Large-Eddy Simulations of Rim Seal Flow in a One-Stage Axial Turbine

The flow field in a one-stage axial flow turbine with 30 stator and 62 rotor blades including the wheel space is investigated by large-eddy simulation (LES). The Navier-Stokes equations are solved using a massively parallel finite-volume solver based on a Cartesian mesh with immersed boundaries. The strict conservation of mass, momentum, and energy is ensured by an efficient cut-cell/level-set ansatz, where a separate level-set solver describes the motion of the rotor. Both solvers use individual subsets of a shared Cartesian mesh, which they can adapt independently. The focus of the analysis is on the flow field inside the rotor stator cavity between the stator and rotor disks. Two cooling gas mass flow rates are investigated for the same rim seal geometry. First, the time averaged flow field for both simulations is compared, followed by a detailed investigation of the unsteady flow field. The results for the cooling effectiveness are compared to experimental data. Both cases show good agreement with experimental data. It is shown that for the lower cooling gas mass flux several of the wheel space’s acoustic waves are excited. This is not observed for the higher cooling gas mass flux. The excited waves lead to stable, i.e., bounded, fluctuations inside the wheel space and result in a significantly higher hot gas ingestion.