Analysis of Gas Turbine Rotating Cavities: Estimation of Rotor Disk Pumped Mass Flow Rate

Author(s):  
Riccardo Da Soghe ◽  
Bruno Facchini ◽  
Luca Innocenti ◽  
Mirko Micio

The dependable design of secondary air system is one of the main tasks for the safety, reliability and performance of gas turbine engines. To meet the increasing demands of gas turbine design, improved tools in prediction of the secondary air system behaviour over a wide range of operating conditions are needed. A real gas turbine secondary air system includes several components, therefore its analysis is not carried out using a complete CFD approach. Usually, these predictions are performed using codes, based on simplified approach which allows to evaluate the flow characteristics in each branch of the air system requiring very poor computational resources and little calculation time. Generally the available simplified commercial packages allow to correctly solve only some of the components of a real air system and often the elements with a more complex flow structure cannot be studied; among such elements, the analysis of rotating cavities is very hard. This paper deals with a design-tool developed at the University of Florence for the simulation of rotating cavities. This simplified in-house code solves the governing equations for a steady one-dimensional axysimmetric flow using experimental correlations both to incorporate flow phenomena caused by multidimensional effects, like heat transfer and flow field losses, and to evaluate the circumferential component of velocity. The simplified calculation tool was designed to simulate the flow in a rotating cavity with radial outflow both with a Batchelor and/or Stewartson flow structures. Several studies have been carried out by the authors to develop suitable correlations for the discs friction coefficients and for co-rotation factor evaluation. The results of these analyses are available in the literature. In the present paper the authors develop, using CFD tools, reliable correlation for rotor disk pumped mass flow rate and provide a full 1D-code validation comparing, due to a lack of experimental data, the in-house design code predictions with those evaluated by CFD.

Author(s):  
Riccardo Da Soghe ◽  
Bruno Facchini ◽  
Luca Innocenti ◽  
Mirko Micio

Reliable design of secondary air system is one of the main tasks for the safety, unfailing and performance of gas turbine engines. To meet the increasing demands of gas turbines design, improved tools in prediction of the secondary air system behavior over a wide range of operating conditions are needed. A real gas turbine secondary air system includes several components, therefore its analysis is not carried out through a complete CFD approach. Usually, that predictions are performed using codes, based on simplified approach which allows to evaluate the flow characteristics in each branch of the air system requiring very poor computational resources and few calculation time. Generally the available simplified commercial packages allow to correctly solve only some of the components of a real air system and often the elements with a more complex flow structure cannot be studied; among such elements, the analysis of rotating cavities is very hard. This paper deals with a design-tool developed at the University of Florence for the simulation of rotating cavities. This simplified in-house code solves the governing equations for steady one-dimensional axysimmetric flow using experimental correlations both to incorporate flow phenomena caused by multidimensional effects, like heat transfer and flow field losses, and to evaluate the circumferential component of velocity. Although this calculation approach does not enable a correct modeling of the turbulent flow within a wheel space cavity, the authors tried to create an accurate model taking into account the effects of inner and outer flow extraction, rotor and stator drag, leakages, injection momentum and, finally, the shroud/rim seal effects on cavity ingestion. The simplified calculation tool was designed to simulate the flow in a rotating cavity with radial outflow both with a Batchelor and/or Stewartson flow structures. A primary 1D-code testing campaign is available in the literature [1]. In the present paper the authors develop, using CFD tools, reliable correlations for both stator and rotor friction coefficients and provide a full 1D-code validation comparing, due to lack of experimental data, the in house design-code predictions with those evaluated by CFD.


2010 ◽  
Vol 133 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Riccardo Da Soghe ◽  
Bruno Facchini ◽  
Luca Innocenti ◽  
Mirko Micio

