The Effect of Stator-Rotor Hub Sealing Flow on the Mainstream Aerodynamics of a Turbine

Author(s):  
Kevin Reid ◽  
John Denton ◽  
Graham Pullan ◽  
Eric Curtis ◽  
John Longley

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.

2008 ◽  
Vol 130 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Budimir Rosic ◽  
John D. Denton ◽  
Eric M. Curtis

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.


Author(s):  
Budimir Rosic ◽  
John D. Denton ◽  
Eric M. Curtis

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 multi-block solver, which modelled 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.


2021 ◽  
pp. 146808742098460
Author(s):  
Chansoo Park ◽  
Motoki Ebisu ◽  
Choongsik Bae

The effects of turbocharger (T/C) rotational inertia on engine and turbine performance under transient and steady engine conditions were analyzed in a 2.0 L 4-cylinder turbocharged-gasoline direct injection (T-GDI) engine. The test T/Cs consisted of heavy and light compressor wheels (C/W) and turbine wheels (T/W). The study was conducted in two research stages. First, transient engine load tests were conducted to evaluate the effect of T/C rotational inertia on transient response of the T/C, combustion performance, and fuel consumption. Seconds, steady engine load tests were conducted to find out if a light inertia T/C can run at higher efficiency under the same exhaust pulsating flow conditions within one engine cycle. In order to evaluate the engine on-board turbine instantaneous performances in the units of crank angle degree (CAD), T/C rotation speed and pressure data were measured in the experiment. The instantaneous exhaust gas mass flow rate and the temperature of upstream and downstream of the turbine were extracted by 1-D simulation. Turbine efficiency and mass flow rate parameters were calculated by combining these data. In the results, there existed positive effects of light inertia T/C on response and specific fuel consumption under transient conditions. It was also found that the light inertia T/C could show higher T/C speed fluctuation under the same exhaust pulsating flow conditions. Consequently, blade speed ratio (BSR) and turbine efficiency of light inertia T/C were partially higher than that of conventional one. However, it was not led to higher engine efficiency.


Author(s):  
Huimin Tang ◽  
Shuaiqiang Liu ◽  
Hualing Luo

Profiled endwall is an effective method to improve aerodynamic performance of turbine. This approach has been widely studied in the past decade on many engines. When automatic design optimisation is considered, most of the researches are usually based on the assumption of a simplified simulation model without considering cooling and rim seal flows. However, many researchers find out that some of the benefits achieved by optimization procedure are lost when applying the high-fidelity geometry configuration. Previously, an optimization procedure has been implemented by integrating the in-house geometry manipulator, a commercial three-dimensional CFD flow solver and the optimization driver, IsightTM. This optimization procedure has been executed [12] to design profiled endwalls for a turbine cascade and a one-and-half stage axial turbine. Improvements of the turbine performance have been achieved. As the profiled endwall is applied to a high pressure turbine, the problems of cooling and rim seal flows should be addressed. In this work, the effects of rim seal flow and cooling on the flow field of two-stage high pressure turbine have been presented. Three optimization runs are performed to design the profiled endwall of Rotor-One with different optimization model to consider the effects of rim flow and cooling separately. It is found that the rim seal flow has a significant impact on the flow field. The cooling is able to change the operation condition greatly, but barely affects the secondary flow in the turbine. The influences of the profiled endwalls on the flow field in turbine and cavities have been analyzed in detail. A significant reduction of secondary flows and corresponding increase of performance are achieved when taking account of the rim flows into the optimization. The traditional optimization mechanism of profiled endwall is to reduce the cross passage gradient, which has great influence on the strength of the secondary flow. However, with considering the rim seal flows, the profiled endwall improves the turbine performance mainly by controlling the path of rim seal flow. Then the optimization procedure with consideration of rim seal flow has also been applied to the design of the profiled endwall for Stator Two.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhenggui Li ◽  
Chuang Cheng ◽  
Shengnan Yan ◽  
Shengyang Peng ◽  
Biao Ma

To study the influence of the blade entropy production range on the efficiency of a tubular turbine under coassociated conditions, the renormalization group K–ε turbulence model was used to simulate the full flow passage of the tubular turbine based on the Navier–Stokes equation, and the blade interface was analyzed using the eddy analysis method and entropy production theory. The results reveal that there is a strong correlation between the size of the high-entropy production area and the level of association. If the level of association is high, the size of the high-entropy production is small, and the turbine efficiency is high. Furthermore, if the level of association is low, the size of the high-entropy production area is large, and the turbine efficiency is low. Under small opening and small flow conditions, the blade entropy generation is due to the sharp change in the velocity gradient caused by the vortex on the blade. Under large opening and large flow conditions, the blade entropy production is mainly due to the friction loss caused by the impact of high-speed water flow.


