No abstract

Recent year witnessed an increasing interest in online water washing technique since it allows to minimize compressor performance losses in the time interval between two off-line washing. However, the washing capability and the related erosion risk depend on several parameters such as the injection duration, the droplet size, the spray angle, the water mass flow rate and the injector positions. The influence of such parameters on the washing capability and erosion rate is analysed. Results are discussed with reference to number of impacts, wetted surface, capture efficiency, accumulated energy and erosion. The numerical simulation is performed with ANSYS Fluent in which a new water droplet erosion model, introduced in previous papers, is here included as a User Defined Function. The discussion provides useful information for prescribing the injector characteristics and the water washing procedure with the aim of minimizing the erosion risk.

In turbomachinery applications blade fouling represents a main cause of performance degradation. Among the different techniques currently available, online water washing is one of the most effective in removing deposit from the blades. Since this kind of washing is applied when the machine is close to design conditions, injected droplets are strongly accelerated when they reach the rotor blades and the understanding of their interaction with the blades is not straightforward. Moreover, undesirable phenomena like blades erosion or liquid film formation can occur. The present study aims at assessing droplets dragging from the injection system placed at the compressor inlet till the first stage rotor blades, with a focus on droplets impact locations, on the washing process and the associated risk of erosion. 3D numerical simulations of the whole compressor geometry (up to the first rotor stage) are performed by using Ansys Fluent to account for the asymmetric distribution of the sprays around of the machine struts, IGV and rotor blades. The simulations are carried out by adopting the k-ε realizable turbulence model with standard wall functions, coupled with the discretephase model to track injected droplets motion. Droplets-wall interaction is also accounted for by adopting the Stanton-Rutland model which define a droplet impact outcome depending on the impact conditions. The induced erosion is evaluated by adopting an erosion model previously developed by some of the authors and implemented in Fluent through the use of a User Defined Function (UDF). Two sets of simulations are performed, by considering the rotor still and rotating, representative of off-line and on-line water washing conditions, respectively. In the rotating simulation, the Multiple Reference Frame Model is used. The obtained results demonstrate that the washing process differs substantially between the fixed and the rotating case. Moreover, to quantify the water washing effectiveness and the erosion risk, new indices were introduced and computed for the main components of the machine. These indices can be considered as useful prescriptions in the optimization process of water washing systems.

Here, a new model for predicting the water droplet erosion (WDE) from online water washing in compressors is developed and its results are discussed in comparisons with a baseline model. The model development started with the analysis of existing WDE models as well as pertinent experimental campaigns aiming at extracting a comprehensive erosion model able to account for the influence of droplet velocity and diameter, impact angle, surface roughness and hardness on the erosion phenomena. The new approach is applied to the study of WDE for droplets of 100 μm diameter in a gas turbine compressor and the predictions are compared with those of the Springer model. Even if the two models (Springer’s and ours) return qualitatively similar results, the erosion prediction is strongly different as in Springer model the erosion rate is four time higher than in the present model. This difference is attributed to the oversimplification of Springer model that does not account for any of the parameters that are relevant for the water erosion such as surface hardness and roughness as well as for a different treatment of the incubation period. Furthermore, to analyze the effect of all the main quantities affecting WDE process, several simulations were performed. Droplets diameter is found to be the key parameter, in determining the erosion rate. Reducing the diameter one can reduce erosion from online water washing. Surface hardness is also very important, while surface roughness can be relevant depending on the time frame one is interested at.

Online water washing represents an operation strategy commonly used to reduce compressor performance deterioration due to blade fouling. Since this kind of washing is applied when the machine operates close to full load conditions, injected droplets are strongly accelerated and consequently impact the rotor blades at high velocity, thus inducing undesirable phenomena like erosion. Here we present a novel technique to study long-term water droplets erosion by also considering the geometry modification caused by droplets impacts. Two-phase unsteady numerical simulations were carried out, considering the injection of water droplets and their transport across the fluid flow in the first part of a real compressor, which is modelled in the region extending from the inlet to the rotor blades of the first stage. Simulations are performed on the whole machine to account for the asymmetric distribution of the spray injectors, the machine struts, IGV and rotor blades. The k-ε realizable turbulence model with standard wall functions was adopted and coupled with the discrete-phase model to track injected droplets motion. Droplets-wall interaction is modelled following the Stanton-Rutland approach aiming at detecting the effect of droplet impact (deposit, rebound, splashing), depending on the impact conditions. Moreover, a semi-empirical erosion model developed by the authors was implemented in ANSYS Fluent through a User Defined Function (UDF) to evaluate the erosion induced by the droplets injection. Material removal due to erosion is converted into nodal mesh displacement that is used by a secondary UDF to implement mesh morphing. The mesh modification is applied at discrete steps to reduce the computational load. This technique is adopted to account for the blade geometry modification due to water droplet erosion leading to performance losses. Moreover, an estimation of the compressor operating life before maintenance operations is given and the water washing efficiency during the whole life of the machine is evaluated by means of proper indices. At the end of the simulation workflow erosion phenomena are observed on all the compressor regions, especially in the rotor where erosion peaks are reached at the hub of the leading edge. The rotor blades wet surface was found to remain almost constant around the 50% during compressor operating life. Erosive phenomena were proved to evolve non linearly with time indicating the necessity to account for the mesh modification for an accurate prediction of the long-time process.