On Turbulence and its Effects on Aerodynamics of Flow through Turbine Stages

Abstract

In reality, the flows encountered in turbines are highly three-dimensional, viscous, turbulent, and often transonic. These complex flows will not yield to understanding or prediction of their behavior without the application of contemporary and strong modeling techniques, together with an adequate turbulence model, to reveal effects of turbulence phenomenon and its impact on flow past turbine blades. The discussion primarily targets the turbulence features and their impact on fluid dynamics; streaming of blades, and efficiency performance. Turbulence as a phenomenon, turbulence effects and the transition onset in turbine stages are discussed. Flow parameters distribution past turbine stages, approaches to turbulence modeling, and how turbulent effects change efficiency and require an innovative design, among others are presented. Furthermore, a comparison study regarding the application and availability of various turbulence models is fulfilled, showing that every aerodynamic effect, encountered of flow pass turbine blades can be predicted via different model. This work could be very helpful for researchers and engineers working on prediction of transition onset, turbulence effects, and their impact on the overall turbine performance.