scholarly journals Unsteady Flow Structures within a Turbine Rim Seal Cavity in the Presence of Purge Flow—An Experimental and Computational Unsteady Aerodynamics Investigation

Aerospace ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 60
Author(s):  
Cengiz Camci ◽  
Michael Averbach ◽  
Jason Town

Flow within the space between the rotor and stator of a turbine disk, and an area referred to as the rim seal cavity, develops azimuthal velocity component from the rotor disk. The fluid within develops unsteady structures that move at a fraction of the rotor speed. A test is designed to measure the number of unsteady structures and the rotational speed at which they are moving in the rim seal cavity of an experimental research rig. Data manipulation was developed to extract the speed, and the numbers of structures present using two fast-response aerodynamic probes measuring static pressure on the surface of the nozzle guide vane (NGV)-side rim seal cavity. A computational study is done to compare measured results to a transient unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS). The computational simulation consists of eight vanes and ten blades, carefully picked to reduce the error caused by blade vane pitch mismatch and to allow for the structures to develop correctly, and the rim seal cavity to measure the speed and number of the structures. The experimental results found 15 structures moving at 77.5% of the rotor speed, and the computational study suggested 14.5 structures are moving at 81.7% rotor speed. The agreement represents the first known test of its kind in a large-scale turbine test rig and the first known “good” agreement between computational and experimental work.

Author(s):  
Jason Town ◽  
Michael Averbach ◽  
Cengiz Camci

Flow within the space between the rotor and stator of a turbine disk, an area referred to as the rim seal cavity, develops azimuthal velocity component from the rotor disk. The fluid within develops unsteady structures that move at a fraction of the rotor speed. A measurement strategy is developed to measure the number of unsteady structures and the rotational speed at which they are moving in the rim seal cavity of an experimental turbine research rig. Data manipulation was developed to extract the speed and the numbers of structures present using two fast response aerodynamic probes measuring static pressure on the surface of the stator side rim seal cavity. A computational study is completed to compare measured results to a transient Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS). The computational simulation domain consists of 8 vanes and 10 blades (the full test facility consisted of 29 vanes and 36 blades), carefully picked to reduce error caused by blade vane pitch mismatch and to allow for the structures to develop correctly, and the rim seal cavity to measure the speed and number of the structures. The experimental results found 15 structures moving at 77.5% of the rotor speed, computational results are based on the size of the domain and guidance from the experimental results found 14.5 structures are moving at 81.7% rotor speed. The agreement represents the first known test of its kind and the first known agreement between computational and experimental work performed in the large scale and rotating turbine research facility AFTRF at the Pennsylvania State University.


Author(s):  
Y.-L. Lin ◽  
T. I-P. Shih ◽  
M. K. Chyu ◽  
R. S. Bunker

Computations were performed to study the three-dimensional flow in a nozzle guide vane with leakage issuing from a narrow gap with a backward-facing step located upstream of the airfoil on each endwall. The nozzle guide vane investigated has one flat and one contoured endwall. For the contoured endwall, two configurations of the same contouring profile were investigated with and without gap leakage. In one configuration, all contouring is upstream of the airfoil passage. In the other, the contouring starts upstream of the airfoil passage and continues through it. Results obtained show that when there is gap leakage, secondary flows are reduced at all endwalls for both nozzle configurations investigated. Without gap leakage, secondary flows are reduced only on the contoured endwall in which the contouring started upstream of the airfoil passage and continued through it. When all of the contouring is located upstream of the airfoil passage, there is considerable hot gas ingestion into the gap at both endwalls. When the contouring starts upstream of the airfoil passage and continues throught it, hot gas ingestion was minimal at the contoured endwall and greatly reduced at the flat endwall. This computational study is based on the ensemble-averaged conservation equations of mass, momentum (compressible Navier-Stokes), and energy. Effects of turbulence were modeled by the low Reynolds number shear-stress transport k-ω model. Solutions were generated by a cell-centered finite-volume method that uses third-order accurate flux-difference splitting of Roe with limiters and multigrid acceleration of a diagonalized ADI scheme with local time stepping on patched structured grids.


