Investigation of resistance performance of anti-icing wave-plate separators for marine gas turbines intake system

Abstract

Abstract Due to their high power and efficiency, gas turbines are commonly used propulsion systems in hovercraft propulsion systems. In polar and cold marine environments, when a hovercraft rises, a significant number of droplets are generated on the water surface and are drawn into the gas turbine’s air intake with the cold air. This paper takes the structure of the original wave-plate separator as a reference and designs two structures: the rhombic anti-icing wave-plate separator (RAWS) and the streamlined anti-icing wave-plate separator (SAWS). Experimental and numerical simulation methods are employed to calculate the air intake resistance of the two structures at speeds ranging from 1 to 10 m/s. The results show that the K-ε standard enhanced wall function turbulent model is the closest to experimental measurements, with all calculated results having an error below 5%, demonstrating reliability. Compared to RAWS, the calculated total pressure loss for the SAWS structure decreases by 200 Pa under a designed air intake velocity of 7 m/s, representing a relative reduction of 40.8%. This provides a valuable reference for the design and resistance optimization of ship air intake anti-icing devices.