Compressible Subsonic Flow in Gas Turbine Annular Diffusers

Abstract

This work focuses on a numerical study of compressible subsonic flow in gas turbine annular diffusers. A diffuser is a diverging passage in which the flow is decelerated and the reduction in velocity head is converted to a rise in static pressure. Usually, for aircraft engines, and also for many industrial engines, the length is a crucial restriction, with the result that the diffuser shape should be at the shortest possible distance. However, with an increase in divergence angle, stall losses arising from boundary-layer separation become more significant and the pressure recovery coefficient is affected. Hence, it is important to study the divergence angle as a function of the airflow behavior. In the numerical solution, mass, momentum and energy equations are discretized and solved employing the finite volume method, and the turbulence effects are taken into account using the realizable k-( model with an enhanced wall treatment. The results showed that the annular diffuser performance is insensitive to Mach number for the divergence angle equal to 9°. On the other hand, the pressure recovery coefficient elevates as the Mach number increases for the divergence angle equal to 6°. The opposite phenomenon occurred for 12° diffuser due to the intense recirculation zones as the divergence angle increases.