Impact of unsteady secondary air flow interaction with main flow on loss generation in axial turbines

Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2014.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Clifton, David (David Madison)
Other Authors: Choon S. Tan.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/93797
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author Clifton, David (David Madison)
author2 Choon S. Tan.
author_facet Choon S. Tan.
Clifton, David (David Madison)
author_sort Clifton, David (David Madison)
collection MIT
description Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2014.
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spelling mit-1721.1/937972019-04-10T14:36:25Z Impact of unsteady secondary air flow interaction with main flow on loss generation in axial turbines Clifton, David (David Madison) Choon S. Tan. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Aeronautics and Astronautics. Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2014. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (pages 121-122). Secondary air, often called purge air, is injected through the endwall gap between stationary vanes and rotating rotors in axial turbines to prevent ingestion of the hot working gas into the endwall cavities. Three-dimensional flow computations, unsteady as well as steady, have been carried out to assess the role of vane-rotor stage induced flow unsteadiness on loss generation from purge flow interacting with main flow. Computational models of varying physical and geometry complexity that range from simple bladeless annulus configurations to vane-rotor stage configurations were used for identifying the specific flow features responsible for loss generation; these were also complemented by control volume analyses of simple two streams flow model. Computed results showed that the vane induced circumferentially non-uniform static pressure field, and to a much lesser extent rotor blade induced bow waves, significantly increases loss generation upon introduction of injected flow with and without swirl; any flow approximations that renders the pressure field imposed on the purge flow as circumferentially uniform would underestimate the loss due to purge flow-main flow interaction. Flow unsteadiness induced by vane-rotor interaction has marginal, if any, impact on loss generation from introducing purge flow into the main flow path. Judicious flow path modification such as endwall contouring that reduces or eliminates vane-induced static pressure circumferential non-uniformity imposed upon the purge flow has been shown to significantly reduce the purge flow driven loss. Computed results also show that loss generation increases linearly with injected mass flow rate ( 7.5% more loss per 1% purge flow) and decreases quadratically with purge flow swirl until it matches the main flow circumferential velocity ( 85% reduction in purge flow induced based loss at that point). Purge flow induced loss has a weak dependence on the width of the purge duct and angle of injection. by David Clifton. S.M. 2015-02-05T18:22:08Z 2015-02-05T18:22:08Z 2014 2014 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/93797 900609548 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 122 pages application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Clifton, David (David Madison)
Impact of unsteady secondary air flow interaction with main flow on loss generation in axial turbines
title Impact of unsteady secondary air flow interaction with main flow on loss generation in axial turbines
title_full Impact of unsteady secondary air flow interaction with main flow on loss generation in axial turbines
title_fullStr Impact of unsteady secondary air flow interaction with main flow on loss generation in axial turbines
title_full_unstemmed Impact of unsteady secondary air flow interaction with main flow on loss generation in axial turbines
title_short Impact of unsteady secondary air flow interaction with main flow on loss generation in axial turbines
title_sort impact of unsteady secondary air flow interaction with main flow on loss generation in axial turbines
topic Aeronautics and Astronautics.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/93797
work_keys_str_mv AT cliftondaviddavidmadison impactofunsteadysecondaryairflowinteractionwithmainflowonlossgenerationinaxialturbines