CFD Analysis of a Transient Rotor-Stator Axial Steam Turbine Stage

An axial steam turbine stage has both stationary and rotating components, which are coupled together in a CFD model by multiple frames of reference. There are three types of interface techniques available to exchange the information between the different frames of reference namely frozen rotor, stage, transient stator rotor. Both frozen rotor and stage interfaces are used in steady state analysis. The operation of axial turbine is inherently an unsteady process. The aerodynamic interaction between the rotating part and the stationary parts are the important contributor to the unsteadiness of the flow present in the turbine. Neither of the two interfaces implemented in the steady state CFD analysis is capable of predicting the unsteady effects resulting from the rotor-stator interaction due to their relative position change. The third type of interface, the transient stator-rotor interface, is available to simulate the fluid motion caused by the relative movement between a rotor and stationary components in axial turbine. Although enormous computer resources are needed for this modelling, it simulates real flow physics best of all, while steady or quasi-steady numerical approaches only approximate the real flow, because they neglect important effects of blade row interactions. The paper presents the CFD analysis carried out for an axial steam turbine stage with three different interface techniques and compares the results.