High Pressure Gas Turbine Research

Introduction

As modern engine designs tend to produce higher blade loading and smaller engine lengths, the effects of blade row interactions become more significant (Sharma (1990)). In low aspect ratio high pressure turbine stages, the blade row interactions may be dominated by the effects of incoming secondary flow vortices rather than by wakes (Hodson (1993)). The main objective of the present work is to understand the kinematics of this streamwise vortex transport in the downstream blade row and the other unsteady phenomena taking place. A simple model describing the motion of these secondary flow vortices is presented and complimented with CFD and smoke flow visualisation.

High Pressure Gas Turbine Research Rig

This presents a study of the three-dimensional flow field within the blade rows of a (low-speed/large-scale) two stage high pressure axial turbine. The flow field is investigated using various experimental approaches downstream of each blade row. Steady and unsteady numerical simulations were performed using structured 3D Navier-Stokes solver to substantiate the experimental observations. The strongest blade row interaction effect is observed in the second stator. It is observed that the secondary flow vortices are convected through the downstream blade row similar to the wake.

Howard Hodson Anestis Kalfas and Siva Chaluvadi

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