Effects of Geometry on Sealing Effectiveness of a Rim Seal

Abstract

A parametric study has been performed to find the effects of geometric parameters on sealing effectiveness of a rim seal, which is used to prevent the hot gas ingestion into the gas turbine component and to cool the turbine disk. The flow and temperature fields in the reference rim seal which was tested by Popović and Hodson have been investigated using three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations. The one-equation Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model has been selected as turbulence closure. Computational results for the area-averaged sealing effectiveness have been validated compared to the experimental data at the specified values of rim seal inlet velocities (Vc,in = 11.50m/s and 16.10m/s) and leakage fractions (0.50%, 0.75% and 1.00%). Best shape of the rim seal has been found among ten different shapes of the rim seal.