Experimental Investigation of the Noise Generation and Propagation for Different Turning Mid Turbine Frame Setups in a Two-Stage Two-Spool Test Turbine

The paper deals with the investigation of the noise generation in the two-stage two-spool test turbine located at the Institute for Thermal Turbomachinery and Machine Dynamics (ITTM) at Graz University of Technology. The rig went into operation within the EU-project DREAM, where the target was to investigate the aerodynamics of interturbine flow ducts. The facility is a continuously operating cold-flow open-circuit plant which is driven by pressurized air. The flow path contains a transonic turbine stage (HP) followed by a low pressure turbine stage consisting of a turning mid turbine frame and a counter-rotating LP-rotor.Downstream of the low pressure turbine a measurement section is instrumented with acoustic sensors. The acquisition system consists of a fully circumferentially traversable microphone array located at the outer casing, while at the hub endwall a stationary flush mounted microphone is placed as a reference.Additionally a new embedded concept for the turning mid turbine frame was tested. Here, two zero-lift splitters were located into the vane passage.In order to evaluate the noise emission of the turbine the facility was instrumented with a new acoustic measurement setup which is presented in the paper. Therefore the emitted sound pressure level and the microphones signal spectra are compared for both configurations. The acoustic field was characterized by azimuthal modes by means of a microphone array traversed over 360 degrees.In the multisplitter configuration, the propagating modes due to the HP turbine are found suppressed by 5 dB, while the increase in amplitude of the modes related to the LP turbine is negligible. The overall effect is a reduction of the acoustic emission for the turning mid turbine frame with embedded design.Copyright © 2013 by ASME