Experimental Investigation of Nozzle Vane Clocking in a 2-Stage Low Pressure Turbine

Author(s):  
Jeong-Seek Kang

This study presents an experimental investigation on the effects of nozzle clocking in a 2-stage low pressure turbine. The objective was to incorporate the clocking test results into a new turboshaft engine. The test turbine was manufactured with the same aero geometries between the transition duct of the turbine inlet and the exit expansion duct as that of the development engine and it was tested under the same engine representative conditions. Two miniature Cobra probes were used to measure the turbine inlet and exit flow, both circumferentially for 30° and radially over the range of 2% ∼ 98% span. Furthermore, six arc-type rakes with 54 Kiel heads were used to measure the total temperature and total pressure at the exit of the second stage. The measurements were performed for four different nozzle clocking positions. The overall efficiency was evaluated in three different ways, including mechanical and thermodynamic methods. All three methods produced identical clocking positions, in order from the best position to the worst. The overall change in the mechanical and thermodynamic efficiency as measured by probe traverse, as well as the thermodynamic efficiency measured by the rakes, were 0.69%, 0.77%, and 0.42%, respectively. The distribution of efficiency across the span showed that clocking affects the efficiency differently in radial positions and a phase shift of the best clocking position to the next adjacent clocking position was observed. The efficiency change due to clocking was found to be related to the deviations in both the time-averaged velocity and in the total pressure at the exit of the second rotor. This deviation is a result of the relative location of the wake package originating from the first nozzle with respect to the leading edge of the second nozzle.

Author(s):  
A. Asghar ◽  
W. D. E. Allan ◽  
M. LaViolette ◽  
R. Woodason

This paper addresses the issue of aerodynamic performance of a novel 3D leading edge modification to a reference low pressure turbine blade. An analysis of tubercles found in nature and used in some engineering applications was employed to synthesize new leading edge geometry. A sinusoidal wave-like geometry characterized by wavelength and amplitude was used to modify the leading edge along the span of a 2D profile, rendering a 3D blade shape. The rationale behind using the sinusoidal leading edge was that they induce streamwise vortices at the leading edge which influence the separation behaviour downstream. Surface pressure and total pressure measurements were made in experiments on a cascade rig. These were complemented with computational fluid dynamics studies where flow visualization was also made from numerical results. The tests were carried out at low Reynolds number of 5.5 × 104 on a well-researched profile representative of conventional low pressure turbine profiles. The performance of the new 3D leading edge geometries was compared against the reference blade revealing a downstream shift in separated flow for the LE tubercle blades; however, total pressure loss reduction was not conclusively substantiated for the blade with leading edge tubercles when compared with the performance of the baseline blade. Factors contributing to the total pressure loss are discussed.


2008 ◽  
Vol 131 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Vera ◽  
Elena de la Rosa Blanco ◽  
Howard Hodson ◽  
Raul Vazquez

Research by de la Rosa Blanco et al. (“Influence of the State of the Inlet Endwall Boundary Layer on the Interaction Between the Pressure Surface Separation and the Endwall Flows,” Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng., Part A, 217, pp. 433–441) in a linear cascade of low pressure turbine (LPT) blades has shown that the position and strength of the vortices forming the endwall flows depend on the state of the inlet endwall boundary layer, i.e., whether it is laminar or turbulent. This determines, amongst other effects, the location where the inlet boundary layer rolls up into a passage vortex, the amount of fluid that is entrained into the passage vortex, and the interaction of the vortex with the pressure side separation bubble. As a consequence, the mass-averaged stagnation pressure loss and therefore the design of a LPT depend on the state of the inlet endwall boundary layer. Unfortunately, the state of the boundary layer along the hub and casing under realistic engine conditions is not known. The results presented in this paper are taken from hot-film measurements performed on the casing of the fourth stage of the nozzle guide vanes of the cold flow affordable near term low emission (ANTLE) LPT rig. These results are compared with those from a low speed linear cascade of similar LPT blades. In the four-stage LPT rig, a transitional boundary layer has been found on the platforms upstream of the leading edge of the blades. The boundary layer is more turbulent near the leading edge of the blade and for higher Reynolds numbers. Within the passage, for both the cold flow four-stage rig and the low speed linear cascade, the new inlet boundary layer formed behind the pressure leg of the horseshoe vortex is a transitional boundary layer. The transition process progresses from the pressure to the suction surface of the passage in the direction of the secondary flow.