Reliable design of a secondary air system is one of the main tasks for the safety and unfailing performance of gas turbine engines. To meet the increasing demands of gas turbine designs, improved tools in the prediction of secondary air system behavior over a wide range of operating conditions are needed. A real gas turbine secondary air system includes several components, therefore, its analysis is not carried out through a complete computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach. Usually, those predictions are performed using codes based on simplified approach, which allows to evaluate the flow characteristics in each branch of the air system requiring very poor computational resources and few calculation time. Generally, the available simplified commercial packages allow to correctly solve only some of the components of a real air system, and often, the elements with a more complex flow structure cannot be studied; among such elements, the analysis of rotating cavities is very hard. This paper deals with a design tool developed at the University of Florence for the simulation of rotating cavities. This simplified in-house code solves the governing equations for steady one-dimensional axisymmetric flow using experimental correlations, both to incorporate the flow phenomena caused by multidimensional effects such as heat transfer and flow field losses, and to evaluate the circumferential component of velocity. Although this calculation approach does not enable a correct modeling of the turbulent flow within a wheel space cavity, the authors tried to create an accurate model, taking into account the effects of inner and outer flow extraction, rotor and stator drag, leakages, injection momentum, and finally, the shroud/rim seal effects on cavity ingestion. The simplified calculation tool was designed to simulate the flow in a rotating cavity with radial outflow, both with the Batchelor and/or Stewartson flow structures. A primary 1D-code testing campaign is available in the literature (2008, “Analysis of Gas Turbine Rotating Cavities by a One-Dimensional Model,” ISROMAC Paper No. 12-2008-20161). In the present paper, the authors developed, using CFD tools, reliable correlations for both stator and rotor friction coefficients and provided a full 1D-code validation, due to the lack of experimental data, comparing the in-house design-code predictions with those evaluated by CFD.


2005 ◽  
Vol 127 (5) ◽  
pp. 1029-1037 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. O. Schunk ◽  
G. F. Nellis ◽  
J. M. Pfotenhauer

Growing interest in larger scale pulse tubes has focused attention on optimizing their thermodynamic efficiency. For Stirling-type pulse tubes, the performance is governed by the phase difference between the pressure and mass flow, a characteristic that can be conveniently adjusted through the use of inertance tubes. In this paper we present a model in which the inertance tube is divided into a large number of increments; each increment is represented by a resistance, compliance, and inertance. This model can include local variations along the inertance tube and is capable of predicting pressure, mass flow rate, and the phase between these quantities at any location in the inertance tube as well as in the attached reservoir. The model is verified through careful comparison with those quantities that can be easily and reliably measured; these include the pressure variations along the length of the inertance tube and the mass flow rate into the reservoir. These experimental quantities are shown to be in good agreement with the model’s predictions over a wide range of operating conditions. Design charts are subsequently generated using the model and are presented for various operating conditions in order to facilitate the design of inertance tubes for pulse tube refrigerators. These design charts enable the pulse tube designer to select an inertance tube geometry that achieves a desired phase shift for a given level of acoustic power.


2008 ◽  
Vol 112 (1127) ◽  
pp. 17-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Banazadeh ◽  
F. Saghafi ◽  
M. Ghoreyshi ◽  
P. Pilidis

Abstract This paper presents the application of a relatively new technique of fluidic thrust-vectoring (FTV), named Co-flow, for a small gas-turbines. The performance is obtained via experiment and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The effects of a few selected parameters including the engine throttle setting, the secondary air mass-flow rate and the secondary slot height upon thrust-vectoring performance are provided. Thrust vectoring performance is characterised by the ability of the system to deflect the engine thrust with respect to the delivered secondary air mass-flow rate. The experimental study was conducted under static conditions in an outdoor environment at Cranfield University workshop that was especially designed for this purpose. As part of this investigation, the system was modelled by CFD techniques, using Pointwise’s Gridgen software and the three-dimensional flow solver, Fluent. Also, Cranfield’s gas-turbine performance code (TurboMatch) was utilised to estimate boundary conditions for the CFD analysis with respect to the integrated nozzle. The presented technique is easy-to-use approach and offers better result for thrust-vectoring problems than previously published works. Experimental results do show the overall viability of the blowing slot mechanism as a means of vectoring the engine thrust, with the current configuration. Computational predictions are shown to be consistent with the experimental observations and make the CFD model a reliable tool for predicting Co-flow fluidic thrust-vectoring performance of similar systems.


