Modeling and Experimental Evaluation on Torque Loss in Turbine Test Rig

To evaluate the performance of a turbine through turbine rig test, torque or power generated from the test turbine should be measured. This is measured from a dynamometer or torquesensor installed in the test rig. So, to evaluate the performance of turbine with high precision, the accurate measurement of power or torque is necessary. However, there is an intrinsic difficulty as not all the power generated by the turbine is measured by the dynamometer or torquesensor. A small portion of power generated from test turbine is dissipated through bearing loss and windage loss. This dissipated energy is called mechanical loss of test rig. Therefore, it is necessary to measure the mechanical loss of the test rig for the accurate evaluation of the turbine performance. This paper divides mechanical loss as bearing loss, disk windage loss and extra windage loss. Spin down tests are performed in a 1-stage axial turbine test rig to evaluate each losses. It is found that the dominant loss is bearing loss and the total mechanical loss amounts to 0.78∼1.4% of energy generated at the turbine. And the effect of bearing temperature is investigated and it is found that the mechanical loss is dependent on the bearing temperature and that it increases with decreasing bearing temperature.