Numerical Investigation of the Effect of Purge Flow on Aerodynamic Performance and Film Cooling Effectiveness on a Rotating Turbine With Non-Axisymmetric Endwall Contouring

The impact of the purge flow injection on aerodynamics and film cooling effectiveness of a high pressure turbine with non-axisymmetric endwall contouring has been numerically investigated. For this purpose, the geometry and boundary condition of a three-stage turbine at the Turbomachinery Performance and Flow Research Laboratory (TPFL), Texas A&M University is utilized. The turbine is being prepared to experimentally verify the results of the current numerical investigations. Its rotor includes non-axisymmetric endwall contouring on the first and second rotor row. In the preceding paper [1] it was shown that the endwall contouring of the second rotor contouring was able to substantially increase the turbine efficiency. To investigate the film cooling in conjunction with a purge flow injection, the first turbine rotor hub was contoured. Applying the same contouring method, however, different aerodynamic behavior of the first rotor was observed due to its immediate exposure to the purge flow injection. Consequently, the endwall design of the first rotor row required particular attention. The purge flow investigation involves the reference case without endwall contouring followed by the investigation with endwall contouring. The turbine used for this numerical investigation has two independent cooling loops. The first loop supplies coolant air to the stator-rotor gap, while the second loop provides cooling air to the downstream discrete film-cooling holes and blade tip cooling injection holes. For the current investigations the second loop is closed. Film cooling effectiveness is numerically simulated for rotor frequency of 2400 rpm. Efficiency, pressure, temperature and film cooling effectiveness distributions are determined for purge mass flow ratios of MFR = 0.5%, 1.0% and 2.0%. The small amount of the injected mass flow drastically changes the development of the secondary flow structure of the contoured first turbine row partially reversing the improvement tendency obtained from the endwall contouring.