Effect of tip injection on performance of highly loaded helium compressor in high-temperature gas-cooled reactor

Abstract

As one of the representatives of the fourth-generation advanced nuclear reactor, the continuous development and application of high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) technology has promoted the technical progress of the whole nuclear energy field. Helium compressor is one of the core components of HTGR. The highly loaded helium compressor effectively solves the disadvantages of the low single-stage pressure ratio and numerous stages of the traditional helium compressor. But it also brings a more complex tip-leakage flow. Tip injection, which is an active control method, can effectively control the tip clearance leakage and inhibit the development of the leakage vortex. This paper analyses the effects of axial deflection angle and injection pitch angle on the rotor performance of a highly loaded helium compressor via numerical simulation and validates them via experiment. Results show that the leakage vortex can be blown to the pressure surface of the adjacent blade by proper axial deflection angle to reduce the vorticity of the leakage vortex. The injection pitch angle directly affects the intensity of the leakage vortex during its initiation and development. When the axial deflection angle is 60° and the injection pitch angle is 20°, the adiabatic compression efficiency and total pressure ratio increase by 0.554 % and 0.160 % respectively under the design condition, and by 0.822 % and 0.162 % respectively under near-stall conditions.