scholarly journals Aerodynamic Measurements of a Variable-Speed Power-Turbine Blade Section in a Transonic Turbine Cascade at Low Inlet Turbulence

Author(s):  
Ashlie B. McVetta ◽  
Paul W. Giel ◽  
Gerard E. Welch

Aerodynamic measurements obtained in a transonic linear cascade were used to assess the impact of large incidence angle and Reynolds number variations on the 3-D flow field and midspan loss and turning of a 2-D section of a variable-speed power-turbine (VSPT) rotor blade. Steady-state data were obtained for ten incidence angles ranging from +15.8° to −51.0°. At each angle, data were acquired at five flow conditions with the exit Reynolds number (based on axial chord) varying over an order-of-magnitude from 2.12 × 105 to 2.12 × 106. Data were obtained at the design exit Mach number of 0.72 and at a reduced exit Mach number of 0.35 as required to achieve the lowest Reynolds number. Midspan total-pressure and exit flow angle data were acquired using a five-hole pitch/yaw probe surveyed on a plane located 7.0 percent axial-chord downstream of the blade trailing edge plane. The survey spanned three blade passages. Additionally, three-dimensional half-span flow fields were examined with additional probe survey data acquired at 26 span locations for two key incidence angles of +5.8° and −36.7°. Survey data near the endwall were acquired with a three-hole boundary-layer probe. The data were integrated to determine average exit total-pressure and flow angle as functions of incidence and flow conditions. The data set also includes blade static pressures measured on four spanwise planes and endwall static pressures. Tests were conducted in the NASA Glenn Transonic Turbine Blade Cascade Facility. The measurements reflect strong secondary flows associated with the high aerodynamic loading levels at large positive incidence angles and an increase in loss levels with decreasing Reynolds number. The secondary flows decrease with negative incidence as the blade becomes unloaded. Transitional flow is admitted in this low inlet turbulence dataset, making it a challenging CFD test case. The dataset will be used to advance understanding of the aerodynamic challenges associated with maintaining efficient power turbine operation over a wide shaft-speed range.

Author(s):  
J. A. Long ◽  
L. P. G. Moualeu ◽  
N. J. Hemming ◽  
F. E. Ames ◽  
Y. B. Suzen

The influence of low to moderate Reynolds number and low to moderate turbulence level on aerodynamic losses is investigated in an incidence tolerant turbine blade cascade for a variable speed power turbine. This work complements midspan heat transfer and blade loading measurements which are acquired in the same cascade at the same conditions. The aerodynamic loss measurements are acquired to quantify the influence of Reynolds number and turbulence level on blade loss buckets over the wide range of incidence angles for the variable speed turbine. Eight discrete incidence angles are investigated ranging from +5.8° to −51.2°. Noting that the design inlet angle of the blade is 34.2° these incidence angles correspond to inlet angles ranging from +40° to −17°. Exit loss surveys, presented in terms of local total pressure loss and secondary velocities have been acquired at four exit chord Reynolds numbers ranging from 50,000 to 568,000. These measurements were acquired at both low (∼0.4%) and moderate (∼4.0%) inlet turbulence intensities. The total pressure losses are also presented in terms of cross passage averaged loss and turning angle. The resulting loss buckets for passage averaged losses are plotted at varied Reynolds numbers and turbulence condition. The exit loss data quantify the impact of Reynolds number and incidence angle on aerodynamic losses. Generally, these data document the substantial deterioration of performance with decreasing Reynolds number.


2009 ◽  
Vol 132 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
O. Schennach ◽  
J. Woisetschläger ◽  
B. Paradiso ◽  
G. Persico ◽  
P. Gaetani

This paper presents an experimental investigation of the flow field in a high-pressure transonic turbine with a downstream vane row (1.5 stage machine) concerning the airfoil indexing. The objective is a detailed analysis of the three-dimensional aerodynamics of the second vane for different clocking positions. To give an overview of the time-averaged flow field, five-hole probe measurements were performed upstream and downstream of the second stator. Furthermore in these planes additional unsteady measurements were carried out with laser Doppler velocimetry in order to record rotor phase-resolved velocity, flow angle, and turbulence distributions at two different clocking positions. In the planes upstream of the second vane, the time-resolved pressure field has been measured by means of a fast response aerodynamic pressure probe. This paper shows that the secondary flows of the second vane are significantly modified by the different clocking positions, in connection with the first vane modulation of the rotor secondary flows. An analysis of the performance of the second vane is also carried out, and a 0.6% variation in the second vane loss coefficient has been recorded among the different clocking positions.


