Numerical Investigations on Gas Ingestion Mechanism Based on Flow Instabilities in Rim Seal and Cooling Characteristics of Endwall in a 1.5-Stage Axial Turbine

The sealant flow and rim seal at the periphery of cavities formed between rotor and stator disks prevent the high-temperature gas from ingesting into disk cavities and reduce the use of secondary air bleeding from a compressor. The unsteady sealing performance of rim seal and the cooling characteristics of sealant flow on endwall of a 1.5-stage axial turbine are studied by solving the three-dimensional unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) equations via shear stress transfer (SST) turbulence model. Besides, mass transfer analogy is introduced to predict the sealant distribution which makes the numerical sealing effectiveness in front and aft cavities agree well with experimental data. The accuracy of the numerical method is verified. The sealing effectiveness in cavities and the flow field in rim seal clearance are analyzed, and the film cooling performance on endwall is explored. The results show that, compared with $Φ0$=0.0170, the area-averaged sealing effectiveness $εc$ on stator face is increased by 19.05% when $Φ0$=0.500 in the front cavity, and compared with $Φ0$=0.0042, the area-averaged sealing effectiveness $εc$ on stator face is increased by 9.82% when $Φ0$=0.096 in the aft cavity. The nonaxisymmetric pressure on the endwall near rim seal and Kelvin Helmholtz unstable vortices arise due to the circumferential velocity difference between main flow and cavity flow. The flow field in the rim seal clearance is jointly affected by these two factors. The flow pattern in the front rim seal clearance is mainly affected by unstable vortex while the flow pattern in the aft rim seal clearance depends on the circumferential pressure distribution. According to FFT, the most significant frequency of flow field variety is about 1200 Hz and 400 Hz (corresponding to two and six blades passing periods) in front and aft rim seals, respectively. The time-averaged cooling effectiveness increases with the increase of sealant flow on endwall and decreases gradually in the axial direction. The unsteady flow behavior of cooling effectiveness on endwall is also discussed in detail.