Session: 35-02 High-Fidelity CFD

Paper Number: 82171

82171 - High-Fidelity CFD Analysis of In-Serviced Shrouded High-Pressure Turbine Rotor Blades 

In-service deterioration can lead to undesired shape variations on high-pressure turbine rotor blades. This can have a significant impact on efficiency, power generation and component life. Loss of power production from the high-pressure turbine rotor will lead to engine over-throttling to compensate for the lower performance. This will in turn worsen the operating conditions and ultimately reduce the life of the component. The aim of this study has been to provide a high-fidelity flow simulation of in-serviced shrouded High-Pressure Turbine (HPT) blades of a modern Jet Engine. Shape variations effects on the aerodynamic performance of several HPT blades with different number of in-service hours have been investigated. In order to establish a digital model of the shape variation, a reverse engineering procedure is carried out, to come up with a parametrized definition of each blade’s variations from nominal including any observable damage. The investigation is conducted by means of an in-house, full 3D steady-state RANS simulation of the flow around a series of damaged rotor blade geometries, which are obtained through high-resolution GOM scans. The analysis shows that the aerodynamic performance of the HPT rotor blades under investigation is primarily sensitive to shroud damage, which is found to account for efficiency losses often greater than 3%, and for more than 80% of the total performance loss. It is found that a secondary role on efficiency can be attributed to the blade shape deviations. A highly linear correlation is found between HPT stage efficiency and a combination of shroud damage parameters.

Presenting Author: Mario Carta University of Cagliari

Presenting Author Biography: I am a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at Cagliari University in Italy. I study aerodynamics, computational fluid dynamics and robust design optimization methods. I am an currently an intern in Rolls-Royce plc where I conduct research on numerical methods for high-fidelity aero-thermal analysis and optimization under uncertainty. My case study is the high-pressure turbine stage of a modern jet engine.

Authors:

Mario Carta University of Cagliari
Shahrokh Shahpar Rolls-Royce plc
Tiziano Ghisu University of Cagliari