow and heat transfer solver, CHT-Flow. The code has been developed at the Institute of Steam and Gas Turbines, Aachen University of Technology. It works on the basis of an implicit finite volume method combined with a multi-block technique. The cooling configuration is an axial turbine blade cascade with leading edge ejection through two rows of cooling holes. The rows are located in the vicinity of the stagnation line, one row is on the suction side, the other row is on the pressure side. The cooling holes have a radial ejection angle of 45°. This configuration has been investigated experimentally by other authors and the results have been documented as a test case for numerical calculations of ejection flow phenomena. The numerical domain includes the internal cooling fluid supply, the radially inclined holes and the complete external flow field of the turbine vane in a high resolution grid. Periodic boundary conditions have been used in the radial direction. Thus, end wall effects have been excluded. The numerical investigations focus on the aerothermal mixing process in the cooling jets and the impact on the temperature distribution on the blade surface. The radial ejection angles lead to a fully three dimensional and asymmetric jet flow field. Within a secondary flow analysis it can be shown that complex vortex systems are formed in the ejection holes and in the cooling fluid jets. The secondary flow fields include asymmetric kidney vortex systems with one dominating vortex on the back side of the jets. The numerical and experimental data show a good agreement concerning the vortex development. The phenomena on the suction side and the pressure side are principally the same. It can be found that the jets are barely touching the blade surface as the dominating vortex transports hot gas under the jets. Thus, the cooling efficiency is reduced.


1994 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Muthuvel Murugan ◽  
Widen Tabakoff ◽  
Awatef Hamed

Detailed flow investigation in the downstream region of a radial inflow turbine has been performed using a three component Laser Doppler Velocimetry. The flow velocities are measured in the exit region of the turbine at off-design operating conditions. The results are presented as contour and vector plots of mean velocities, flow angles and turbulent stresses. The measured parameters are correlated to the rotor blade rotation to observe any periodic nature of the flow. The measurements reveal a complex flow pattern near the tip region at the rotor exit due to the interaction of the tip clearance flow. The degree of swirl of the flow near the tip region at the rotor exit is observed to be high due to the gross under turning of the flow near the tip region. The effect of the rotor on the exit flow field is observed in the proximity of the rotor exit.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document