Search Results (3)

A turbine vane frame is a special type of intermediate turbine duct, and is one option to improve the efficiency and reduce the length and weight of an aero-engine. However, due to its geometry, it features a complex flow field, and therefore in-depth aerodynamic investigations are necessary. Especially for aviation, every component needs to function reliably during all operating points. To perform this study at the Institute for Thermal Turbomachinery at the Graz University of Technology, the Subsonic Test Turbine Facility for Aerodynamic, Aeroacoustic and Aeroelastic Investigations was equipped with a turbine vane frame and a low-pressure turbine located downstream. Measurements were taken with aerodynamic five-hole probes for three operating points, and were compared with steady-state and transient simulations as well as analytic solutions for the pressure drop in the TVF. Finally, the most important loss mechanisms are described. Full article

This paper focuses on the dynamic internal flow in the integrated aggressive intermediate turbine duct (AITD) with different HPT wake numbers, using CFX Solver with dynamic Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations (RANS), the shear stress transmission κ-ω turbulence model (SST) and the γ-θ transition model. The HPT wakes are simulated using sweeping rods, with the number of rods ranging from 14 to 56 and a reduced frequency of 1.07. The increasing wake number reduces the radial pressure gradient in the integrated AITD, and then decelerates the radial migration and dissipation of wake vortices, so that some residual wakes can reach the integrated low-pressure turbine guide vane (LPT-GV) to enhance the suppression of flow separation to a certain extent. On the other hand, the increase in wake number can also weaken the skewness and stretching of the wake, thereby increasing the duration of flow separation suppression. When there are too many wakes, the mixing between adjacent wakes accelerates the dispersion of wake vortices, leading to increased total pressure loss and an enhanced turbulence intensity. This enhanced turbulence intensity promotes bypass transition on the suction surface of the LPT-GV in advance, thereby completely eliminating flow separation on the LPT-GV in the entire spatiotemporal domain, which is beneficial for reducing separation loss, but also increasing turbulent viscous loss. When N ≤ 28, the gross loss of the integrated AITD studied in this paper reaches a minimum value (around 0.22), as the benefits brought by the wake suppression of flow separation can offset the wake dissipation loss and the turbulent viscous loss caused by the wake-induced transition. Considering that wake loss is inherently present, using sweeping wakes to inhibit the flow separation on the integrated LPT-GV can bring certain aerodynamic benefits when the wake number is less than 28. Full article

The purpose of the paper is to characterize the aerodynamic behavior of a rotor-downstream hub cavity rim seal in a high-pressure turbine (HPT) stage. The experimental data are acquired in the Transonic Test Turbine Facility at the Graz University of Technology: the test setup includes two engine-representative turbine stages (the last HPT stage and first LPT stage), with the intermediate turbine duct in between. All stator-rotor cavities are supplied with purge flows by a secondary air system, which simulates the bleeding air from the compressor stages of the real engine. The HPT downstream hub cavity is provided with wall taps and pitot tubes at different radial and circumferential locations, which allows the performance of steady pressure and seed gas concentration measurements for different purge mass flows and HPT vanes clocking positions. Moreover, miniaturized pressure transducers are adopted to evaluate the unsteady pressure distribution, and an oil flow visualization is performed to retrieve additional information on the wheel space structures. The annulus pressure asymmetry depends on the HPT vane clocking, but this is shown to have negligible impact on the minimum purge mass flow required to seal the cavity. However, the hub pressure profile drives the distribution of the cavity egress in the turbine channel. The unsteady pressure field is dominated by blade-synchronous oscillations. No non-synchronous components with comparable intensity are detected. Full article