Aerodynamic and Performance Behavior of a Three-Stage High Efficiency Turbine at Design and Off-Design Operating Points

Abstract

This article deals with the aerodynamic and performance behavior of a three-stage high pressure research turbine with 3-D curved blades at its design and off-design operating points. The research turbine configuration incorporates six rows beginning with a stator row. Interstage aerodynamic measurements were performed at three stations, namely downstream of the first rotor row, the second stator row, and the second rotor row. Interstage radial and circum-ferential traversing presented a detailed flow picture of the middle stage. Performance measurements were carried out within a rotational speed range of 75% to 116% of the design speed. The experimental investigations have been carried out on the recently established multi-stage turbine research facility at the Turbomachinery Performance and Flow Research Laboratory, TPFL, of Texas A&M University. Keywords Development in the field of turbomachinery computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has reached an advanced level that allows a detailed computation of the complex three-dimensional viscous flow field through a turbomachinery stage using Navier-Stokes codes. Numerous published cases demonstrate the capability of different CFD-methods to calculate various flow quantities in a remarkably detailed fashion. The efficiency and loss calculations, however, reveal noticeable disagreement between the experimental and computational results. The detailed 3-D flow pictures delivered by viscous flow solvers display the source and location of the total pressure losses and entropy distribution within the blade channel, particularly at the blade hub and tip regions. Based on these results, the turbine aerodynamicist is able to reconfigure the blade geometry to reduce the profile and the secondary flow losses. The latter is especially relevant for high pressure (HP) turbine design with relatively small aspect ratios where the secondary flow losses significantly contribute to the reduction of the stage efficiency. In recent years, the power generation turbine manufacturers have been increasingly focus-ing their efforts on reducing the secondary flow losses of HP-turbine blades by implementing the information obtained from the Navier-Stokes flow simulations. To account for the discrepancy mentioned above, the Navier-Stokes codes are frequently calibrated. The calibration process may provide a temporary matching solution for cases in which experimental results are available. However, it is not appropriate for a priori predicting of the efficiency of new designs. The disagreement between the Navier-Stokes based efficiency calculations and the measurements , however, does not allow the engine manufacturer to issue efficiency and performance guaranty without thoroughly testing their new design. Considering the physical aspects of the computation , among other things, two major issues may be considered primarily responsible for the above discrepancy, namely the turbulence modeling and the modeling of the laminar-turbulent boundary layer transition process. The latter directly impacts the a...