Influence of Tip Geometry on Over Tip Leakage in Shrouded Rotor Blades With Cooling

Abstract

Gas turbine blades can be shrouded and designed with “knife edges” to reduce over tip leakages as an attempt to improve turbine stage efficiency. The smaller the tip gap is, the less the amount of leakage and consequently the higher the turbine efficiency. However a zero tip gap between the rotating blade and the stationary casing is simply not practical and not achievable for typical engine operations. One approach often consists of making the stationary shroud at the casing of abradable coating or of softer material in a honeycomb structure. In some cases, it is also common practice to pretrench the honeycomb structure to a certain height to reduce rubbing that could naturally occur with brand new hardware. This paper details the physical effects occurring between trenched and un-trenched configurations and quantifies the potential loss in turbine stage efficiency and power under such changes. Because front turbine stages are also cooled, this paper is also detailing the physical effects that are occurring between trenched and un-trenched configurations for a shrouded cooled turbine blade and the associated impact on performance. Since gas turbine are set to run at a specific gas mass flow, the differences between un-trenched and trenched for un-cooled and cooled are compared at the same given gas mass flow conditions. The paper concludes with key considerations for cooled turbine stage efficiency effects with and without trench.