Flow Field Investigation in a Partial Admission Supersonic Turbine of LOX Booster Turbopump for Staged Combustion Cycle Based Rocket Engine

To obtain high specific work output with small mass flow rate, high-pressure ratios across the turbines are required in liquid rocket engine turbopumps. An impulse-type supersonic turbine can achieve this. To prevent losses due to low blade aspect ratio and issues related to manufacturing and industrial problems, partial admission configuration is adopted. Partial entry in a turbine is achieved by adjusting the extent of the nozzle arc of admission, leading to a strong unsteady circumferential asymmetry of flow parameters in the rotor passage, and degradation in efficiency. The pressing need of aerodynamic design of supersonic partial admission turbines to improve their efficiency demands an investigation of the viscous fluid dynamic of the turbine flow field. This work reports the aerothermodynamic steady state CFD analysis to obtain the performance parameters of a three-dimensional partial admission turbine for LOX booster turbopump in a semicryogenic engine using ANSYS^® CFX. The areas of steady loss have been identified through entropy generation contours, and the effects associated with aerodynamic loss structures like secondary flow, shock location, recirculation with additional pumping and mixing losses have been investigated for designed operating condition corresponding to 100% nominal thrust.