This paper describes an experimental investigation of tip clearance flow in a radial inflow turbine. Flow visualisation and static pressure measurements were performed. These were combined with hot-wire traverses into the tip gap. The experimental data indicates that the tip clearance flow in a radial turbine can be divided into three regions. The first region is located at the rotor inlet, where the influence of relative casing motion dominates the flow over the tip. The second region is located towards midchord, where the effect of relative casing motion is weakened. Finally a third region exists in the exducer, where the effect of relative casing motion becomes small and the leakage flow resembles the tip flow behaviour in an axial turbine.
This paper describes an investigation of the behaviour of suction surface boundary layers in a modern multistage Low Pressure turbine. An array of eighteen surface-mounted hot-film anemometers was mounted on a stator blade of the third stage of a 4-stage machine. Data were obtained at Reynolds numbers between 0.9 × 105 and 1.8 × 105. At the majority of the test conditions, wakes from upstream rotors periodically initiated transition at about 40% surface length. In between these events, laminar separation occurred at about 75% surface length. Because the wake-affected part of the flow appeared to be only intermittently turbulent, laminar separation also occurred at about 75% surface length while this flow was instantaneously laminar. At all but the lowest Reynolds numbers, the time-mean boundary layer appeared to have re-attached by the trailing edge even though it was not fully turbulent. It is inferred that the effect of the wakes on the performance of the bladerow is limited and that steady flow design methods should provide an adequate assessment of LP turbine performance during design.
This paper describes an investigation of the behavior of suction surface boundary layers in a modern multistage Low-Pressure turbine. An array of 18 surface-mounted hot-film anemometers was mounted on a stator blade of the third stage of a four-stage machine. Data were obtained at Reynolds numbers between 0.9 × 105 and 1.8 × 105. At the majority of the test conditions, wakes from upstream rotors periodically initiated transition at about 40 percent surface length. In between these events, laminar separation occurred at about 75 percent surface length. Because the wake-affected part of the flow appeared to be only intermittently turbulent, laminar separation also occurred at about 75 percent surface length while this flow was instantaneously laminar. At all but the lowest Reynolds numbers, the time-mean boundary layer appeared to have re-attached by the trailing edge even though it was not fully turbulent. It is inferred that the effect of the wakes on the performance of the blade row is limited and that steady flow design methods should provide an adequate assessment of LP turbine performance during design.
This paper describes the design of a high-speed radial inflow turbine for use as part of a gas-generator, and the design of a large-scale (1.2 m tip dia.) low-speed model of the high-speed turbine. Stream-line curvature throughflow, two-dimensional blade-to-blade and fully three-dimensional inviscid and viscous calculation methods have been used extensively in the analysis of the designs. The use of appropriate scaling parameters and their impact on turbine performance is discussed. A simple model shows, for example, how to model the blade lean in the inducer which serves to balance the effect of meridional curvature at inlet to the rotor and can be used to unload the rotor tip. A brief description of the low speed experimental facility is followed by a presentation and discussion of experimental results. These include surface flow visualisation patterns on both the rotor and stator blades and blade row exit traverses.
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