Author(s):  
Jan Mihalyovics ◽  
Christian Brück ◽  
Dieter Peitsch ◽  
Ilias Vasilopoulos ◽  
Marcus Meyer

The objective of the presented work is to perform numerical and experimental studies on compressor stators. This paper presents the modification of a baseline stator design using numerical optimization resulting in a new 3D stator. The Rolls Royce in-house compressible flow solver HYDRA was employed to predict the 3D flow, solving the steady RANS equations with the Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model, and its corresponding discrete adjoint solver. The performance gradients with respect to the input design parameters were used to optimize the stator blade with respect to the total pressure loss over a prescribed incidence range, while additionally minimizing the flow deviation from the axial direction at the stator exit. Non-uniform profile boundary conditions, being derived from the experimental measurements, have been defined at the inlet of the CFD domain. The presented results show a remarkable decrease in the axial exit flow angle deviation and a minor decrease in the total pressure loss. Experiments were conducted on two compressor blade sets investigating the three-dimensional flow in an annular compressor stator cascade. Comparing the baseline flow of the 42° turning stator shows that the optimized stator design minimizes the secondary flow phenomena. The experimental investigation discusses the impact of steady flow conditions on each stator design while focusing on the comparison of the 3D optimized design to the baseline case. The flow conditions were investigated using five-hole probe pressure measurements in the wake of the blades. Furthermore, oil-flow visualization was applied to characterize flow phenomena. These experimental results are compared with the CFD calculations.


1987 ◽  
Vol 109 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Yamamoto

The present study intends to give some experimental information on secondary flows and on the associated total pressure losses occurring within turbine cascades. Part 1 of the paper describes the mechanism of production and development of the loss caused by secondary flows in a straight stator cascade with a turning angle of about 65 deg. A full representation of superimposed secondary flow vectors and loss contours is given at fourteen serial traverse planes located throughout the cascade. The presentation shows the mechanism clearly. Distributions of static pressures and of the loss on various planes close to blade surfaces and close to an endwall surface are given to show the loss accumulation process over the surfaces of the cascade passage. Variation of mass-averaged flow angle, velocity and loss through the cascade, and evolution of overall loss from upstream to downstream of the cascade are also given. Part 2 of the paper describes the mechanism in a straight rotor cascade with a turning angle of about 102 deg.


Author(s):  
F. E. Ames ◽  
J. D. Johnson ◽  
N. J. Fiala

Exit surveys detailing total pressure loss, turning angle, and secondary velocities have been acquired for a fully loaded vane profile in a large scale low speed cascade facility. Exit surveys have been taken over a four-to-one range in Reynolds numbers based on exit conditions and for both a low turbulence condition and a high turbulence condition. The high turbulence condition was generated using a mock aero-derivative combustor. Exit loss, angle, and secondary velocity measurements were acquired in the facility using a five-hole cone probe at two stations representing axial chord spacings of 0.25 and 0.50. Substantial differences in the level of losses, distribution of losses, and secondary flow vectors are seen with the different turbulence conditions and at the different Reynolds numbers. The higher turbulence condition produces a significantly broader wake than the low turbulence case and shows a measurable total pressure loss in the region outside the wakes. Generally, total pressure losses are about 0.02 greater for the high turbulence case compared with the low turbulence case primarily due to the state of the suction surface boundary layers. Losses decrease moderately with increasing Reynolds number. Cascade inlet velocity distributions have been previously documented in an endwall heat transfer study of this same geometry. These exit survey measurements support our understanding of the endwall heat transfer distributions, the secondary flows in the passage, and the origin of losses.


Author(s):  
O. Schennach ◽  
B. Paradiso ◽  
G. Persico ◽  
P. Gaetani ◽  
J. Woisetschla¨ger

The paper presents an experimental investigation of the flow field in a high-pressure transonic turbine with a downstream vane row (1.5 stage machine) concerning the airfoil indexing. The objective is a detailed analysis of the three dimensional flow field downstream of the high pressure turbine for different vane clocking positions. To give an overview of the time averaged flow field, measurements by means of a pneumatic five hole probe were performed upstream and downstream of the second stator. Furthermore in this planes additional unsteady measurements were carried out with Laser Doppler Velocimetry in order to record rotor phase resolved velocity, flow angle and turbulence distributions at two different clocking positions. In the measurement plane upstream the second vane the time resolved pressure field has been analyzed by means of a Fast Response Aerodynamic Pressure Probe. The paper shows that the secondary flows of the second vane are significantly modified for different clocking positions, in connection with the first vane modulation of the rotor secondary flows. An analysis of the performance of the second vane is also carried out.


