Numerical flow analysis for axial flow turbine

Some numerical flow analysis methods adopted in the gas turbine interactive design system, TDSYS, are described. In the TDSYS, a streamline curvature program for axisymmetric flows, quasi 3-D and fully 3-D time marching programs are used respectively for blade to blade flows and annular cascade flows. The streamline curvature method has some advantages in that it can include the effect of coolant mixing and choking flow conditions. Comparison of the experimental results with calculated results shows that the overall accuracy is determined more by the empirical correlations used for loss and deviation than by the numerical scheme. The time marching methods are the best choice for the analysis of turbine cascade flows because they can handle mixed subsonic-supersonic flows with automatic inclusion of shock waves in a single calculation. Some experimental results show that a time marching method can predict the airfoil surface Mach number distribution more accurately than a finite difference method. One weakpoint of the time marching methods is a long computer time; they usually require several times as much CPU time as other methods. But reductions in computer costs and improvements in numerical methods have made the quasi 3-D and fully 3-D time marching methods usable as design tools, and they are now used in TDSYS.