Author(s):  
Edmund Kügeler ◽  
Georg Geiser ◽  
Jens Wellner ◽  
Anton Weber ◽  
Anselm Moors

This is the third part of a series of three papers on the simulation of turbulence and transition effects in a multistage low pressure turbine. The third part of the series deals with the detailed comparison of the Harmonic Balance calculations with the full wheel simulations and measurements for the two-stage low-pressure turbine. The Harmonic Balance simulations were carried out in two confingurations, either using only the 0th harmonic in the turbulence and transition model or additional in all harmonics. The same Menter SST two-equation k–ω turbulence model along with Menter and Langtrys two-equation γ–Reθ transition model is used in the Harmonic Balance simulation as in the full wheel simulations. The measurements on the second stator ofthe low-pressure turbine have been carried out separately for downstream and upstream influences. Thus, a dedicated comparison of the downstream and upstream influences of the flow to the second stator is possible. In the Harmonic Balance calculations, the influences of the not directly adjacent blade, i.e. the first stator, were also included in the second stator In the first analysis, however, it was shown that the consistency with the full wheel configuration and the measurement in this case was not as good as expected. From the analysis ofthe full wheel simulation, we found that there is a considerable variation in the order ofmagnitude ofthe unsteady values in the second stator. In a further deeper consideration of the configuration, it is found that modes are reflected in upstream rows and influences the flow in the second stator. After the integration of these modes into the Harmonic Balance calculations, a much better agreement was reached with results ofthe full wheel simulation and the measurements. The second stator has a laminar region on the suction side starting at the leading edge and then transition takes place via a separation or in bypass mode, depending on the particular blade viewed in the circumferential direction. In the area oftransition, the clear difference between the calculations without and with consideration ofthe higher harmonics in the turbulence and transition models can be clearly seen. The consideration ofthe higher harmonics in the turbulence and transition models results an improvement in the consistency.


Author(s):  
Franz F. Blaim ◽  
Roland E. Brachmanski ◽  
Reinhard Niehuis

The objective of this paper is to analyze the influence of incoming periodic wakes, considering the variable width, on the integral total pressure loss for two low pressure turbine (LPT) airfoils. In order to reduce the overall weight of a LPT, the pitch to chord ratio was continuously increased, during the past decades. However, this increase encourages the development of the transition phenomena or even flow separation on the suction side of the blade. At low Reynolds numbers, large separation bubbles can occur there, which are linked with high total pressure losses. The incoming wakes of the upstream blades are known to trigger early transition, leading to a reduced risk of flow separation and hence minor integral total pressure losses caused by separation. For the further investigation of these effects, different widths of the incoming wakes will be examined in detail, here. This variation is carried out by using the numerical Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Solver TRACE developed by the DLR Cologne in collaboration with MTU Aero Engines AG. For the variation of the width of the wakes, a variable boundary condition was modeled, which includes the wake vorticity parameters. The width of the incoming wakes was used as the relevant variable parameter. The implemented boundary condition models the unsteady behavior of the incoming wakes by the variation of the velocity profile, using a prescribed frequenc. TRACE can use two different transition models; the main focus here is set to the γ–Reθt transition model, which uses local variables in a transport equation, to trigger the transition within the turbulence transport equation system. The experimental results were conducted at the high speed cascade open loop test facility at the Institute for Jet Propulsion at the University of the German Federal Armed Forces in Munich. For the investigation presented here, two LPT profiles — which were designed with a similar inlet angle, turning, and pitch are analyzed. However, with a common exit Mach number and a similar Reynolds number range between 40k and 400k, one profile is front loaded and the other one is aft loaded. Numerical unsteady results are in good agreement with the conducted measurements. The influence of the width of the wake on the time resolved transition behavior, represented by friction coefficient plots and momentum loss thickness will be analyzed in this paper.


Author(s):  
Andrea Arnone ◽  
Ennio Carnevale ◽  
Michele Marconcini

The NASA Rotor 37 has been computed by several authors in the last few years with relative success. The aim of this work is to present a systematic grid dependency study in order to quantify the amount of uncertainty that comes from the grid density. The computational domain is divided onto several regions (i.e. leading edge, trailing edge, shear layer …) and for each of them, the impact of the grid density is investigated. By means of this analysis, substantial improvement has been obtained in the prediction of efficiency and exit angle. On the contrary, the improvement achieved in total pressure and total temperature ratio is less remarkable. It is believed that only after a systematic grid dependency study can the contribution of turbulence modeling, laminar-turbulent transition, and boundary conditions be analyzed with success.


