Reynolds and Mach Number Effects on the Flow in a Low-Pressure Turbine

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) of a Low-Pressure Turbine (LPT) Nozzle Guide Vane (NGV) for different Reynolds (Re) and Mach number (Ma). The analysis is based on a slice of the blade that may be representative of midspan flow where secondary flows, hub and shroud contributions are lower. In LPT, the variation of the Re during the mission of the gas turbine is a well-known effect since its value can vary of a factor four between take-off and cruise. This can induce performance variations due to various phenomena with among them suction side boundary layer separation on the aft portion of the blade due to an adverse pressure gradient and laminar boundary layer that can be maintained due to the relatively low Re in LPT. Similarly, the Ma in the LPT may vary depending on the thrust required from the gas turbine at the considered mission phase. The current paper investigates through numerical simulation the flow representative of a medium-sized LPT with three different Reynolds number Re = 175’000 (cruise), 280’000 (mid-level altitude) and 500’000 (take-off) keeping the same characteristic Mach number Ma = 0.2 and three different Mach number Ma = 0.2, 0.5 and 0.8 keeping the same Reynolds number Re = 280’000. The study focuses on different flow characteristics: pressure distribution around the blade, near-wall flow behavior and wake analysis. This includes the related generation of losses and the effect of Re and Ma on these different phenomena. A special emphasis is given to the generation of loss based on an entropy approach and the redistribution of mean kinetic energy towards turbulent kinetic energy. The results show that the increase of the Re has a destabilizing effect on potential separation while the increase of the Ma has a stabilizing effect. The peak in the TKE downstream of the blade is also moved upstream closer to the trailing edge when the Ma is increased.