Author(s):  
Seong G. Kang ◽  
Kune Y. Suh

A methodology and theory are developed to precisely determine the gas mass flow rate for the design of a gas turbine system manufactured for the operating conditions of nuclear and fossil power plants. From the heat exchanger or boiler to the first assembly of turbine blades, the gas passes by a stop valve, control valves and first nozzle, each device of which is connected with piping. The corresponding gas flow rate can be computed when the thermal and hydraulic conditions are defined at the stop valve, control valve and pipes. Such thermophysical properties as pressure, temperature, enthalpy and velocity specified at the inlet of each device are changed at the outlet of that device due to its structural characteristics. DIVA (Dynamics Integrated Valve Analysis) is written to predict the gas mass flow rate with reference to the Widows’ Creek type control valve.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 1413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Yao ◽  
Kwongi Lee ◽  
Minho Ha ◽  
Cheolung Cheong ◽  
Inhiug Lee

A new pump, called the hybrid airlift-jet pump, is developed by reinforcing the advantages and minimizing the demerits of airlift and jet pumps. First, a basic design of the hybrid airlift-jet pump is schematically presented. Subsequently, its performance characteristics are numerically investigated by varying the operating conditions of the airlift and jet parts in the hybrid pump. The compressible unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations, combined with the homogeneous mixture model for multiphase flow, are used as the governing equations for the two-phase flow in the hybrid pump. The pressure-based methods combined with the Pressure-Implicit with Splitting of Operators (PISO) algorithm are used as the computational fluid dynamics techniques. The validity of the present numerical methods is confirmed by comparing the predicted mass flow rate with the measured ones. In total, 18 simulation cases that are designed to represent the various operating conditions of the hybrid pump are investigated: eight of these cases belong to the operating conditions of only the jet part with different air and water inlet boundary conditions, and the remaining ten cases belong to the operating conditions of both the airlift and jet parts with different air and water inlet boundary conditions. The mass flow rate and the efficiency are compared for each case. For further investigation into the detailed flow characteristics, the pressure and velocity distributions of the mixture in a primary pipe are compared. Furthermore, a periodic fluctuation of the water flow in the mass flow rate is found and analyzed. Our results show that the performance of the jet or airlift pump can be enhanced by combining the operating principles of two pumps into the hybrid airlift-jet pump, newly proposed in the present study.


2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 1225-1235
Author(s):  
Ajay K. Gupta ◽  
Manoj Kumar ◽  
Ranjit K. Sahoo ◽  
Sunil K. Sarangi

Plate-fin heat exchangers provide a broad range of applications in many cryogenic industries for liquefaction and separation of gasses because of their excellent technical advantages such as high effectiveness, compact size, etc. Correlations are available for the design of a plate-fin heat exchanger, but experimental investigations are few at cryogenic temperature. In the present study, a cryogenic heat exchanger test setup has been designed and fabricated to investigate the performance of plate-fin heat exchanger at cryogenic temperature. Major parameters (Colburn factor, Friction factor, etc.) that affect the performance of plate-fin heat exchangers are provided concisely. The effect of mass flow rate and inlet temperature on the effectiveness and pressure drop of the heat exchanger are investigated. It is observed that with an increase in mass flow rate effectiveness and pressure drop increases. The present setup emphasis the systematic procedure to perform the experiment based on cryogenic operating conditions and represent its uncertainties level.


Author(s):  
Dominik Schlüter ◽  
Robert P. Grewe ◽  
Fabian Wartzek ◽  
Alexander Liefke ◽  
Jan Werner ◽  
...  

