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Aerodynamic Design and Performance of an Axial Flow Turbine for a Small

Turbofan Engine application

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 Proceedings of the ASME 2012 Gas Turbine India Conference
GTINDIA2012
December 1, 2012, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

GTINDIA2012-9589

PARAMETRIC STUDY OF AXIAL FLOW TURBINE FOR MEAN-LINE DESIGN AND

BLADE ELEMENTS

S.V.Ramana Murthy S. Kishore Kumar

Gas Turbine Research Estt. Gas Turbine Research Estt.
Bangalore, India Bangalore, India

ABSTRACT higher specific thrust but reduces turbine component’s

A parametric study is carried out for aerodynamic life. Hence design of single stage high energy efficient
performance of turbines including geometrical turbine with required life is a challenging job. Hence,
requirements, thermal requirements, mechanical a lot of research work is going to improve the turbine
integrity and manufacturing requirements. Life cycle efficiency in this regard [2, 3, 4 and 5]. In the mean
costs, product cycle time and weight are additional, line design, the meridional flow path, mean velocity
possible criteria during the parametric study. triangles, number of vanes and blades are obtained.
Preliminary design plays an important role in reaching Therefore parametric study of the mean line design
the final design of the turbine. Preliminary design satisfying the conflicting requirements of aerodynamic
steps calculate the mean dimensions of the machine. performance and thermal, structural and casting
The main step in the aerodynamic design which is requirements plays an important role in reaching the
instrumental in providing desired performance is blade final design of the turbine [6]. The parametric study
element profile generation. During the profile presented in the paper is a generalized design
generation, in addition to aerodynamic performance, procedure which can be used for the stator and rotor
additional constraints for castability, structural blades of both high pressure and low pressure
requirements and thermal requirements need to be turbines.
considered. Thus profile generation is a trade-off Profile generation is the important step in
between contradicting requirements of aerodynamic aerodynamic design in which the profiles are
performance, structural and thermal performance. generated to satisfy the contradicting aerodynamic,
structural and thermal requirements. Standard
aerofoils like the NACA series aerofoils, British
INTRODUCTION profiles like C4 and T6 and Russian axial flow turbine
In general, military aero gas turbine engine high blade atlas have been used in the past to generate
pressure and low pressure turbines are of single stage profiles [7]. In this method, base profiles are already
configuration with a view of light weight, low initial determined and these are suitably modified to meet the
and maintenance cost due to reduction in number of specific requirements of the design like inlet angle,
components and expensive air cooled aerofoils [1]. outlet angle etc. The standard aerofoils are defined as
Though single stage offers compactness and a camber line with a thickness distribution imposed on
simplicity, it results in high turbine stage work loading it to obtain the suction and the pressure surfaces.
and expansion ratios. This leads to reduction in the However, the flow past a profile is felt by the suction
turbine efficiency which in-turn results in higher and pressure surfaces only and therefore it is desirable
Specific Fuel Consumption (SFC) of the engine. to have a direct control over the flow surfaces rather
Lower SFC can be achieved by higher overall engine than the camber line.
pressure ratio, Turbine Entry Temperatures (TET) and Kuzmin proposed a method in which the aerofoils
higher component efficiencies. Higher TET’s leads to are constructed using circular arcs and parabolic

