Two-pass channels are used for internal cooling in a number of engineering systems e.g., gas turbines. Fluid travelling through the curved path, experiences pressure and centrifugal forces, that result in pressure driven secondary motion. This motion helps in moving the cold high momentum fluid from the channel core to the side walls and plays a significant role in the heat transfer in the channel bend and outlet pass. The present study investigates using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), the flow structure, heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop in a smooth channel with varying aspect ratio channel at different divider-to-tip wall distances. Numerical simulations are performed in two-pass smooth channel with aspect ratio W in /H = 1:3 at inlet pass and W out /H = 1:1 at outlet pass for a variety of divider-to-tip wall distances. The results show that with a decrease in aspect ratio of inlet pass of the channel, pressure loss decreases. The divider-totip wall distance (W el ) not only influences the pressure drop, but also the heat transfer enhancement at the bend and outlet pass. With an increase in the divider-to-tip wall distance, the areas of enhanced heat transfer shifts from side walls of outlet pass towards the inlet pass. To compromise between heat transfer and pressure drop in the channel, W el /H = 0.88 is found to be optimum for the channel under study.

This paper presents a numerical investigation of unsteady flow phenomena in a two-stage partial admission axial steam turbine. Results from unsteady three-dimensional computations are analyzed and compared with the available experimental data. Partial admission in the present study is introduced into the model by blocking only one segmental arc of the inlet guide vanes. Blocking only one segment (which corresponds to the experimental setup) makes the model unsymmetrical; therefore it is necessary to model the whole annulus of the turbine. The first stage rotor blades experience large static pressure change on their surface while passing the blocked channel. The effect of blockage on the rotor blades’ surface pressure can be seen few passages around the blocked channel. Strong changes of the blades’ surface pressure impose large unsteady forces on the blades of first stage rotor row. The circumferential static pressure plots at different cross sections along the domain indicate how the non-uniformity propagates in the domain. A peak pressure drop is seen at the cross section downstream of the first stage stator row. At further downstream cross sections, the static pressure becomes more evenly distributed. Entropy generation is higher behind the blockage due to the strong mixing and other loss mechanisms involved with partial admission. Analysis of the entropy plots at different cross sections indicates that the peak entropy moves in a tangential direction while traveling to the downstream stages. Comparisons of the unsteady three-dimensional numerical results and the experimental measurement data show good agreement in tendency. However some differences are seen in the absolute values especially behind the blockage.

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In this paper, the effects of axial gap distance between the first stage stator and rotor blades and multiblocking on aerodynamics and performance of partial admission turbines are analyzed numerically. The selected test case is a two stage axial steam turbine with low reaction blades operating with compressed air. The multiblocking effect is studied by blocking the inlet annulus of the turbine in a single arc and in two opposing blocked arcs, each having the same admission degree. The effect of axial gap distance between the first stage stator and rotor blades is studied while varying the axial gap by 20% compared with the design gap distance. Finally, full admission turbine is modeled numerically for comparison. Performance of various computational cases showed that the first stage efficiency of the two stage partial admission turbine with double blockage was better than that of the single blockage turbine; however, the extra mixing losses of the double blockage turbine caused the efficiency to deteriorate in the downstream stage. It was shown that the two stage partial admission turbine with smaller axial gap than the design value had better efficiency of the first stage due to lower main flow and leakage flow interactions; however, the efficiency at the second stage decreased faster compared with the other cases. Numerical computations showed that the parameters, which increased the axial force of the first stage rotor wheel for the partial admission turbine, were longer blocked arc, single blocked arc, and reduced axial gap distance between the first stage stator and rotor blades.

A numerical and experimental study of partial admission in a low reaction two-stage axial air test turbine is performed in this paper. In order to model one part load configuration, corresponding to zero flow in one of the admission arcs, the inlet was blocked at one segmental arc, at the leading edge of the first stage guide vanes. Due to the unsymmetrical geometry, the full annulus of the turbine was modeled numerically. The computational domain contained the shroud and disk cavities. The full admission turbine configuration was also modeled for reference comparisons. Computed unsteady forces of the first stage rotor blades showed cyclic change both in magnitude and direction while moving around the circumference. Unsteady forces of first stage rotor blades were plotted in the frequency domain using Fourier analysis. The largest amplitudes caused by partial admission were at first and second multiples of rotational frequency due to the existence of single blockage and change in the force direction. Unsteady forces of rotating blades in a partial admission turbine could cause unexpected failures in operation; therefore, knowledge about the frequency content of the unsteady force vector and the related amplitudes is vital to the design process of partial admission turbine blades. The pressure plots showed that the nonuniformity in the static pressure field decreases considerably downstream of the second stage’s stator row, while the nonuniformity in the dynamic pressure field is still large. The numerical results between the first stage’s stator and rotor rows showed that the leakage flow leaves the blade path down into the disk cavity in the admitted sector and re-enters downstream of the blocked channel. This process compensates for the sudden pressure drop downstream of the blockage but reduces the momentum of the main flow.