Author(s):  
T. I-P. Shih ◽  
Y.-L. Lin ◽  
T. W. Simon

Computations were performed to study the three-dimensional flow and temperature distribution in a nozzle guide vane that has one flat and one contoured endwall with and without film cooling injected from two slots, one on each endwall located just upstream of the airfoil. For the contoured endwall, two locations of the same contouring were investigated, one with all contouring upstream of the airfoil and another with the contouring starting upstream of the airfoil and continuing through the airfoil passage. Results obtained show that when the contouring is all upstream of the airfoil, secondary flows on both the flat and the contoured endwalls are similar in magnitude. When the contouring starts upstream of the airfoil and continues through the airfoil passage, secondary flows on the contoured endwall are markedly weaker than those on the flat endwall. With weaker secondary flows on the contoured endwall, film-cooling effectiveness there is greatly improved. This computational study is based on the ensemble-averaged conservation equations of mass, momentum (compressible Navier-Stokes), and energy. Effects of turbulence were modeled by the low Reynolds number shear-stress transport k-ω model. Solutions were generated by a cell-centered, finite-volume method that uses third-order accurate flux-difference splitting of Roe with limiters and multigrid acceleration of a diagonalized ADI scheme with local time stepping on patched/embedded structured grids.


2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Rose ◽  
Peter Schüpbach ◽  
Michel Mansour

This paper reports on insights into the detailed thermodynamics of axial turbine nozzle guide vane (NGV) wakes as they interact with the rotor blades. The evidence presented is both computational and experimental. Unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) simulations are used to compare the experimental observations with theoretical predictions. Output processing with both Eulerian and Lagrangian approaches is used to track the property variation of the fluid particles. The wake is found to be hot and loses heat to the surrounding fluid. The Lagrangian output processing shows that the entropy of the wake will fall due to heat loss as it passes through the rotor and this is corroborated experimentally. The experimental vehicle is a 1.5-stage shroudless turbine with modest Mach numbers of 0.5 and high response instrumentation. The entropy reduction of the wake is determined to be about four times the average entropy rise of the whole flow across the rotor. The results show that the work done by the wake fluid on the rotor is approximately 24% lower than that of the free-stream. The apparent experimental efficiency of the wake fluid is 114% but the overall efficiency of the turbine at midheight is around 95%. It is concluded that intrafluid heat transfer has a strong impact on the loss distribution even in a nominally adiabatic turbine with moderate row exit Mach numbers of 0.5.


2000 ◽  
Vol 123 (3) ◽  
pp. 526-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maik Tiedemann ◽  
Friedrich Kost

This investigation is aimed at an experimental determination of the unsteady flowfield downstream of a transonic high pressure turbine stage. The single stage measurements, which were part of a joined European project, were conducted in the windtunnel for rotating cascades of the DLR Go¨ttingen. Laser-2-focus (L2F) measurements were carried out in order to determine the Mach number, flow angle, and turbulence distributions. Furthermore, a fast response pitot probe was utilized to determine the total pressure distribution. The measurement position for both systems was 0.5 axial rotor chord downstream of the rotor trailing edge at midspan. While the measurement position remained fixed, the nozzle guide vane (NGV) was “clocked” to 12 positions covering one NGV pitch. The periodic fluctuations of the total pressure downstream of the turbine stage indicate that the NGV wake damps the total pressure fluctuations caused by the rotor wakes. Furthermore, the random fluctuations are significantly lower in the NGV wake affected region. Similar conclusions were drawn from the L2F turbulence data. Since the location of the interaction between NGV wake and rotor wake is determined by the NGV position, the described effects are potential causes for the benefits of “stator clocking” which have been observed by many researchers.


1993 ◽  
Vol 115 (2) ◽  
pp. 283-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. N. Dawes

This paper describes recent developments to a three-dimensional, unstructured mesh, solution-adaptive Navier–Stokes solver. By adopting a simple, pragmatic but systematic approach to mesh generation, the range of simulations that can be attempted is extended toward arbitrary geometries. The combined benefits of the approach result in a powerful analytical ability. Solutions for a wide range of flows are presented, including a transonic compressor rotor, a centrifugal impeller, a steam turbine nozzle guide vane with casing extraction belt, the internal coolant passage of a radial inflow turbine, and a turbine disk cavity flow.


