Validation of a Numerical Quasi One-Dimensional Model for Wave Rotor Turbines With Curved Channels

A wave rotor is a shock-driven pressure exchange device that, whilst relatively rarely studied or indeed, employed, offers significant potential efficiency gains in a variety of applications including refrigeration and gas turbine topping cycles. This paper introduces a quasi one-dimensional wave action model implemented in MATLAB for the computation of the unsteady flow field and performance characteristics of wave rotors of straight or cambered channel profiles. The purpose here is to introduce and validate a rapid but reliable method of modelling the performance of a power-generating wave rotor where little such insight exists in open literature. The model numerically solves the laminar one-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations using a two-step Richtmyer TVD scheme with minmod flux limiter. Additional source terms account for viscous losses, wall heat transfer, flow leakage between rotor and stator endplates as well as torque generation through momentum change. Model validation was conducted in two steps. First of all, unsteady and steady predictive capabilities were tested on three-port pressure divider rotors from open literature. The results show that both steady port flow conditions as well as the wave action within the rotor can be predicted with good agreement. Further validation was done on an in-house developed and experimentally tested four-port, three-cycle, throughflow micro wave rotor turbine featuring symmetrically cambered passage walls aimed at delivering approximately 500 W of shaft power. The numerical results depict trends for pressure ratio, shaft power and outlet temperature reasonably well. However, the results also highlight the need to accurately measure leakage gaps when the machine is running in thermal equilibrium.

Optical Coarse Droplet Measurement and Wet Loss Analysis on the Wet Air Flow Through the Subsonic Blade Cascade Channel

In order to understand the details of the mechanism of the occurrence of wetness loss between blade rows, the blades of an HP nuclear turbine were modeled in an atmospheric subsonic wind tunnel, and a flow field with wet loss was analyzed in its totality using a three-hole Pitot tube and Phase Doppler Particle Analyzer (PDPA) system. In the secondary flow loss region and the end wall loss region, a significant increase in pressure loss was confirmed under wet conditions. Analysis by measurement and the Eulerian-Lagrangian coupled solver showed that these loss increases can occur due to the agitation of water droplets and water films in the passage vortex or corner vortex. Finally, this report contains a breakdown of profile loss, thermodynamic loss and acceleration loss of the wet air flow through the sub-sonic blade row.

Structural Dynamics and Aeroelasticity of Airborne Diesel Engine Turbochargers

Compared to turbodiesel technology for ground vehicles, the increasing application of turbochargers in aircraft diesel engines presents a unique set of structural dynamics and aeroelasticity considerations due to their more extreme operating conditions. In particular, blade vibration and flutter are two related but distinct phenomena that impact the design of these turbochargers and reliable operation over their lifetime. Deformation or fatigue due to blade excitation can reduce efficiency or cause components to fail prematurely. The existing literature on turbomachinery covers many research efforts to analyze these phenomena by investigating the physical mechanisms responsible as well as the relationships between the fluid and solid dynamics. This review paper emphasizes those efforts most relevant to airborne diesel turbochargers, including research focusing on altitude effects on centrifugal compressors. Early work in which the dominant parameters for modeling turbocharger behavior were identified is highlighted as are current efforts to develop higher-fidelity models. An overview of existing and proposed techniques for measuring and controlling blade resonance is also given. Finally, an experimental facility for testing of turbochargers is proposed. The facility will include a nonintrusive stress measurement system and enable measurement of blade deflection/vibration together with blade stress, temperature, pressure, and flow rate across a range of simulated altitudes. The goal will be to characterize the blade bending modes, resonances, and critical speeds for various simulated altitude, pressure, temperature, and flow rate conditions so that designs may be devised that could prevent or avoid the associated failure modes in airborne diesel applications.

Investigation of Cross-Sectional Velocity Field Near the Inducer Plane of a Turbocharger Compressor Using 2D Particle Image Velocimetry

Understanding the velocity field at the inlet of an automotive turbocharger is critical in order to suppress the instabilities encountered by the compressor, extend its map and improve the impeller design. In the present study, two-dimensional particle image velocimetry experiments are carried out on a turbocharger compressor without any recirculating channel to investigate the planar flow structures on a cross-sectional plane right in front of the inducer at a rotational speed of 80 krpm. The objective of the study is to investigate the flow field in front of a compressor blade passage and quantify the velocity distributions along the blade span for different mass flow rates ranging from choke (77 g/s) to deep surge (13.6 g/s). It is observed that the flow field does not change substantially from choke to about 55 g/s, where flow reversal is known to start at this speed from earlier measurements. While the tangential velocity is less than 8 m/s, the radial velocity increases along the span to 17–20 m/s near the tip at high flow rates (55–77 g/s). As the mass flow rate is reduced below 55 g/s, the radial component starts decreasing and the tangential velocity increases rapidly. From about 5 m/s at 55 g/s, the tangential velocity at the blade tip exceeds 50 m/s at 50 g/s and reaches a maximum of about 135 m/s near surge. These time-averaged distributions are similar for different angular locations in front of the blade passage and do not exhibit any substantial azimuthal variation.

