Through-flow modeling of single- and two-shaft gas turbines at wide operating range

Abstract

A program suite of coupled analysis tools for all components of industrial gas turbines developed by the authors was applied to off-design operation of single- and two-shaft gas turbines. The through-flow methods are based on a stream function approach and a finite element solution procedure. They include high-fidelity loss and deviation models with improved correlations. Advanced radial mixing and end-wall boundary layer models were applied to simulate 3D flow effects. For air-cooled turbine analysis, various types of cooling air injection were encompassed: film cooling, trailing edge injection and disc/end-wall coolant flow. Several improvements and extensions of the meridional solvers involved were employed. For axial compressor analysis, the original perfect gas treatment was replaced with the same real gas library that had already been implemented for flow computations in air-cooled expansion turbines and combustion modules. Ambient conditions with wet inflow of the compressor can now be taken into account. Compared to the previous model, better closure of the thermodynamic cycle can be achieved with the new approach. The meridional flow solver applied to the cooled turbine was upgraded and has become more stable for transonic outlet Mach numbers. With regard to the cooling flow supply, the codes offer greater freedom at the compressor extraction and turbine injection stations, allowing more realistic modeling of the secondary flow bifurcation. Off-design operating conditions and sensitivity studies for both single- and two-shaft gas turbines covering the entire range of interest are presented and are compared with experimental rig-engine data where available.