Paper 23: An Investigation of the Losses in the Rotor of a Radial Flow Gas Turbine at Zero Incidence under Conditions of Steady Flow

The performance of a radial flow turbine, operating on compressed air, is measured over a range of pressure ratio and speed. Separate tests on the nozzle assembly alone enable the rotor performance to be separated from the overall characteristics. In particular, the conditions at each pressure ratio for which the nozzle exit whirl velocity is equal to the rotor tip speed may be deduced. Also, it is possible to evaluate the enthalpy ‘loss’ in the rotor, that is, the difference between the specific enthalpy drop actually occurring in the rotor and its isentropic value.An attempt is then made to relate this loss with the relative velocities within the rotor passages as predicted by inviscid, two-dimensional analytical techniques. The method developed by Stanitz and co-workers has been programmed to analyse the rotor internal fluid flow properties in the blade-to-blade plane for the conditions of zero incidence. The region investigated does not include the whole rotor, but extends from a boundary upstream of ...