Fretting Induced Fatigue Failure in Steam Turbine Blades

Fretting occurs when there is cyclic relative motion of extremely small amplitude between two tightly fit mating surfaces. In this process, the tight fitting load may lead to adhesion of mating surface. The subsequent relative movement breaks the adhesion and lead to local grooves and pits. The localized damage in conjunction with the stresses associated with the cyclic relative motion may lead to surface cracking. This crack subsequently may propagate by fatigue provided there is high enough cyclic stress at that location. The paper discusses a blade failure induced by such fretting related fatigue. The metallurgical evaluation of the fracture surfaces of the blades showed evidence of classical fatigue failure. However, the crack initiation location did not coincide with high stress location identified by the finite element analysis. This discrepancy along with the evidence of fretting at the crack initiation sites confirms that failures were induced by fretting. Finally, some methods to eliminate or minimize fretting damage are discussed.

Aerodynamic Numerical Investigation of Low-Pressure Steam Turbine Last Stage Under Low Load Conditions With Mode Decomposition Methods

It is common that steam turbine works at different operating points, especially under low load conditions, to cater to complex and varied demands for power generation recently. Considering the long and thin shape of last stage moving blades (LSMBs) in a low-pressure (LP) steam turbine, there are many challenges to design a suitable case which balances global efficiency against sufficient structure strength when suffering excitations at low load operating points. In present work, the aim is to extract specific aerodynamic excitations and recognize their distribution and propagation features. Firstly, steady 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) calculations are simulated at 25GV and 17GV (25% and 17% of design mass flow conditions) and corresponding unsteady calculations are performed with enough rotor revolutions to obtain integrated flow periodicities. Unsteady pressure signals near tip region of LSMBs are monitored circumferentially in both static and rotating coordinates. The fast Fourier transformation (FFT) results of unsteady pressure signals show that there are broadband humps with small disturbance amplitudes in low frequency spectrum at 25GV, however, a sharp spike is shown in low frequency spectrum at 17GV. Further, circumferential mode decomposition (CMD) method has been applied to distinguish different fluctuations in frequency and the mode numbers and circumferential propagating pace of which have been obtained. Finally, dynamic mode decomposition (DMD) method has been performed to describe detailed mode shapes of featured flow perturbances both in static and rotating coordinate system. These analyses indicate that at 25GV, a band of unsteady responses with very low amplitude was noted which has some features similar to rotating instability (RI). However, distribution and propagation features of flow unsteadiness at 17GV are in good agreement with rotating stall (RS) in compressor.

Demonstration of a Dynamic Clearance Seal in a Rotating Steam Test Facility

This paper reports on the latest phase of the development of a new rotating machinery sealing technology, which was a successful seal test in a high temperature steam test facility at TU Brauschweig in Germany. The “Aerostatic Seal” is a dynamic clearance seal that is capable of maintaining very small clearances with a rotor and has the potential for a wide range of rotating machinery applications. It has been developed in recent years at Durham University, UK, in collaboration with a major OEM, with a focus on steam turbine sealing, and has previously been reported on in a number of ASME Turbo Expo papers. Previous work has reported on the design tool, and two air test facilities; testing in steam addressed the effect of high temperature components and the working fluid, and was an opportunity to verify the design system. The seal is a development of a retractable gland seal and so in a low load condition it is retracted from the rotor with a large rotor clearance and then when the pressure ratio is sufficient moves to an operational small clearance. At its operational clearance the seal is capable of moving with rotor vibrations which means the design clearance can be smaller than any expected rotor movement. The benefits include a significant reduction in leakage when compared to conventional sealing technologies and also the ability to react to large transients or thermal growths caused by rapid changes in machine loads and speeds. The seal is shown to operate well in this environment and this work moves the technology closer to deployment in industry.

