TSINGHUA SOENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

ISSN 1007-0214 17/21 pp488 -491

Volume 6, Number 5, December 2001

Oscillating Disturbance Propagation in Passages of Multi-Stage

Hydrogen Turbine*

Department of Thermal Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

Abstract: The propagati on of osci lIating disturbances with vari GUS frequercies in rrulti-stage turbine
passages in a rocket is anal yzed using the oscillating fluid mechanics theorem and the pararretric polynomial
method. The results show that osci lIating disturbances can be rapidly dissipated when the disturbance occurs at
the inlet except for very high-frequercy oscill ation such as 50 kHz. Dangerous low-frequercy oscillations occur
at the outlet. The effects of the flow pararreter variations on the osci lIating disturbance propagation are also
studied. The anal ysis will faci litate safe operation of the whde rocket system.

Key words: flow induced vibrati on; oscill ati ng fluid rrechanics theorem; hydrogen turbine; parametri c
polyrorn aI rrethod

(2) Calculate the 3-D oscillating flow field in

Introduction the multi-stage turbine passage by solving the 3-D
Flow induced vibrations are a very important am plitude equations for varIOUS 0 scillating
problem in rocket systems, because t h ey may disturbance frequencies, different inlet pressures,
cause serious damage to the systems[13]. The inlet temperatures, and rotation speeds.
theory of flo w in du ced vibr at ion in rock et flo w
pas sag es needs to be developed. T he com plex gas
1 Theory and Analysis
system discussed in this paper includes the T he 3-D unsteady N -S equations can be
combustor, turbine, supplemental combustor, transformed into the amplitude equations in the
etc. T he characteristics of the flow induced cylindrical coordinate sy stem using 0 scillating fluid
vibration in the whole s ys tern are analyzed by firs t mechanics theorem[5-7].
studying each element of the system. T his paper Am plitude continuity equation:
studies the characteristics of flow induced vibration i uP + (PW) + (7JW) 0 ( 1)
in a m ul ti -s tag e h ydr ogen turbine for oscillat ing Amplitude rJ},mentum eq{}ations:
disturbances, for various flow parameter values iuPW + pw. w+ P( w w+
and oscillating frequencies. These results describe w w) + G~ - p + 1\ IT ( 2)
the oscillating pressure distribution not only along Amplitude~nergy equatio~: !1
the turbine blades, but also along the flow i uP + (w p) + (w Ii) +
direction. T he analysis is based on the oscillating %[p( w) + P(t1 w)] = (LY - 1) ell (3)
fluid mechanics theorem and the parametric P, p, and wLAre steady-sLfute flow parameters. In
polynomial method[4]. other words, they are flow parameters w hen there
The analytical pro cedure is as follow s: is no oscillating pressure propagation in the
(1) Calculate the 3-D steady fl ow field in the passage. P,p, and W are co rrespond ing amplitudes
multi-stage turbine pas sage;
of oscillating parameters. IT is the viscous stress
tensor amplitude, G is amplitude of vector sum ~
Received: 2000-D6-29 centripetal acceleration and Coriolis acceleration. ell
* Supported by the State Key Developments Plan Project
is anplitude of dissipation function, Y is the
of China ( No. G 1999022304)
adiabatic coefficient.
LIU Hong (~IJ if..) et a! Occlllating Disturbance Propagation in Passages if . 489

The amplitude equatio ns are solved using the

W= Q X n = 37 X 66 X 2rr --;- 60 = 256 (7)
parametric polynomial method. T he following is
where Wrepresents the basic 0 scillating frequency,
the polynomial form for the flow amplitude
Q is the rotational speed and n is the rotor blade
parameters:
number. The inlet velocity, W, was 10.1 m/ s
qi = !A
k=
1
ur m" cP k
( 4) with an 0 scillating amplitude of 0.5 m/ s, and - rr
is the initial phase angle.
where i= 1,2,3,4, and 5 correspond to the P, wr, T he unsteady pressure along the blade surface
W, wz,
andp. was measured as the maximum and minimum
Substituting the parametric polynomial Eq. pressures at a period. T he calculated results fit
( 4) ~nton/he Eqs. ( 1)5 i :) rives 2 ~ well with the experimental data. Figures 2 and 3
show that the numerical method is sufficiently
" A . ' A ' - "A."dAik
L... L... ik ik - L... L... ik dz + A~lfdAik
ik d 2
i= 1 k= 1 i= 1 k= 1 Z accurate for engineering application.
( 5) 160 ---PmJUal
---.Pmm,gj
where j = 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 correspond to the
----.....- Pm31,~p
continuity equation, momentum equation, and 120
--II- Pmi.D.~xp
-...14iIII'1IIIIIIIIIooooo__......
engrgy equation, respectively. Aik is the parametric
polynomial coefficient to be determined. The other
,,, Iff
param eters such as A ik ; A ik ; and A ik are related
only to the stead y res ul t and ar e all know n aft er 40
the steady result is obtained. Thus, the partial
different ial equations, Eqs. ( 1) - ( 3), can be o
transformed into the ordinary differential equation, 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
Relative chord
Eq. (5). Once the polynomial coefficient A ik is
Fig. 2 Maximum and minimum unsteady pressures in
obtained, the amplitude parameters P, wr, wz, the pressure section at the mean blade location
W, and p for the flow field can also be obtained.
2 Experimental Demonstration of 120 ---PmaJl.~al

