EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF FLOWPATH PROFILING ON SECONDARY FLOW LOSSES IN A TURBINE CONTROL STAGE

The numerically and experimentally investigated industrial steam turbine control stage is derived from a real design. Due to the production process and costs of the guide vanes for control stages of steam turbines the flowpath profiling is rotationally symmetric. However the combination of the two-dimensional shroud contour and the flow deflection in the guide vane results in a fully three-dimensional end wall contour having a strong influence on the secondary flow features in the turbine control stage. To obtain an improved profile for the nozzle shroud the reduction of the total pressure loss over the guide vanes is taken as an optimization criterion. The three-dimensional contour generates a diffuser flowpath between the suction and the pressure side of two guide vanes perpendicular to the main flow direction. This diffuser geometry affects the pressure distribution over the guide vane and therefore the formation mechanisms of secondary flows. For the experimental and numerical investigations a baseline shroud design and two additional profiled contours are analyzed in detail. The control stage test rig is operated with air and is capable to represent a wide range of operating conditions. The measurements show a considerable increase of the stage efficiency and power output. The effect of the flowpath profiling on the pressure distribution over the guide vane is clearly proved.