Author(s):  
Neil W. Harvey ◽  
Martin G. Rose ◽  
John Coupland ◽  
Terry Jones

A 3-D steady viscous finite volume pressure correction method for the solution of the Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations has been used to calculate the heat transfer rates on the end walls of a modern High Pressure Turbine first stage stator. Surface heat transfer rates have been calculated at three conditions and compared with measurements made on a model of the vane tested in annular cascade in the Isentropic Light Piston Facility at DERA, Pyestock. The NGV Mach numbers, Reynolds numbers and geometry are fully representative of engine conditions. Design condition data has previously been presented by Harvey and Jones (1990). Off-design data is presented here for the first time. In the areas of highest heat transfer the calculated heat transfer rates are shown to be within 20% of the measured values at all three conditions. Particular emphasis is placed on the use of wall functions in the calculations with which relatively coarse grids (of around 140,000 nodes) can be used to keep computational run times sufficiently low for engine design purposes.


2002 ◽  
Vol 124 (3) ◽  
pp. 508-516 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. D. Barringer ◽  
O. T. Richard ◽  
J. P. Walter ◽  
S. M. Stitzel ◽  
K. A. Thole

The flow field exiting the combustor in a gas turbine engine is quite complex considering the presence of large dilution jets and complicated cooling schemes for the combustor liner. For the most part, however, there has been a disconnect between the combustor and turbine when simulating the flow field that enters the nozzle guide vanes. To determine the effects of a representative combustor flow field on the nozzle guide vane, a large-scale wind tunnel section has been developed to simulate the flow conditions of a prototypical combustor. This paper presents experimental results of a combustor simulation with no downstream turbine section as a baseline for comparison to the case with a turbine vane. Results indicate that the dilution jets generate turbulence levels of 15–18% at the exit of the combustor with a length scale that closely matches that of the dilution hole diameter. The total pressure exiting the combustor in the near-wall region neither resembles a turbulent boundary layer nor is it completely uniform putting both of these commonly made assumptions into question.


Author(s):  
R.-D. Baier ◽  
W. Koschel ◽  
K.-D. Broichhausen ◽  
G. Fritsch

The design of discrete film cooling holes for gas turbine airfoil applications is governed by a number of parameters influencing both their aerodynamic and thermal behaviour. This numerical and experimental study focuses on the marked differences between film cooling holes with combined streamwise and lateral inclination and film cooling holes with streamwise inclination only. The variation in the blowing angle was chosen on a newly defined and physically motivated basis. High resolution low speed experiments on a large scale turbine airfoil gave insights particularly into the intensified mixing process with lateral ejection. The extensive computational study is performed with the aid of a 3D block-structured Navier-Stokes solver incorporating a low-Reynolds-number k-ε turbulence model. Special attention is paid to mesh generation as a precondition for accurate high-resolution results. The downstream temperature fields of the jets show reduced spanwise variations with increasing lateral blowing angle; these variations are quantified for a comprehensive variety of configurations in terms of adiabatic film cooling effectiveness.


Author(s):  
Ilhan Bayraktar ◽  
Drew Landman ◽  
Tuba Bayraktar

Reliable computer solutions to external aerodynamic flow fields on road vehicles are extremely desirable to road vehicle designers. In a previous publication a study was performed to validate a Reynolds-averaged unsteady Navier-stokes solution for the aerodynamic characterization of a large-scale bluff body. In the present study, the external aerodynamics of this body as a function of ground clearance are explored. Experimental force measurements are obtained in a full-scale wind tunnel using an Ahmed body model and test conditions representative of full-scale operating conditions. A Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes solver is employed for computational simulation of the external flowfield at the same conditions. Experimental and computational force coefficients versus vehicle ground clearance are presented for fixed ground, moving ground, and suction slot road simulations. Experimental results using boundary layer suction are compared to computational results with a moving ground plane in order to better understand the effect of a road simulation method.


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