Design Tuning of High Aspect Ratio Shrouded Turbine Blades
A large height to chord ratio, or aspect ratio, of industrial gas turbine blades, especially for the last rows, requires an increase of the blade natural frequencies above the 2nd Engine Order (EO). Generally this is possible only by utilizing a shrouded blade design. During the design process there are also several other mechanical factors, such as LCF, HCF, creep, shroud coupling, and aero efficiency, which have to be taken into consideration. It is shown that mathematical models of different complexity levels (1D / 3D models) can give comparable results for many important parameters if the boundary conditions for the 1D model are corrected by using the results of 3D model analysis. These parameters include quantities such as shroud contact pressure and coupling forces, the rotor speed at which full coupling is achieved, the first three blade natural frequencies, blade profile untwist moment and angle, and von Mises elastic stresses in critical sections. Thus a combination of 1D and 3D models can achieve a reduction of the time required for design of a shrouded turbine blade. The type of shroud design, the initial shroud clearance, and the contact surface angle are the important parameters for a shrouded turbine blade. The influence of these factors on dynamic response and lifetime prediction is non-linear and not always obvious, so a good blade design usually requires searching for an optimal combination of different design, technological and operational factors. Significant design parameters for blade frequency tuning are the radial distributions of cross-sectional geometrical characteristics and especially the radial distribution of the stagger angle. The latter one allows the designer to bring together or to move apart the first and the second vibration modes. More suitable parameter combinations are determined by the usage of mathematical optimization methods. The method presented and the corresponding techniques were used during design of shrouded blades for a few new turbines, where the length of the blade airfoil has exceeded 800mm.