the Numerical Method - - - - - Pmlll,ca1

.
90 ----rA- Pmn..,r,][P
The results of the analysis and the numerical C':!l - . - Pmill,exP
method are compared to experimental results for a "-
-..
~
60
turbine operating in unsteady conditions at
Tsinghua University. T he stator blade profile is 30
shown in Fig. 1. The machine had 37 stator
blades. The stator height was 9 cm. The inlet 0
pressure was 120 Pa (manometer pressure) and the 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6
back pressure was 25 Pa (manometer pressure). Relativechord
The inlet total temperature was 280 K. Fig. 3 Maximum and minimum unsteady pressures in
the suction section at the mean blade location
o
3 Oscillating Flow Propagation Cha-
-20
racteristic in Multi-Stage Turbine
~ Passage for Different Disturbance
Frequencies
-40
With the oscillating fluid mechanics theorem, the
steady flow equations must be solved before
solving the amplitude equations. T he 3-D viscous
20 40 60
xlmm flow field for a multi-stage turbine was obtained by
solving the 3-D steady N -S equations, Fig. 4. The
Fig. 1 Stator blade profile
oscillating flo w field was calculated for six
The oscillating inlet flow was: frequencies, /1= 100 Hz, /2= 500 Hz, /3= 1 kHz,
W = 10. 1 + 0.5 ei(W- 11) ( 6) /4= 5 kHz, /5= 10 kHz, and/6= 50 kHz. The
 490 Tsinghua Science and Technology , December 200 1, 6(5): 488 - 491

inlet disturbance amplitude was assumed to be 1% pressure reached a peak at the end of the first stage
of the design pressure. and in the middle of the third stage. The peak
value was about three times the outlet disturbance
press ur fo r this m ulti-stage tur
e, dow nstream b i n c ,

oscillations should be avoided. For high

frequencies, the oscillation pressure dissipated
rapidly.
11Hz
---- .. 5
0.6
--10
,J
.I,, .'
.. 50 1,
iI
I'

.
I,
l:l:I 0.4 II
II
i l

:s.....
0.. I ,
II
I
I
,
, "
I 1I , '
I
I "
,

~ 0.2
1 1

Fig. 4 Velocity distribution in the section of turbine

blades at the mean location
0.0
The oscillating pressure distribution on the
blade surface along the turbine stage for various o 234 5
Turbine blade row
frequencies is shown in Figs. 5 -8. The results for
dis turbances at the inlet are show n in Figs. 5 - 6. Fig. 6 Oscillating pressure distribution along the blade
rows for inlet disturbances
The results for disturbances at the 0 utlet are
shown in Figs. 7 - 8. The results show that the 0.8
oscillating pressure dissipates rapidly along the
flow directio n at lower frequencies (Fig. 6) when 0.6 - _.. --
the disturbance occurs at the inlet. So if there is no
strong oscillation source, the turbine will not be
excited by the oscillation. At higher frequencies,
the oscillation pressure mcreases gradually, 0.2
reaches a maxim urn then decreases at the end of
the first stage. However, the maximum amplitude 0.0
is less than 0.3 M Pa, which is about 1. 5% of the o 2 3 4 5
inlet pressure. Bu t if the dis turbance pres sure Turbine blade row
amplitude is large, such as 3% of the design inlet Fig. 7 Oscillating pressure distribution along the blade
pressure, the oscillation press ure w ill exceed the rows for outlet disturbances
safety limit of 5% of the design pressure. A strong
0.5 J/Hz
oscillation occurred at a frequency of 50 kHz, but
- - - 5
such high frequencies are rare in actual practical 0.4 --10
projects. II I " , '_'-50
cod 0.3 ~J
I , '-I
Fo r low frequency disturbance at the outlet, e,
I,\
., -,"
\ I
the conditions were quite different. The oscillating ~
..... 0.2
e:- ~
"
0.1
~,
,
0.20
0.0

