Impact of a multi-splitter vane configuration on the losses in a 1.5 turbine stage

Abstract

This study presents the influence of a multi-body architecture on the aerodynamic performance of a low-pressure stator. The novel design has been studied numerically in a one-and-a-half stage turbine by means of a three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes simulation. This numerical research compares the behaviour of low-pressure stator composed of two different vanes against a conventional axisymmetric single airfoil row. The computational fluid dynamics predictions were calibrated using experimental aerodynamic measurements. Loss generation mechanisms were evaluated for the conventional and multi-splitter cascades at nominal and off-design conditions. At design conditions, the novel stator and conventional designs show comparable performances. However, the performance is drastically reduced at off-design conditions due to the sensitivity of the structural vanes to flow incidence. This article addresses the performance limitation for the multi-splitter vane configuration and presents a new tool to analyse the non-uniform flow conditions associated with such novel design. This procedure should help researchers in addressing any non-axisymmetric design.

Keywords

turbine flow performance aerodynamic splitter airfoil numerical research aerodynamic loss

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