Evaluation of Different Squealer Cavity Configurations in a HPT Blade Tip Region and its Influence on the Heat Transfer

In high performance turbomachines the tip region is a key point to improve aiming at high pressure ratios without high penalties. In the case of HPT, several techniques are still in development by academic research laboratories and industry. Some geometrical configurations were created at the rotor tip region, as winglets and squealers geometries. In the case of squealers, the depth of their cavity is an important parameter to evaluate, because its values can cause different flow behavior on this region. Changing the heat transfer. In this work, the rotor blade of a HPT developed in the E3 program was changed, the aim is to study the influence of the squealer cavity depth variation on its performance. The flow within the turbine was calculated using a commercial CFD package. The details of the rotor geometrical changes, the differences between a simple flat rotor tip surface and squealer configurations are discussed and presented.

Blade-Row Interactions in an LP Turbine at Design and Strong Off-Design Operation

In a joint project between the Institute of Aircraft Propulsion Systems (ILA) and MTU Aero Engines a two-stage low pressure turbine is tested at design and strong off-design conditions. The experimental data taken in the altitude test-facility aims to study the effect of positive and negative incidence of the second stator vane. A detailed insight and understanding of the blade row interactions at these regimes is sought. Steady and time-resolved pressure measurements on the airfoil as well as inlet and outlet hot-film traverses at identical Reynolds number are performed for the midspan streamline. The results are compared with unsteady multi-stage CFD predictions. Simulations agree well with the experimental data and allow detailed insights in the time-resolved flow-field. Airfoil pressure field responses are found to increase with positve incidence whereas at negative incidence the magnitude remains unchanged. Different pressure to suction side phasing is observed for the studied regimes. The assessment of unsteady blade forces reveals that changes in unsteady lift are minor compared to changes in axial force components. These increase with increasing positive incidence. The wake-interactions are predominating the blade responses in all regimes. For the positive incidence conditions vane 1 passage vortex fluid is involved in the midspan passage interaction leading to a more distorted three-dimensional flow field.

Investigation of Variated Unsteady Inflow Boundary Conditions on the Transition Behavior of a Low Pressure Turbine Cascade Family

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.

Aerodynamic Data for Two Variants of Root Turbine Blade Sections for a 54″ Turbine Rotor Blade

Aerodynamic investigations were performed on planar blade cascades representing two alternative root sections of rotor blades 54″ in length with straight fir-tree root. Each of the variants was designed for different number of blades in the rotor. This paper presents the results of measurements showing the dependency of the kinetic energy loss coefficient and the exit flow angle on the exit isoentropic Mach number and the angle of incidence. Images of the flow fields are also presented. The experimental data is analyzed to assess and document the difference between the two root section designs. Results show that requirement of straight fir tree root leading to high design incidence angles significantly limit operation range. Also in case of root sections with high exit Mach numbers a limit load conditions are an issue. In order to utilize available pressure drop blade cascade throat/pitch ratios should be kept as high as possible which favorites variant with lower number of blades and higher outlet metal angle (relative to axial direction).

Study of Tabs in a Short Annular Diffuser With a Strong Swirling Flow

Passive augmentation devices are typically added to diffusers to increase pressure recovery; however, applications such as infrared suppression exist where more uniform outlet velocity profiles are also desirable. Square tabs were added to a short annular diffuser system with diffuser effectiveness of 80% in strong swirling subsonic turbulent flow. The number, axial position, width, and height were varied for the tabs with a 135° orientation angle. Results showed that back pressure increased linearly with increasing tab projected area blockage but outlet velocity uniformity was maximum with 7% tab blockage. Tabs placed on the centre body base recovered more dynamic pressure than tabs placed downstream on the centre body with similar tab area blockage.

Computational Study of a Transonic Turbine Cascade: Validation and Comparison of Griding Approaches and Challenges

