15th European Conference on Turbomachinery Fluid dynamics & Thermodynamics
Authors
Abstract
The aim of the present paper is to present an experimental facility which has been recently designed at the University of Florence in order to study the flow ingestion from the main annulus into the first stage stator-rotor cavity of a high-pressure turbine. The test rig has been designed as a single stage facility suitable to be run at cold flow conditions and equipped with interchangeable stator and rotor cover plates aiming to mimic different real engine rim seals as close as possible. Beside the usual concentration measurements performed through the use of CO2, the main innovation of the current test rig resides in the possibility to exploit optical accesses on the stator disk in order to obtain 2D effectiveness maps on both stator and rotor disc. Before performing such complex and innovative measurements proper commissioning tests have been performed with the intent to assess the correct operability of the experimental facility. The main intent of this paper is thus to show and properly explain the results obtained during the commissioning phase with particular focus on both the verification of the circumferential flow uniformity in the annulus and on the evaluation of the pressure radial profiles inside the cavity. Finally, some preliminary results obtained through the use of PSP will be reported to assess the feasibility of the optical measurements but also to demonstrate the importance of this approach in providing valuable data that can be used to validate CFD models.
ETC2023-263
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