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 curves [8]. In this method, a specific aerofoil is efficiency
defined by using a leading edge circle, trailing edge
circle, a parabolic arc for the portion of the suction
surface from the leading edge to throat and a single SUBSCRIPTS
circular arc for the pressure side. However in this 0 Inlet parameter
method there is no continuity of the radius of 1 Parameter after vane
curvature of the defined profiles with the leading edge 2 Outlet parameter
and trailing edge circles. The inlet and outlet wedge x axial
angles which specify portions of the leading and t tangential
trailing edge cannot be mentioned as input. In this h hub
method the throat with is an output, hence to achieve t tip
the required throat width lot of iteration to be carried n Vane
out. This method is laborious because so many trials r Rotor Blade
are needed to arrive at a profile which gives the
desired performance. AXIAL FLOW TURBINE MEAN LINE DESIGN
Various commercial packages are also available A computer code is developed for the mean line
for profile generation of turbine blades like BladeGen design of an axial flow turbine to achieve high turbine
and VISTA from ANSYS [9], AutoBlade from efficiency by considering aerofoil cooling, castablity,
NUMECA [10]. However, the algorithms used in structural aspects and weight. The inputs for the
these commercial packages are not clearly known. design code are turbine inlet mass flow (m), inlet total
Utilization of these commercial packages to satisfy all pressure (P0), Turbine Entry Temperature (TET),
the specific requirements of the design is not possible. power to be produced, turbine spool speed (rpm),
The eleven parameter method as proposed by stage loading (ψ) / mean radius (Rm), flow coefficient
Pritchard [11] does not provide sufficient flexibility in (φ), exit swirl angle (α3), and total to total isentropic
the aerofoil parameters like maximum thickness and efficiency (η).
location of maximum thickness to meet the above In the code, the mean radius is calculated from the
requirements. Therefore, profiles are generated by a stage loading or vice-versa. Using the input
modified eleven parameter method using Bezier parameters the meridional flow path, mean velocity
curves [12] developed by the authors to generate triangles, stress function and reaction are calculated.
aerofoils which meet the requirements. The losses are estimated using the empirical
correlations given in the references [13, 14, and 15].
NOMENCLATURE Incidence losses are estimated using the correlations
given in the reference [16]. The optimum space-chord
Stress function ratio and hence the number of blades are estimated
AN2
(annulus area * rpm2) using the correlation as explained in [13]. The
M Mach number corresponding aerofoil geometric characteristics are
Ma Axial Mach number obtained based on the method explained in reference
Mr Relative Mach Number [17]. The code is updated with the in-house database
α Absolute angle and design experience. The code also can estimate the
b Relative angle creep life using the Larson-Miller Parameter for the
m Turbine Inlet mass flow selected materials. A first estimate of the weight of the
P Total Pressure module is calculated in the code using the empirical
R Radius method outlined in the reference [18]. Castablity
RLE Leading Edge radius requirements in terms of the trailing edge radius and
rpm Turbine spool speed minimum wall thickness are taken into consideration.
RTE Trailing Edge radius The design code takes into consideration the structural
T Total Temperature requirements in terms of area taper ratio, Stress
Tmax Maximum thickness function and AN2 (annulus area * rpm2) value. The
C Chord code takes into account the cooling requirements in
x axial distance terms of blade maximum thickness to chord ratio
ΔT Stage Temperature drop (Tmax/c) value.
φ flow coefficient, The output of the code contains the meridional
λ Degree of Reaction flow path, number of blades and vanes, mean velocity
ψ stage loading triangles, blade and vane mean section geometric
η Total to Total isentropic parameters, stress function, AN2 value, Tmax/c and

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 approximate weight of the module. In the present PARAMETRIC STUDY OF THE MEAN LINE
work, for case study, the design of a military aero gas DESIGN OF A TURBINE
turbine’s axial flow low pressure turbine is considered. A parametric study of the mean line design
The meridional flow path and the non-dimensional of an axial flow turbine is carried out to understand
velocity triangles are shown in the Figures 1 and 2. the effect of various parameters. The code is modified
From the velocity triangles, it can be inferred that the to evaluate the effect of the input parameters (a) stage
turbine under consideration is a transonic turbine with loading (b) flow coefficient (c) exit swirl angle. One
the rotor exit relative Mach number of 0.95 with a of the parameters is held constant and then other two
relative rotor inlet flow angle of 49° and relative rotor parameters are varied. The code provides a quick and
outlet flow angle of 41°. The angles are measured with vast database of the variations of the output
respect to the engine axis. parameters with respect to the parametric study
variables.
Variations of turbine efficiency, stress function
(AN2 value) and weight with respect to stage loading
and flow coefficient is obtained. Figure 3 shows the
variation of the turbine efficiency with stage loading
for different flow coefficients in the range of 0.95 –
1.04 at a constant exit swirl angle at the turbine stage
exit.

0.87

0.865

0.95,6
0.86 0.97,6

Figure 1. Meridional Flow path 0.855

0.99,6
1.01,6
Efficiency

1.03,6

0.85

0.845

0.84

0.835

0.83
1.5 1.55 1.6 1.65 1.7 1.75 1.8 1.85
Stage Loading
Figure 3 – Turbine Efficiency Vs Stage Loading
for different flow coefficients at constant swirl angle
Figure 2. Mean Velocity Triangle
It is clearly seen that for all flow coefficients, as
The input condition of the Low Pressure the stage loading increases, the turbine efficiency
Turbine on which the parametric study is conducted is decreases. This is due to the effect of increased exit
shown in table 1. Mach number and deflection.
Figure 4 shows the variation of turbine efficiency
Table 1 with flow coefficients for different stage loadings in
S.No Parameter Value the range of 1.3 – 1.8 at a constant swirl angle at the
1 Inlet Total Temperature (T0in) 1385 K turbine stage exit.
2 Inlet Total Pressure (P0in) 802 kPa
3 Inlet Mass flow 52.7 kg/s
4 Rotational Speed 13040 rpm

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 0.94 Weight also follows a similar trend to that of the AN2
1.817
1.757 value.
0.92 1.672 1.10E+08
1.593
1.519
1.428
0.9
1.346 1.00E+08
Efficiency