Assessment of Power Plant Components With Flaws and Defects Operating in the Long-Term Creep Range

Originating from defects and flaws in high temperature components crack initiation and crack propagation under service conditions can occur. Fracture mechanics data and procedures are needed to study crack problems and to support an advanced remnant life evaluation. During subsequent research in the past 35 years, data were determined for different high temperature materials. Methodologies and concepts taking into account the specific material behavior were developed in order to be able to describe crack initiation and crack growth and have appropriate assessment methods available. For creep crack initiation two criteria principles were used and for creep crack growth assessment based on the integral C* parameter were applied. Furthermore, a method for determination of critical crack length was developed allowing decisions whether modified stress analysis methods are sufficient or more complicated fracture mechanics methods are needed. To provide data and methodologies in a user-friendly way, a program system combining data and methods was implemented. The paper describes developed features and shows comparisons to other methods. The methods can be applied for design purposes as well as remnant life assessments.

Effects of Labyrinth Fin Wear on Aerodynamic Performance of Turbine Stages: Part II — Mushrooming Damages

The main function of labyrinth seal is to control leakage flow in clearance that involves with rotating and stationary parts. Therefore, the effective of clearance gap in labyrinth seal is critical to sealing, heat transfer and vibration characteristics. However, due to the mechanical expansions, vibrations, thermal stress, misalignment of seal components in transient periods of startup, shutdown and hot restart, the stationary and rotating parts of the labyrinth seal are likely to contact each other, causing wear damages in labyrinth fin. Mushrooming damages are often occurred in the rubbing events when labyrinth fin is made of soft material compared with the opposite component. To investigate how mushrooming damage affects the leakage performance of labyrinth seal, many numerical and experimental studies have been carried out in last decades. However, little attention has been paid on the influence of labyrinth fin mushrooming on aerodynamic performance of turbine stages. In this study, using the RANS equations solution methods, the effect of labyrinth fin mushrooming on isentropic efficiency, leakage rates, outlet flow angles, reaction degrees, profile static pressure distributions and flow fields in turbine stages were investigated at three different mushrooming radii and three effective clearances. It shows the leakage rate is increased with increasing the mushroom radius and effective clearance. At the same effective clearance, as the mushrooming radius increases from 0.2mm to 0.4mm, the leakage rate is increased by about 0.19–0.32%, and the overall isentropic efficiency is decreased by 0.78%. At the same mushrooming radius, as the effective clearance increases from 1mm to 1.4mm, the leakage rate is increased by 0.21–0.31%, and the overall isentropic efficiency is decreased by 0.65%. As mushroom radius and effective clearance increase, the secondary flows near hub and shroud are intensified and developed along axial direction, causing pronounced aerodynamic loss in turbine stages.

Effects of Labyrinth Fin Wear on Aerodynamic Performance of Turbine Stages: Part I — Bending Damages

Labyrinth seals are widely applied in turbo machines because of their geometrical simplicity, convenient installation, reliable operation and excellent sealing performance. However, in realistic operation process, they usually encounter transient conditions (starting-up, shutting down, etc.) and unavoidable vibrations, which may cause wear in the labyrinth fins. After rubbing, the sealing performance of labyrinth seal will be varied in contrast to the original design. Correspondingly, the aerodynamic efficiency of the turbine stage will be affected by the variation of leakage flow in rubbing process. However, in published literature with respect to the labyrinth seal wear, most of the attention has been paid on revealing sealing performance degradation of labyrinth seal itself. Few studies have been concentrated on the influence of labyrinth seal wear on aerodynamic performance of turbine stages. In such background, the present paper utilizes the numerical methods to investigate the effects of labyrinth seal bending damages on aerodynamic performance of turbine stages. Firstly, under several assumptions, the bending geometrical model was established to describe different degrees of bending damages. Secondly, using three-dimensional RANS simulations, the effects of effective clearance variation due to bending on leakage flow and flow fields in turbine stages were investigated. The overall performance of the turbine stages with teeth-bending damages was also compared with the original design case. The influence of the forward bending and backward bending of labyrinth seals were analyzed and compared with each other. The total-total isentropic efficiency of turbine stages, leakage rates, outlet flow angles, reaction degrees and profile static pressure distributions, entropic distributions and flow fields in seals were obtained and compared to the original design case. The results indicate that the leakage rates in the worn labyrinth seal are quite relevant to the effective clearance, especially for the backward bending damages. As the effective clearances in backward bending cases are increased by 0.2–0.6mm, the isentropic efficiency of turbine stages is decreased by about 1–2%. However, for the forward bending damages, the aerodynamic performance and leakage rates in turbine stages are not sensitive to the effective clearance.