Author(s):  
L. Simonassi ◽  
M. Zenz ◽  
P. Bruckner ◽  
S. Pramstrahler ◽  
F. Heitmeir ◽  
...  

Abstract The design of modern aero engines enhances the interaction between components and facilitates the propagation of circumferential distortions of total pressure and temperature. As a consequence, the inlet conditions of a real turbine have significant spatial non-uniformities, which have direct consequences on both its aerodynamic and vibration characteristics. This work presents the results of an experimental study on the effects of different inlet total pressure distortion-stator clocking positions on the propagation of total pressure inflow disturbances through a low pressure turbine stage, with a particular focus on both the aerodynamic and aeroelastic performance. Measurements at a stable engine relevant operating condition and during transient operation were carried out in a one and a half stage subsonic turbine test facility at the Institute of Thermal Turbomachinery and Machine Dynamics at Graz University of Technology. A localised total pressure distortion was generated upstream of the stage in three different azimuthal positions relative to the stator vanes. The locations were chosen in order to align the distortion directly with a vane leading edge, suction side and pressure side. Additionally, a setup with clean inflow was used as reference. Steady and unsteady aerodynamic measurements were taken downstream of the investigated stage by means of a five-hole-probe (5HP) and a fast response aerodynamic pressure probe (FRAPP) respectively. Strain gauges applied on different blades were used in combination with a telemetry system to acquire the rotor vibration data. The aerodynamic interactions between the stator and rotor rows and the circumferential perturbation were studied through the identification of the main structures constituting the flow field. This showed that the steady and unsteady alterations created by the distortion in the flow field lead to modifications of the rotor vibration characteristics. Moreover, the importance of the impact that the pressure distortion azimuthal position has on the LPT stage aerodynamics and vibrations was highlighted.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 886-904
Author(s):  
Tao Cui ◽  
Songtao Wang ◽  
Xiaolei Tang ◽  
Fengbo Wen ◽  
Zhongqi Wang

2017 ◽  
Vol 140 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Pichler ◽  
V. Michelassi ◽  
R. Sandberg ◽  
J. Ong

Blade-to-blade interactions in a low-pressure turbine (LPT) were investigated using highly resolved compressible large eddy simulations (LESs). For a realistic setup, a stator and rotor configuration with profiles typical of LPTs was used. Simulations were conducted with an in-house solver varying the gap size between stator and rotor from 21.5% to 43% rotor chord. To investigate the effect of the gap size on the prevailing loss mechanisms, a loss breakdown was conducted. It was found that in the large gap (LG) size case, the turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) levels of the stator wake close to the rotor leading edge were only one third of those in the small gap (SG) case, due to the longer distance of constant area mixing. The small time-averaged suction side separation on the blade, found in the LG case, disappeared in the SG calculations, confirming how stronger wakes can keep the boundary layer attached. The higher intensity wake impinging on the blade, however, did not affect the time-averaged losses calculated using the control volume approach of Denton. On the other hand, losses computed by taking cross sections upstream and downstream of the blade revealed a greater distortion loss generated by the stator wakes in the SG case. Despite the suction side separation suppression, the SG case gave higher losses overall due to the incoming wake turbulent kinetic energy amplification along the blade passage.


Author(s):  
Julien Clinckemaillie ◽  
Tony Arts

This paper aims at evaluating the characteristics of the wakes periodically shed by the rotating bars of a spoked-wheel type wake generator installed upstream of a high-speed low Reynolds linear low-pressure turbine blade cascade. Due to the very high bar passing frequency obtained with the rotating wake generator (fbar = 2.4−5.6 kHz), a fast-response pressure probe equipped with a single 350 mbar absolute Kulite sensor has been used. In order to measure the inlet flow angle fluctuations, an angular aerodynamic calibration of the probe allowed the use of the virtual three-hole mode; additionally, yielding yaw corrected periodic total pressure, static pressure and Mach number fluctuations. The results are presented for four bar passing frequencies (fbar = 2.4/3.2/4.6/5.6 kHz), each tested at three isentropic inlet Mach numbers M1,is = 0.26/0.34/0.41 and for Reynolds numbers varying between Re1,is = 40,000 and 58,000, thus covering a wide range of engine representative flow coefficients (ϕ = 0.44−1.60). The measured wake characteristics show fairly good agreement with the theory of fixed cylinders in a cross-flow and the evaluated total pressure losses and flow angle variations generated by the rotating bars show fairly good agreement with theoretical results obtained from a control volume analysis.


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