0.88
9.00E+07
1.817,6
0.86 1.728,6

AN2
1.645,6
8.00E+07
0.84 1.618,6

7.00E+07
0.82

0.8 6.00E+07
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
Flow Coefficient
Figure 4 – Turbine Efficiency Vs Flow 5.00E+07
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
Coefficient for different stage loadings at constant Flow Coefficient
swirl angle Figure 6 – AN2 Vs Flow Coefficient for different
stage loadings at constant swirl angle
It is seen that for each stage loading, there is an
optimum flow coefficient at which the turbine From the above parametric study, it can be
efficiency is maximum. This is because when the flow inferred that there are conflicting requirements in the
coefficient increases the exit Mach number increases selection of the flow coefficient and the stage loading.
and the exit angle of the flow decreases, which have AN2 value decreases with increasing flow coefficient.
opposite influence on the losses. Thus it is favorable to have a higher flow coefficient
Figure 5 shows the variation of the AN2 value for structural reasons. However, as the flow coefficient
with stage loading for different flow coefficients in the increases the turbine efficiency decreases, which
range of 0.8 – 1 at a constant swirl angle at the turbine makes a higher flow coefficient undesirable from
stage exit. aerodynamic considerations.
AN2 value increases with increasing stage loading
5.80E+07
and the turbine efficiency decreases with increasing
5.70E+07 stage loading. However, the selection of a lower stage
5.60E+07
loading will result in an increase in the number of
stages, which will result in a increase in the overall
5.50E+07 engine size and weight. Therefore, optimization needs
to be done in the selection of stage loading and the
AN2

5.40E+07
flow coefficient which will meet the conflicting
5.30E+07
0.8,6
0.84,6
requirements and provide the best design from both
5.20E+07
0.90,6 structural and aerodynamic considerations. So it is
0.96,6
better to have a flow coefficient closer to the optimum
1.0,6
5.10E+07 value with respect to the stage loading and exit swirl
5.00E+07
angle.
1.5 1.55 1.6 1.65 1.7 1.75 1.8 1.85
Stage Loading
AEROFOIL PROFILE GENERATION BY
Figure 5 – AN2 Vs Stage Loading for different ELEVEN PARAMETER METHOD
flow coefficients at constant swirl angle In a eleven parameter method proposed by
Pritchard [11] the profiles at different radii of the
It is seen that as stage loading increases, the AN2 blade are generated by specifying the axial and
value also increases. tangential chord(Cx and Ct), throat, unguided turning,
Figure 6 shows the variation of the AN2 value leading and trailing edge radii(RLE and RTE), inlet
with flow coefficient for different stage loadings at a and exit blade angles, and inlet and outlet wedge
constant swirl angle. It is seen that as the flow angles. The eleven input parameters translate into five
coefficient increases, the AN2 value decreases because fixed points on the aerofoil surface which result from:
lower area is required to pass the same mass flow. locating the leading edge and trailing edge circles,

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 determining the suction surface and pressure surface amount of flexibility in the profile parameters like the
tangency points and fixing the throat. Then maximum thickness and the location of the maximum
mathematical functions are used to connect these five thickness. A flexibility in the maximum thickness
points. Third order polynomials are used to connect value and its location in a turbine aerofoil helps
the Leading edge suction surface tangent point to the accommodate internal passages required for blade
throat point and Leading edge pressure surface tangent cooling, thus enabling the thermal requirements to be
point to the trailing edge pressure surface tangent satisfied. Also, since the area of the aerofoil generated
point. However, the eleven parameter method does not by the Bezier method is higher, it improves the
provide any control on the maximum thickness flexural properties of the turbine blade. The leading
(Tmax) and the location of the maximum thickness edge is modified into elliptical shape from the circular
(Tmax/c) which are very significant structural and shape described in the 11 parameter method which
thermal requirements. This method specifies the reduces the local acceleration.
leading edge as a circle which causes local The aerofoils which are generated by Bezier
acceleration. In the eleven parameter method, once the curves are analyzed for the flow in terms of surface
five key points are fixed using the input, the shape of Mach number distribution and flow exit angle using 2-
the profile is fixed and there is no flexibility in D Euler blade to blade code developed in-house based
changing the profile between these points. on reference [21]. This code is developed based on a
finite volume, time-marching technique. These
profiles are analyzed for different inlet incidence
AEROFOIL PROFILE GENERATION BY angles and for different exit Mach numbers to obtain
BEZIER CURVE METHOD the profile performance for both the design and off-
Bezier curves are basically smooth curves which design conditions.
are drawn between two points using two or more A comparative study between the profiles
control points which guide the path of the curve. The generated using the 11 parameter method and the
slope of the curve at the end points is defined by the modified method using Bezier curves is carried out.
control points. Since the control points are The profiles generated with both methods are shown
independent of one another, the relative position of in Figure 7.
these control points with respect to the end points only
determines the shape of the curve. Therefore any t
number of curves can be fitted between the endpoints
by changing the relative position of the control points
[12]. The method of aerofoil profile generation using
Bezier curves modifies the way of defining the curves
connecting the five points and defines the profiles at
different radii like the 11 parameter method. Thus, the
advantages of the 11 parameter method are retained. In ax
both the 11 parameter method and the modified
method, the profiles are generated from scratch based
on the flow conditions at different radii obtained from
a hub to tip analysis code developed using the Stream-
Line Curvature (SLC) method. The profiles which are
generated by Bezier curves show better aerodynamic Figure 7. Profiles generated using the 11 parameter
performance [19, 20]. The performance of the profiles method (Magenta) and Bezier curves (Blue) profile
generated using the Bezier method is validated by 2D
cascade tests and annular cascade tests.
The code modifying the 11 parameter method of
profile generation is developed using third order
Bezier curves for the portion of the aerofoil
connecting the Leading edge tangent points and the
throat point on the suction side and a single third order
Bezier for the pressure side from the Leading edge
tangent point to the trailing edge tangent points. The
shape of these Bezier curves are controlled using the
relative position of the control point with respect to
the end points on the profile, thus providing a good

