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Numerical analysis of secondary airflow in a rotating cavity of a gas‐turbine at high operating points with vortex reducer implementation

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Abstract

Temperature and pressure ratios in gas turbines have grown over time to increase the performance and efficiency of the engine. This, in turn, has required improvements to the effectiveness of the secondary air system to enhance the cooling performance of critical components. Analysis of pressure losses in the secondary systems of aero gas turbines has identified a significant contribution in the bled airflow path through the compressor cavity between rotating disks. In this configuration, radial inflow usually occurs within an Ekman layer along the walls, while a free vortex condition appears in the cavity, generating losses and limiting transfer to the proximity of the wall. Nozzles acting as vortex reducers have shown promising performance under aeronautic conditions, although the complexity of the system limits the testing of popular theoretical models to low mass flows, based on a free vortex for a radially inward flow in a rotating cavity. For industrial applications, it is important to verify the behavior of these models at high operating points. Given that improving the performance of secondary air systems has increased in importance over time, the present study compares the one-dimensional theoretical models of Shvets and Owen with a three-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis verified against previous experimental values from literature. This approach allows a focus on different and more complex vortex reducer geometries while proving the usefulness of analytical techniques at high operating loads, underlying their limitations and allowing improvements to be proposed.

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Abbreviations

A :

Shvets constant

a :

Inner cavity radius (bore)

b :

Outer cavity radius (shroud)

C (1,1ε,2) :

Realizable k-ε constant

CMF :

Corrected Mass Flow

C n :

Shevchuk constant

C p :

Pressure coefficient

C w :

Non-dimensional mass flow

C w,rad :

Radial inflow parameter

CFD :

Computational Fluid Dynamics

DHI:

Doosan Heavy Industries

G k :

Mean velocity gradients

G b :

Buoyancy turbulence kinetic energy generation

i :

Inlet region

Y :

Owen variable

Y M :

Contribution of the fluctuating dilatation to dissipation rate

m rad :

Radial inflow mass flow rate

n :

1D model flow state constant

r :

Radius

r e :

Ekman layer distance to axis

ReΩ, :

Rotational Reynolds number

Rerad :

Radial Reynolds number

S :

Modulus of the mean rate-of-strain tensor

s :

Cavity width

SAS:

Secondary Air System

SA:

Spalart-Allmaras

U b :

Radial inlet velocity

V b :

Tangential inlet velocity

V r :

Radial velocity

V r,∞ :

Radial velocity at far field

V t :

Tangential velocity

V t,∞ :

Tangential velocity at far field

x :

Axis position

α :

Fluid thermal diffusivity

ϐ :

Cavity swirl ratio

λ :

Through flow parameter at the cavity inlet

ε ϐ :

Owen flow state constant

ρ :

Density

μ rad :

Radial inflow dynamic viscosity

σ (k,ε) :

Turbulent Prandtl related constants

τ w :

Tangential stresses

φ :

Cell-centered value of a scalar quantity

Ω :

Cavity angular velocity

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Acknowledgements

We wish to convey our utmost thanks to Pusan National University UTC and Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co., Ltd. for their technical support and permission to publish. This work was supported by the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) and the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE) of the Republic of Korea (No. 2013101010170A).

Funding

This work was supported by the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) and the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE) of the Republic of Korea (No. 2013101010170A).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan, South Korea

    Alberto Mucci, Foster Kwame Kholi, June Kee Min & Man Yeong Ha

  2. Safran SA CMH, Safran Paris-Saclay, Châteaufort, France

    Thierry Sibilli

  3. Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co., Ltd, Gyeongnam, South Korea

    Geon Hwan Cho

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  1. Alberto Mucci
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Correspondence to Alberto Mucci.

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Mucci, A., Kholi, F.K., Sibilli, T. et al. Numerical analysis of secondary airflow in a rotating cavity of a gas‐turbine at high operating points with vortex reducer implementation. Heat Mass Transfer 57, 1363–1378 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-021-03029-6

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