A comprehensive investigation is presented related to leakage-induced blade excitation from shrouded vane segments found in industrial gas turbine compressors. The focus of the investigation is to explore the excitation mechanism acting on downstream rotor blades that stem from the particularly complex leakage flows around the hub inter-segment gaps.
The aerodynamic forces are here determined using 3D nonlinear time-marching CFD simulations. The employed computational model encompasses the two rear-most stages in an existing industrial gas turbine compressor. The inter-segment gap is implemented in the next-to-last stator, varying from no gap to twice the nominal gap size.
Obtained results indicate that the excitation induced by the inter-segment gap leakage flows is distinctly multi-harmonic and unexpectedly strong. As much as five times the excitation strength of upstream wakes was observed already for the nominal gap. The induced unsteady forces were found to derive from two different sources: (i) a large separation producing local forcing in the hub region; and (ii) circumferentially varying flow speed resulting in distributed forcing over the entire blade.
The findings imply that the excitation induced by inter-segment gap leakage flows can be a significant contributor to blade vibratory responses in the intermediate engine order range, and thereby add to the knowledge base related to blade dynamic integrity.
