Unsteady Aerodynamics on Multi-Passage LP Last Stage Induced by Flow Separation Under Low Load Flow

Abstract

With the rapid development of renewable energy generation, the requirement for operational flexibility of power plants has increased. This has led to steam turbine operating frequently at low load flow conditions. This paper focuses on the investigation of unsteady aerodynamic excitation in the last stage of LP under low load flow, which was conducted by assuming one single passage, to provide detailed flow information for optimization design. We present a numerical investigation of unsteady pressure forces on Multi-passage LP last blade rows caused by flow separation under low load flow. The flow field of the turbine was calculated by transient 3D computational fluid dynamic (ANSYS CFX16.0). The results indicate the vortex strength induced by high incidence angle under low load flow having the characteristic of spatial non-uniformity and time non-uniformity. We found that the unsteady pressure forces on the rotor are significantly influenced by the separation vortex and have different phase pressure fluctuation between neighboring two rotor blades. The variation in the forces indicates that the neighboring rotor blades experience a load imbalance at every time step which may results in oscillation in the last long moving blades. In particular, the tip vortex plays a crucial part in unsteady aerodynamics.