The turbines used in rocket-engine applications are often partial-admission turbines, meaning that the flow enters the rotor over only a portion of the annulus. These turbines have been traditionally analyzed, however, assuming full-admission characteristics. This assumption enables the simulation of only a portion of the 360-deg annulus with periodic boundary conditions applied in the circumferential direction. Whereas this traditional approach to simulating the flow in partial-admission turbines significantly reduces the computational requirements, the accuracy of the solutions has not been evaluated or compared to partial-admission data. In the current investigation, both full-admission and partial-admission three-dimensional unsteady Navier‐Stokes simulations were performed fo ra partial-admission turbine designed and tested at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. The results indicate that the partial-admission nature of the turbine should be included in simulations to properly predict the performance and flow unsteadiness of the turbine.
[1]
Daniel J. Dorney,et al.
Simulations of the unsteady flow through the Fastrac Supersonic Turbine
,
2000
.
[2]
Douglas L. Sondak,et al.
Unsteady Flow in a Supersonic Turbine with Variable Specific Heats
,
2002
.
[3]
H. Lomax,et al.
Thin-layer approximation and algebraic model for separated turbulent flows
,
1978
.
[4]
Wei Shyy,et al.
Shape optimization of supersonic turbines using global approximation methods
,
2002
.
[5]
Alok Majumdar,et al.
Flow Simulation in Secondary Flow Passages of a Rocket Engine Turbopump
,
1998
.
[6]
P. Roe.
Approximate Riemann Solvers, Parameter Vectors, and Difference Schemes
,
1997
.
[7]
J. H. Horlock.
Axial Flow Turbines
,
1966
.
[8]
Wei Shyy,et al.
Shape Optimization of Supersonic Turbines Using Response Surface and Neural Network Methods
,
2001
.
[9]
Daniel J. Dorney,et al.
A Study of the Effects of Tip Clearance in a Supersonic Turbine
,
2000
.