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 1.2

Figure 8 shows the surface Mach number 1.1

distribution for the two profiles generated by 11
1
parameter method and Bezier curve.
1.1 0.9

Surface Mach number

1 0.8

0.9 0.7

0.8 0.6
Surface Mach number

0.5
0.7
Bezier Profile
0.4
0.6 11 parameter profile
0.3
0.5
0.2 0.63,0.61
0.4
0.5,0.5
0.1
0.3 0.7,0.7
0
0.2
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
X/C
0.1
Figure 9. Surface Mach number distribution of
0 different Bezier curve profiles
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
X/C

The Surface Mach number distribution shows the

Figure 8. Surface Mach number distribution of amount of flexibility available in the Mach number
the 11 parameter method and Bezier curves distribution using the Bezier control points. The
movement of control points such that obtain a better
It can be clearly seen from the Mach number surface Mach number distribution which satisfies the
distribution that the Bezier profile provides smoother thermal and structural requirements also. Figure 10
acceleration than the 11 parameter method because the shows the aerofoil profiles for different movement of
in the case of the Bezier profile there are fewer Mach control points.
number undulations which represents that there are
fewer local flow decelerations.
It is evident from the figure that the profile
generated using the Bezier method has a higher value
t
of maximum thickness which is a requirement from
structural and thermal requirement. In the case of the
11 parameter method, for a particular set of inputs the
thickness value is fixed, however in the Bezier curve
method, any desirable value of thickness and its
location can be obtained by changing the relative ax
location of the control points. Thus, it is evident that
the method using Bezier curve is capable of meeting
the casting, structural and thermal requirements as
explained earlier.
A parametric study of the influence of the Bezier Figure 10. Aerofoils with different control points
control points on the surface Mach number
distribution is carried out. Figure 9 shows the surface CONCLUSIONS
Mach number distribution for different combinations A multi disciplinary approach has been attempted
of the Bezier control points. for the preliminary design of a turbine stage.
Preliminary design plays an important role in reaching
the actual design of the turbine. Hence it is important
that all the key parameters are finalized in preliminary
design and fine-tuned to achieve the required

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 performance in the final design. Hence a parametric 11. Pritchard, L.J; “ An Eleven Parameter Axial
study is a pre-requisite to any optimization method. Turbine Airfoil Geometry Model” ASME
This parametric study helps in reducing the number of paper 85-GT-219
design iterations by aiding in the proper determination 12. Hartmut Prautzsch, Wolfgang Boehm, Marco
of the key parameters in the preliminary design stage. Paluszny; “Bezier and B-spline Techniques”
The utilization of Bezier curves gives better flexibility ISBN 3-540-43761-4, Springer Verlag, 2002.
in meeting the structural, thermal and manufacturing 13. Kacker, S.C.; and Okapuu, U.; “ A Mean Line
requirements of the turbine vane and blade. Prediction method for Axial Flow Turbine
Efficiency, “ASME paper 81-GT-58, 1981.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 14. Craig, H.R.M., Cox, H.J.A., “ Performance
The authors are thankful to the Director, Estimation of Axial Flow Turbines”,
GTRE for giving permission to publish this work. Proceedings of Institution of Mechanical
Engineers, 1970-71.
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