11Hz
o 234 5
0.16 Turbine blade row
~ - - ... _. tOO
::t
....... --500 Fig. 8 Oscillating pressure distribution along the blade
~
0.12 ....... 1000 rows for outlet disturbances

4 Effect of Flow Parameter Varia-

0.08
0 2 3 4 5 tion on the Oscillating Flow
Turbine blade row
Propagation Characteristic
Fig. 5 Oscillating pressure distribution along the
blade rows for inlet disturbances T he effect of flow parameter variations on the
LIU Hong (~IJ if..) et al: Oscillating Disturbance Propagation in Passages if . 491

oscillating flow propagation characteristics was oscillating flow. The three inlet pressures are
studied for various inlet pressures, temperatures, greater than, equal to and less than the design
and rotational speeds. T he three inlet pressures Pin pressure. For this turbine, the oscillating pressure
were 18, 21, and 22 M Pa, the three inlet am plitude is small for the design conditions (Fig.
temperatures Tin were 800, 845, and 900 x, and 9). The effect of tern perature is show n in Fig. 10.
the three rotational speeds were nl= 25 000 r/min, T he oscillating pressure am plitude first decreases
n2 = 30 000 r/min, and ns> 35 000 r/min. The and then Increases as the inlet temperature is
calculated results (Figs. 9 - 11) show the strong increased, which suggests an optimal inlet
effects of the inlet pressure variation on the temperature, the design tern perature. The
0.25 oscillating pressure amplitude dissipated quickly
with decreasing rotational speed as shown in
Fig. 11.
CIS 0.20
~
~ Pin'MPa S Conel usions
- - ..- _.18
~ 0.15 T he oscillating fluid mechanics theorem and the
--21
....'u22 parametric polynomial method were used to
analyze the oscillating disturbance propagation
0.10
char act er is tics in a multi-s tag e turbine 0 f a rocket.
o 2 3 5 T he results dem onstrate that the flow induced
Turbine blade row
vibrations in this turbine passage are not serious in
Fig. 9 Oscillating pressure distribution along the m 0 st case s , ex c ep t for 10 we r fre qu en c ies w it h
blade rows for various inlet pressures
disturbance at the ou tlet.

0.35 ~n/K References

- - - - _. 800
[1] Priem R J, Guentert D C. Combustion instability
0.30 --845
....... 900 limits det ermined by a nonliner t heo ry and 0 ne-
dimension model. NASA, TN D-1409.
~ 0.25
:E [2] Timothy W Swaffied. Com put ation of unsteady
-..
~ 0.20 supersonic quasi--One dim ensional viscous-inviscid
interact ing internal flow fields. AIAA, 1993, 31( 2) :
0.15
404 - 408.
0.10 [3] Liang Shen-Min. Shock oscillation in a two-
0 234 5
dimensional flexible-wall n ozle- AIAA, 1995, 33
Turbine blade row
( 8): 1538 - 1541 .
Fig. 10 Oscillating pressure distribution along the [4] Chen Zuoyi. Flow Induced V ihra tio n- Beijing:
blade rows for various inlet temperatures Tsinghua University Press, 1998. (in Chinese)
[5] Chen Zuoyi, Jiang Zikang, Sun Xiji u- Oscillating
0.24
Fluid Mechanics. Beijing: Hydroelect ric Press,
1998. (in Chinese)
0.20
[6] Chen Zuoyi, Liu Hong, Wang Jihong. Three-
cod
~ dimensional viscous flow numerical analysis of st all
::E 0.16 r/min flu tter in station tur bine blades. Proceeding of
-.
~ - - - 25000 CSEE, 1998, 19( 3): 18 - 30. (in Chinese)
0.12 - - 300CXl
[7] Chen Z uoyi, W u Xiaofeng. To determine unsteady
.......,... 35 0CXl
aerodynamics force on steam turbine blades by
0.08 oscillating fluid mechanics method. Power
0 2 3 4 5 Engineering, 1999, 19( 3): 8 -13. (in Chinese)
Turbine blade row
Fig. 11 Oscillating pressure distribution along the
blade rows for various inlet rotation speeds