Aerodynamic Design and Numerical Analysis of Supersonic Turbine for Turbo Pump

Abstract

Supersonic turbine is widely used in the turbo pump of modern rocket. A preliminary design method for supersonic turbine has been developed considering the coupling effects of turbine and nozzle. Numerical simulation has been proceeded to validate the feasibility of the design method. As the strong shockwave reflected on the mixing plane, additional numerical simulated error would be produced by the mixing plane model in the steady CFD. So unsteady CFD is employed to investigate the aerodynamic performance of the turbine and flow field in passage. Results showed that the preliminary design method developed in this paper is suitable for designing supersonic turbine. This periodical variation of complex shockwave system influences the development of secondary flow, wake and shock-boundary layer interaction, which obviously affect the secondary loss in vane passage. The periodical variation also influences the strength of reflecting shockwave, which affects the profile loss in vane passage. Besides, high circumferential velocity at vane outlet and short blade lead to high radial pressure gradient, which makes the low kinetic energy fluid moves towards hub region and produces additional loss.

Design Parameter Influence on Losses and Downstream Flow Field Uniformity in Supersonic ORC Radial-Inflow Turbine Stators

“…With respect to the design of convergent-divergent nozzles, the axial flow turbine configuration benefits from the broader pre-existing knowledge related to ideal gases, e.g., [4][5][6], mainly derived from previous experience with highly loaded stages [7] and auxiliary power turbines such as rocket turbo-pumps [8]. On the other hand, the published literature concerning the use of RIT supersonic stators for the expansion air or other ideal gases is scarce.…”

Finding an optimal blade-profile to improving the performance of partially admitted turbines

“…Fu et al (2016) developed a preliminary design method for supersonic turbine considering the coupling effects of the turbine and nozzle and proceeded numerical simulation to validate the feasibility of the design method. Due to the occurrence of a shock wave on the mixing plane, an unsteady CFD is used to investigate the aerodynamic performance of the turbine and the flow field in the passage.…”