Purge and Mainstream Flow Interaction Control by Means of Platform Circumferential Contouring

摘要

This study presents an attempt to reduce the losses produced by the purge flow in a turbine stage by incorporating circumferential platform contouring. Two contours are proposed and compared against a baseline at different levels of swirl. The computational simulations were performed using a RANS three-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics code with the Shear Stress Transport turbulence model. The results of steady simulations demonstrate that for the first contour, when the flow is swirled to 50% of the rim speed, the purge flow exits the cavity with less cross flow. This in turn reduces the strength of the passage vortex. However, at swirl extremes of 0% and 100% the baseline has the best perfomance. The results show that a carefully desgined platform could reduce losses when the operating condition is in the proximity of 50% swirl.