Combined effects of the inlet temperature and species distortion on hydrogen turbines aero-thermal performance

The composition of combusted gases in hydrogen turbines is different from that of the combustor cooling/dilution air, which introduces the non-uniformities in both the temperature and gas species at the turbine inlet. The concurrent effects of these two non-uniformities on the aero-thermal performance are investigated in this paper on hydrogen turbines. First knowledge is obtained that the species inlet distortion, on top of the hot streak, has an essential role in changing the blade thermal loading and increasing aerodynamic loss. The species concentrations promote the hot fluid to move towards the rotor pressure side and enhance the hot streak radial migration. Based on the numerical simulation, the maximum blade temperature is increased by 5% of inlet temperature variation (25K), on the pressure surface. Finally, the understandings of species distortion effects on hydrogen turbines are extended to a range of gas species concentrations with practical guidelines provided for hydrogen turbines cooling design.