Author(s):  
Majed Sammak ◽  
Srikanth Deshpande ◽  
Magnus Genrup

The objective of the paper is to present the through-flow design of a twin-shaft oxy-fuel turbine. The through-flow design is the subsequent step after the turbine mean-line design. The through-flow phase analyses the flow in both axial and radial directions, where the flow is computed from hub to tip and along streamlines. The parameterization of the through-flow is based on the mean-line results, so principal features such as blade angles at the mean-line into the through-flow phase should be retained. Parameters such as total inlet pressure and temperature, mass flow, rotation speed and turbine geometries are required for the through-flow modelling. The through-flow study was performed using commercial software — AxCent(™) from Concepts NREC. The rotation speed of the twin-shaft power turbine was set to 7200 rpm, while the power turbine was set to 4800 rpm. The mean-line design determined that the twin-shaft turbine should be designed with two compressor turbine stages and three power turbine stages. The through-flow objective was to study the variations in the thermodynamic parameters along the blade. The power turbine last-stage design was studied because of the importance of determining exit Mach number distribution of the rotor tip. The last stage was designed with damped forced condition. The term ‘damped’ is used because the opening from the tip to the hub is limited to a certain value rather than maintaining the full concept of forced vortex. The study showed the parameter distribution of relative Mach number, total pressure and temperature, relative flow angle and tangential velocity. Through-flow results at 50% span and mean-line results showed reasonable agreement between static pressure, total pressure, reaction degree and total efficiency. Other parameters such as total temperature and relative Mach number showed some difference which can be attributed to working fluid in AxCent being pure CO2. The relative tip Mach number at rotor exit was 1.03, which is lower than the maximum typically allowed value of 1.2. The total pressure distribution was smooth from hub to tip which minimizes the spanwise gradient of total pressure and thus reduces the strength of secondary vortices. The reaction degree distribution was presented in the paper and no problems were revealed in the reaction degree at the hub. Rotor blades were designed to produce a smooth exit relative flow angle distribution. The relative flow angle varied by approximately 5° from hub to tip. The tangential velocity distribution was proportional to blade radius, which coincided with forced vortex design. Through-flow design showed that the mean-line design of a twin-shaft oxy-fuel turbine was suitable.


Author(s):  
A. Yamamoto

The present study intends to give some experimental information on secondary flows and on the associated total pressure losses occurring within turbine cascades. Part 1 of the paper describes the mechanism of production and development of the loss caused by secondary flows in a straight stator cascade with a turning angle of about 65°. A full representation of superimposed secondary flow vectors and loss contours is given at serial fourteen traverse planes located throughout the cascade, which shows the mechanism clearly. Distributions of static pressures and of the loss on various planes close to blade surfaces and close to an endwall surface are given to show the loss accumulation process over the surfaces of the cascade passage. Variation of mass-averaged flow angle, velocity and loss through the cascade, and evolution of overall loss from upstream to downstream of the cascade are also given. Part 2 of the paper describes the mechanism in a straight rotor cascade with a turning angle of about 102°.


Author(s):  
M. D. Barringer ◽  
M. D. Polanka ◽  
J. P. Clark ◽  
P. J. Koch ◽  
K. A. Thole

The high pressure turbine stage within gas turbine engines is exposed to combustor exit flows that are nonuniform in both stagnation pressure and temperature. These highly turbulent flows typically enter the first stage vanes with significant spatial gradients near the inner and outer diameter endwalls. These gradients can result in secondary flow development within the vane passage that is different than what classical secondary flow models predict. The heat transfer between the working fluid and the turbine vane surface and endwalls is directly related to the secondary flows. The goal of the current study was to examine the migration of different inlet radial temperature and pressure profiles through the high turbine vane of a modern turbine engine. The tests were performed using an inlet profile generator located in the Turbine Research Facility (TRF) at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). Comparisons of area-averaged radial exit profiles are reported as well as profiles at three vane pitch locations to document the circumferential variation in the profiles. The results show that the shape of the total pressure profile near the endwalls at the inlet of the vane can alter the redistribution of stagnation enthalpy through the airfoil passage significantly. Total pressure loss and exit flow angle variations are also examined for the different inlet profiles.


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