PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT OF AIRCRAFT ENGINE AXIAL FLOW TURBINE USING THEORETICAL, EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL APPROACHES – A REVIEW

Abstract

Axial flow turbine is widely used in gas turbines for expansion of hot gases, emerging from the combustion chamber. The turbine expands the flow and generates power to drive the compressor and fan. The designing needs to accommodate high speeds and altitudes, as well as reduce losses in order to improve stage efficiency and overall efficiency. Some of the problems are tip leakage flow, high thermal loads on the blades, airfoil erosion, etc. Using public domain literature, a comprehensive review was carried out to get detailed understanding of the working and new techniques used to overcome losses of axial flow turbine. The present paper is a summary of literature of axial flow turbine over the span of three decades. The review covers Theoretical, Experimental and Numerical approaches, used in the literature for research on secondary flows, tip leakage losses, heat transfer coefficients, etc. This paper uses three broad classifications, namely aerodynamic performance, heat transfer and blade tip. This paper aims to aid researchers to understand the advancements in the field of aircraft engine axial flow turbines.