Performance Analysis of an Annular Diffuser Under the Influence of a Gas Turbine Stage Exit Flow

Abstract

In this investigation the performance of a gas turbine exhaust diffuser subject to the outlet flow conditions of a turbine stage is evaluated. Towards that goal, a fully three-dimensional computational analysis has been performed where several turbine stage-exhaust diffuser configurations have been studied: a turbine stage with a shrouded rotor coupled to a diffuser with increasing divergence angle in the diffuser, and a turbine stage with an unshrouded rotor was also considered for the exhaust diffuser performance analysis. The large load of this investigation was evaluated using a steady state numerical analysis utilizing the "mixing plane" algorithm between the rotating rotor and stationary stator and diffuser rows. Finally, an unsteady analysis is performed on a turbine stage with an unsrhouded rotor coupled to an annular exhaust diffuser with an outer wall opening angle of 18°. It has been found that the over the tip leakage flow in the unshrouded rotor emerges as a swirling wall jet at the upper wall of the diffuser. When using the turbine with the shrouded rotor no wall jet was observed, making the flow at the entrance to the diffuser "quasi-uniform". The maximum opening angle of the diffuser upper wall achieved before the diffuser stalls was 12° with a static pressure recovery coefficient of Cp = 0.293. When the wall jet was observed, diffuser opening angles of 18° were possible with a static pressure recovery of Cp = 0.365. Consequently the wall jet energizes the diffuser upper wall boundary layer flow, allows for higher static pressure recovery levels and postpones diffuser stall. By altering the speed of the rotor the effect of the swirl in the turbine exit plane on the performance of the diffuser was explored. In the case where the wall jet was absent the diffuser recovers more pressure when the inlet is swirl-free. In this case the performance of the diffuser is independent on whether the turbine exit flow has co or counter swirl. In the presence of the wall jet, higher static pressure recovery was achieved when the wall jet was in co-swirl and the core flow at a slightly counter-swirl direction. This observation was more pronounced when larger diffuser upper wall opening angles were considered. In the unsteady analysis it was found that the wall jet axial velocity and swirl intensities pulsate with the relative position of the rotor to the stator. The wall jet is always co-swirling while the core flow is counter-swirling. Moreover, the wall jet does not penetrate the diffuser boundary layer as deeply as was observed in the steady state case and flow separation occurs at the upper endwall corner of the diffuser. Furthermore the performance of the diffuser shows a periodic variation that seems to depend on the relative position of the rotor to the stator. The averaged pressure recovery coefficient is Cp = 0.321 which is 11.0 % less than predicted in the steady state case.