This paper presents a computational study, with some experimental validation, of a low-turning transonic turbine cascade. A comparison is presented between the time-consuming and difficult to generate hexa-structured meshing approach, and the mostly automated tetra-unstructured meshing approach. The paper compares the predicted flow physics and losses, with discussion of the challenges in griding and convergence between both approaches. Computations were carried out using a commercial RANS solver (ANSYS CFX 12) using the Shear Stress Transport turbulence model, and the Gamma-Theta transition model. The computational domain encompassed a half blade span, and one blade pitch with periodic boundary conditions; griding for both approaches was done using ANSYS ICEM CFD. Computational results from both griding approaches were compared to corresponding experimental data. The outlet Mach number was 0.90. The experiment was carried out using a linear cascade in a blow-down type wind tunnel. Downstream seven-hole pressure probe measurements at 1.8 axial chord lengths from the leading edge provided loss, streamwise vorticity, and secondary kinetic energy distributions and integrated coefficient values. It was found that both griding approaches predicted similar downstream endwall flow structures to those observed in the experiment. The tetra-unstructured mesh solution predicted higher losses, but both predicted lower losses than the experiment. Overall results suggest that for capturing of the basic flow physics, both approaches suffice, with the tetra-unstructured being the much easier approach, but with limitations on the level of grid refinement. For more accurate capturing of the flow physics, the time-consuming and difficult to generate hexa-structured meshing approach can be justified.

Effect of Unguided Turning Angle and Trailing Edge Shape on Cooled Blade Loss

A significant part of the overall loss in modern gas turbines is the trailing edge loss. This loss is, more strongly than other constituents, affected by operation, because the trailing edge can significantly change its shape due to degradation. Also by manufacturing of new parts and reconditioning the same tolerances as in other parts of blade lead to higher deviations of aerodynamic characteristics. Therefore the understanding of trailing edge loss generation mechanisms is of utmost importance for a sound blade design. In this work the results of combined experimental and numerical investigation of the trailing edge impact on the transonic cooled blade loss are presented. This study comprises the investigation of the unguided flow angle and the trailing edge shape on the profile losses and a base pressure. The unguided flow angle characterizes the curvature distribution on the aerofoil suction side. The numerical and experimental investigation of transonic cooled turbine cascades have shown that the increase of the unguided flow angle results in loss reduction due to increase of the base pressure downstream of the trailing edge. At the same time the deviation of the trailing edge from a round shape has detrimental effect on performance and conducted investigations allow quantification of this effect. The measurements were performed in a transonic wind tunnel and numerical simulations were done using in-house 2D Navier-Stokes code. The comparison of calculations with measurements showed that they are in reasonable agreement. The validated numerical procedure has been used for demonstration of possibility to reduce loss in aerofoil with thick trailing edge by tuning of the unguided flow angle. The use of the thick trailing edges at HP cooled turbines reduces restriction on tolerances, improves of manufacturability and reduces cost.

Application of Riblets on Turbine Blade Endwall Secondary Flow Control

Within the past ten years, significant improvements have been achieved in the laser manufacturing process. It is feasible now to obtain various small-scale surface features (such as dimples, riblets, grooves, etc.) with the current manufacturing readiness level of laser surface texturing techniques. In this paper, the aerodynamic impact of the employment of riblets on turbine endwall has been investigated through combined CFD and experimental studies in a low speed linear cascade environment. Detailed comparisons of the flow structures have been made for cases with and without riblets on the endwall. The results show that endwall riblets can effectively reduce the strength of the pressure side leg of the horseshoe vortex, lower the cross passage pressure gradient, and alleviate the lift up of the passage vortex. A test section with seven passages and eight blades was used to validate the CFD observations. Both numerical and experimental results indicate that, the addition of riblets can be an effective approach to reduce the endwall secondary flow, and there is a large space for further optimization.

Study of Particle Ingestion Through Two-Stage Gas Turbine

This paper presents a numerical study of particle laden gas flow through a two-stage hp axial turbine, by means of an in-house code based on the Lagrangian tracking model and the finite element method. As fly-ash solid particles trajectories and locations of impacts are predicted, the local erosion rates and the deteriorations of blades are assessed. The computed trajectories provide a detailed description of particles behaviors and reveal that particle impacts on the aft of vane pressure side usually lead to significant variations in the directions of particles to the next rotor blade, and subsequently particles impact the suction side. The plots of equivalent erosion rates indicate the vanes and blades locations which suffer more erosion. The first vane pressure surface is impacted more than any other component, but higher rates are seen at the top corner from trailing edge. The critical regions of erosion wear in the first rotor are observed over the top of blade leading edge extending along the tip as well as a rounding of the top corner from trailing edge. In the second vane, the regions of higher erosion are revealed over the last third of leading edge and the top corner extending along tip. The erosion in the second rotor is over a large area of suction side till the tip corner. The predicted areas of extreme erosion, also shown by the deteriorated profiles, are indicators for anticipated vanes and blades failures.