Two-Phase Flow Phenomena in Gas Turbine Compressors with a Focus on Experimental Investigation of Trailing Edge Disintegration

Abstract

Two-phase flow in gas turbine compressors occurs, for example, at heavy rain flight condition or at high-fogging in stationary gas turbines. The liquid dynamic processes are independent of the application. An overview on the processes and their approach in literature is given. The focus of this study lies on the experimental investigation of the trailing edge disintegration. In the experiments, shadowgraphy is used to observe the disintegration of a single liquid rivulet with constant liquid mass flow rate at the edge of a thin plate at different air flow velocities. A two side view enables calculating droplet characteristics with high accuracy. The results show the asymptotic behavior of the ejected mean droplet diameters and the disintegration period. Furthermore, it gives a detailed insight into the droplet diameter distribution and the spreading of the droplets perpendicular to the air flow.