Author(s):  
AA Rostami ◽  
MR Hajaligol ◽  
P Li ◽  
S Rabiei ◽  
MS Rostami

AbstractThe total amounts of carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2) in the mainstream smoke of a burning cigarette during a steady draw were measured by a non-dispersive infrared (IR) technique for a variety of flow rates. The temperature profiles in the cigarette were also measured under the same flow conditions. The data were used in a diffusion model to estimate the concentrations of these gases downstream of the pyrolysis zone. The contribution of pyrolysis in the generation of these gases was calculated using a kinetic model. The remaining CO and CO2 are attributed to processes occurring in the combustion zone. The calculated mean concentrations of carbon oxides behind the pyrolysis zone are in reasonable agreement with the experimental data. The contributions of pyrolysis and combustion to the formation of CO were found to be approximately 1/3 and 2/3 respectively. The results show that the peak temperature rises with an increase in the mainstream flow rate in the limited range of 0 to 200 mL/min. As a result, the concentrations of carbon oxides behind the pyrolysis zone also increase with the flow rate and reach plateaus at higher flow rates.


2010 ◽  
Vol 133 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin D. Copeland ◽  
Ricardo Martinez-Botas ◽  
Martin Seiler

The experimental performance evaluation of a circumferentially divided, double-entry turbocharger turbine is presented in this paper with the aim of understanding the influence of pulsating flow. By maintaining a constant speed but varying the frequency of the pulses, the influence of frequency was shown to play an important role in the performance of the turbine. A trend of decreasing cycle-averaged efficiency at lower frequencies was measured. One of the principal objectives was to assess the degree to which the unsteady performance differs from the quasi-steady assumption. In order to make the steady-unsteady comparison for a multiple entry turbine, a wide set of steady equal and unequal admission flow conditions were tested. The steady-state data was then interpolated as a function of three, nondimensional parameters in order to allow a point-by-point comparison with the instantaneous unsteady operation. As an average, the quasi-steady assumption generally underpredicted the mass flow and efficiency loss through the turbine, albeit the differences were reduced as the frequency increased. Out-of-phase pulsations produced unsteady operating orbits that corresponded to a significant steady-state, partial admission loss, and this was reflected as a drop in the quasi-steady efficiency. However, these differences between quasi-steady in-phase and out-of-phase predictions were not replicated in the measured results, suggesting that the unequal admission loss is not as significant in pulsating flow as it is in steady flow.


2009 ◽  
Vol 641 ◽  
pp. 263-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. R. DODSON ◽  
P. DIMITRAKOPOULOS

In the present study we investigate the dynamics of initially spherical capsules (made from elastic membranes obeying the strain-hardening Skalak or the strain-softening neo-Hookean law) in strong planar extensional flows via numerical computations. To achieve this, we develop a three-dimensional spectral boundary element algorithm for membranes with shearing and area-dilatation tensions in Stokes flow. The main attraction of this approach is that it exploits all the benefits of the spectral methods (i.e. high accuracy and numerical stability) but without creating denser systems. To achieve continuity of the interfacial geometry and its derivatives at the edges of the spectral elements during the interfacial deformation, a membrane-based interfacial smoothing is developed, via a Hermitian-like interpolation, for both the interfacial shape and the membrane elastic forces. Our numerical results show that no critical flow rate exists for both Skalak and neo-Hookean capsules in the moderate and strong planar extension flows considered in the present study. As the flow rate increases, both capsules reach elongated ellipsoidal steady-state configurations; the cross-section of the Skalak capsule preserves its elliptical shape, while the neo-Hookean capsule becomes more and more lamellar. The curvature at the pointed edges of these elongated steady-state shapes shows a very fast increase with the flow rate. The large interfacial deformations are accompanied with the development of strong membrane tensions especially for the strain-hardening Skalak capsule; the computed increase of the membrane tensions with the flow rate or the shape extension can be used to predict rupture of a specific membrane (with known lytic tension) due to excessive tensions. The type of the experiment imposed on the capsule as well as the applied flow rate affect dramatically the time evolution of the capsule edges owing to the interaction of the hydrodynamic forces with the membrane tensions; when a spherical Skalak capsule is let to deform in a strong flow, very large edge curvatures (with respect to the steady-state value) are developed during the transient evolution.


Author(s):  
Chia Hui Lim ◽  
Graham Pullan ◽  
John Northall

A methodology is presented to allow designers to estimate the penalty for turbine efficiency associated with film cooling. The approach is based on the control volume analysis of Hartsel and the entropy-based formulations of Young and Wilcock. The present work extends these techniques to include flow ejected at compound angles and uses three-dimensional CFD to provide the mainstream flow properties. The method allows the loss contribution from each hole to be identified separately. The proposed method is applied to an aeroengine high-pressure turbine stage. It is found that, if the efficiency definition includes all irreversibilities, the penalty associated with film cooling would be 8.0%. However, if the pragmatic approach is adopted whereby the unavoidable entropy generated due to the equilibration of coolant and mainstream static temperatures is ignored, the efficiency penalty is 0.7%. Finally, a series of case studies is used to quantify the impact of changes to the local mainstream flow direction and coolant ejection angle on the predicted turbine efficiency. It is shown, quantitatively, that reducing the angle between the directions of the coolant and mainstream flows offers the greatest potential for the designer to improve film cooled turbine efficiency.


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