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Novel high-pressure turbine purge control features for increased stage efficiency

  • Schädler, Rainer 1Laboratory for Energy Conversion ETH Zurich, Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, Sonneggstrasse 3, CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland
  • Kalfas, Anestis I. 2Department of Mechanical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, GR-54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
  • Abhari, Reza S. 1Laboratory for Energy Conversion ETH Zurich, Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, Sonneggstrasse 3, CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland
  • Schmid, Gregor 3Siemens AG Mellinghofer Str. 55, D-45473 Muelheim an der Ruhr, Germany
  • auf dem Kampe, Tilmann 4Siemens Energy, Inc., 5101 Westinghouse Boulevard Charlotte, NC 28273-9640, USA
  • Prabhu, Sanjay B. 5Siemens Energy, Inc., 11842 Corporate Boulevard Orlando, FL 32817, USA
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  • 2017-7-21
Published in:
  • Journal of the Global Power and Propulsion Society. - Global Power and Propulsion Society. - 2017, vol. 1, p. 68MK5V
English AbstractRim seals throttle flow and have shown to impact the aerodynamic performance of gas turbines. The results of an experimental investigation of a rim seal exit geometry variation and its impact on the high-pressure turbine flow field are presented. A one-and-a-half stage, unshrouded and highly loaded axial turbine configuration with 3-dimensionally shaped blades and non-axisymmetric end wall contouring has been tested in an axial turbine facility. The exit of the rotor upstream rim seal was equipped with novel geometrical features which are termed as purge control features (PCFs) and a baseline rim seal geometry for comparison. The time-averaged and unsteady aerodynamic effects at rotor inlet and exit have been measured with pneumatic probes and the fast-response aerodynamic probe (FRAP) for three rim seal purge flow injection rates. Measurements at rotor inlet and exit reveal the impact of the geometrical features on the rim seal exit and main annulus flow field, highlighting regions of reduced aerodynamic losses induced by the modified rim seal design. Measurements at the rotor exit with the PCFs installed show a benefit in the total-to-total stage efficiency up to 0.4% for nominal and high rim seal purge flow rates. The work shows the potential to improve the aerodynamic efficiency by means of a well-designed rim seal exit geometry without losing the potential to block hot gas ingestion from the main annulus.
Language
  • English
Open access status
gold
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Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/global/documents/95368
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