In-Scale and Up-Scale Full Turbine Stage Measurements as a Support for Small Turbine Units Development

Abstract

This paper summarizes experimental results of an aerodynamic performance study carried out on two full stage turbine test rigs. The stage under investigation was designed as a gas generator turbine for a small jet engine produced by PBS (the TJ100 engine with thrust of 1100 N and turbine tip diameter of 141 mm). The investigation was carried out alternatively on two full-stage test rigs (in-scale and scaled-up) integrated into a cool flow closed-loop wind tunnel located at VZLU. Firstly, the in-scale testing, focusing on an overall stage performance measured by means of a hydraulic dynamometer was arranged. Furthermore, some time-averaged flow field parameters in terms of total pressure, velocity and angles were acquired along the channel height upstream and downstream of the stage. The flow path authenticity and construction simplicity were strictly followed during the rig design phase and therefore original parts of the engine were mostly used. Then, the verification of results was performed with the stage scaled-up by factor 2.27. The overall stage performance was measured and compared with results of the in-scale measurement. Moreover, detail unsteady flow field measurement at the rotor exit was performed. Time-resolved data were analysed in order to study the influences of the stage load on the stage performance.