Numerical analysis of erosion of the rotor labyrinth seal in a geothermal turbine

摘要

Excessive erosion of the labyrinth seal of a 110 MW geothermal turbine has been investi- gated. This study used computational fluid dynamics(CFD)and aims to identify one cause of erosion and a possible solution for substantially reducing it. The predictions were based upon a numerical calculation using a CFD model of the labyrinth seal with a water/steam flow containing hard solid particles and solved with a commercial CFD code: Fluent V5.0. The results confirmed the existence of flow conditions that play a major role in the rotor labyrinth seal erosion.