Abstract Rotating stall is a non-axisymmetric disturbance in axial compressors arising at operating conditions beyond the stability limit of a stage. Although well-known, its driving mechanisms determining the number of stall cells and their rotational speed are still marginally understood. Numerical studies applying full-wheel 3D unsteady RANS calculations require weeks per operating point. This paper quantifies the capability of a more feasible quasi-2D approach to reproduce 3D rotating stall and related sensitivities. The first part of the paper deals with the validation of a numerical baseline the simplified model is compared to in detail. Therefore, 3D computations of a state-of-the-art transonic compressor are conducted. At steady conditions the single-passage RANS CFD matches the experimental results within an error of 1% in total pressure ratio and mass flow rate. At stalled conditions, the full-wheel URANS computation shows the same spiketype disturbance as the experiment. However, the CFD underpredicts the stalling point by approximately 7% in mass flow rate. In deep stall, the computational model correctly forecasts a single-cell rotating stall. The stall cell differs by approximately 21% in rotational speed and 18% in circumferential size from the experimental findings. As the 3D model reflects the compressor behaviour sufficiently accurate, it is considered valid for physical investigations. In the second part of the paper, the validated baseline is reduced in radial direction to a quasi-2D domain only resembling the compressor tip area. Four model variations regarding span-wise location and extent are numerically investigated. As the most promising model matches the 3D flow conditions in the rotor tip region, it correctly yields a single-cell rotating stall. The cell differs by only 7% in circumferential size from the 3D results. Due to the impeded radial migration in the quasi-2D slice, however, the cell exhibits an increased axial extent. It is assumed, that the axial expansion into the adjacent rows causes the difference in cell speed by approximately 24%. Further validation of the reduced model against experimental findings reveals, that it correctly reflects the sensitivity of circumferential cell size to flow coefficient and individual cell speed to compressor shaft speed. As the approach reduced the wall clock time by 92%, it can be used to increase the physical understanding of rotating stall at much lower costs.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 1105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlo Carcasci ◽  
Lapo Cheli ◽  
Pietro Lubello ◽  
Lorenzo Winchler

This paper presents an off-design analysis of a gas turbine Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) combined cycle. Combustion turbine performances are significantly affected by fluctuations in ambient conditions, leading to relevant variations in the exhaust gases’ mass flow rate and temperature. The effects of the variation of ambient air temperature have been considered in the simulation of the topper cycle and of the condenser in the bottomer one. Analyses have been performed for different working fluids (toluene, benzene and cyclopentane) and control systems have been introduced on critical parameters, such as oil temperature and air mass flow rate at the condenser fan. Results have highlighted similar power outputs for cycles based on benzene and toluene, while differences as high as 34% have been found for cyclopentane. The power output trend with ambient temperature has been found to be influenced by slope discontinuities in gas turbine exhaust mass flow rate and temperature and by the upper limit imposed on the air mass flow rate at the condenser as well, suggesting the importance of a correct sizing of the component in the design phase. Overall, benzene-based cycle power output has been found to vary between 4518 kW and 3346 kW in the ambient air temperature range considered.


Author(s):  
Michael J. Pekris ◽  
Gervas Franceschini ◽  
Andrew K. Owen ◽  
Terry V. Jones ◽  
David R. H. Gillespie

The secondary air system of a modern gas or steam turbine is configured to satisfy a number of requirements, such as to purge cavities and maintain a sufficient flow of cooling air to key engine components, for a minimum penalty on engine cycle efficiency and specific fuel consumption. Advanced sealing technologies, such as brush seals and leaf seals, are designed to maintain pressures in cavities adjacent to rotating shafts. They offer significant reductions in secondary air parasitic leakage flows over the legacy sealing technology, the labyrinth seal. The leaf seal comprises a series of stacked sheet elements which are inclined relative to the radial direction, offering increased axial rigidity, reduced radial stiffness, and good leakage performance. Investigations into leaf seal mechanical and flow performance have been conducted by previous researchers. However, limited understanding of the thermal behavior of contacting leaf seals under sustained shaft contact has led to the development of an analytical model in this study, which can be used to predict the power split between the leaf and rotor from predicted temperature rises during operation. This enables the effects of seal and rotor thermal growth and, therefore, implications on seal endurance and rotor mechanical integrity to be quantified. Consideration is given to the heat transfer coefficient in the leaf pack. A dimensional analysis of the leaf seal problem using the method of extended dimensions is presented, yielding the expected form of the relationship between seal frictional power generation, leakage mass flow rate, and rotor temperature rise. An analytical model is derived which is in agreement. Using the derived leaf temperature distribution formula, the theoretical leaf tip temperature rise and temperature distributions are computed over a range of mass flow rates and frictional heat values. Experimental data were collected in high-speed tests of a leaf seal prototype using the Engine Seal Test Facility at Oxford University. These data were used to populate the analytical model and collapsed well to confirm the expected linear relationship. In this form, the thermal characteristic can be used with predictions of mass flow rate and frictional power generated to estimate the leaf tip and rotor temperature rise in engine operation.


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