Comparison of Flow Characteristics in Axial-Gap Seals for Close- and Wide-Spaced Turbine Stages

Abstract

3D unsteady computational fluid dynamics analyses were performed for both close-spaced and wide-spaced turbine stages with axial gap seals and a cavity. Turbine stages, with airfoil configurations similar to those previously studied at United Technologies Research Center (UTRC) and Arizona State University (ASU), were simulated for vane-blade spacing at 34 percent and 70 percent of the vane axial chord length, L. Three configurations were investigated, with the first one placing an axial gap rim seal at 17 percent L upstream of the blade for close-spaced stage, and the other two placing the axial gap seal at either 17 or 34 percent L upstream of the blade for the wide-spaced stage. The seal velocity ingestion characteristics were strongly dependent on axial location for the wide-spaced stage. The seals placed at equal distances upstream of the blade leading edge for the wide- and close-spaced stages had approximately the same average ingestion velocity characteristics. However, the ingestion velocity profiles for the wide-spaced stage were less influenced by vane wakes than for the close-spaced stage. The calculated variation of radial velocity in all gaps was consistent with previous tangential and radial velocity measurements in the seal gap measurements at the University of Aachen.