Proceedings of ASME Turbo Expo 2012

GT2012
June 11-15, 2012, Copenhagen, Denmark

GT2012-6
RIM SEAL INGESTION IN A TURBINE STAGE
FROM 360-DEGREE TIME-DEPENDENT NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS

Cheng-Zhang Wang
Pratt & Whitney
East Hartford, CT USA 06108

Senthil Prasad Mathiyalagan

InfoTech Enterprises Limited
Bangalore, India

Bruce V. Johnson
Pratt & Whitney/Independent Contractor
Manchester, CT, USA 06040

J. Axel Glahn, David F. Cloud

Pratt & Whitney
East Hartford, CT USA 06108

ABSTRACT
Numerical simulations of turbine rim seal experiments are
conducted with a time-dependent, 360-degree CFD model of
the complete turbine stage with a rim seal and cavity. The
turbine stage has 22 vanes and 28 blades and is modeled with a
uniform flow upstream of the vane inlet, a pressure condition
downstream of the blades and three coolant flow conditions
previously employed during experiments at Arizona State
University. The simulations show the pressure fields
downstream of the vanes and upstream of the blades interacting
to form a complex pressure pattern above the rim seal.
Circumferential distributions of 15 and 17 sets of ingress and
egress velocities flow through the rim seal at the two modest
coolant flow rate conditions. These flow distributions rotate at
wheel speed and are not associated with the numbers of blades
or vanes. The seal velocity distribution for a high coolant flow
rate with little or no ingestion into the stator wall boundary
layer is associated with the blade pressure field. These pressure
field characteristics and the rim seal ingress/egress pattern
provide new insight to the physics of rim seal ingestion. Flow
patterns within the rim cavity have large cells that rotate in the
wheel direction at a slightly slower speed. These secondary
flows are similar to structures noted in previous a 360-degree
model and large sector models but not obtained in a single
blade or vane sector model with periodic boundary condition at
sector boundaries. The predictions of pressure profiles, sealing
effectiveness and cavity velocity components are compared
with experimental data.

r, R
Rhub
Re
Revax
s
U
Uhub
Vax
Vx
Vr
Vt
Wcool
x

radial coordinate, mm
radial coordinate of hub, mm
disk rotational Reynolds number,
b2/
main gas path flow Reynolds number, = VaxCvax/
axial gap between rotor and stator disks, mm
wheel speed at r = b, *b, m/s
Hub wheel speed, *Rhub, m/s
mixed-mean axial velocity of main air in annulus
local axial velocity, m/s
local radial velocity, m/s
local tangential velocity, m/s
coolant flow rate, kg/s
axial coordinate, mm
circumferential coordinate, deg
sealing effectiveness or coolant concentration ratio,
the ratio of local CO2 concentration to the seeded CO2
concentration at purge flow inlet
dynamic viscosity, Ns/m2
density, kg/m3
rotor disk angular speed, rad/s

INTRODUCTION
Gas turbine pressure ratios and turbine inlet temperatures
are increased to obtain improved aircraft engine efficiency and
power performance. The engine durability challenges are
greater because the coolant air temperature at the compressor
exit is higher with the increased cycle pressure ratio. The
potential cycle performance improvement associated with the
increased temperature and pressure can only be obtained if
engine durability can be maintained with higher temperature
materials or with improved cooling technology. Significant
turbine engine performance improvements over the last 60
years have been obtained with improved cooling technology,
resulting in more effective use of the cooling air.
In state-of-the-art aircraft and electric power generation gas
turbine engines, the high-pressure turbine disks are purged with
coolant air through the wheel space. This air reduces the heat
flux to the disk and prevents the ingress of hot mainstream gas

NOMENCLATURE
b
outer radius of disk cavity, 191.2 mm
Cvax
vane axial chord length, mm
Cp
dimensionless pressure coefficient, (p - pavg) / q
Cw
dimensionless cooling flow rate, Wcool /( *Rhub)
p
local static pressure, Pa
pavg
average static pressure across pitch, Pa
q
velocity head of fluid at rotor hub speed,
Uhub2/2, Pa

Copyright 2012 by ASME

BACKGROUND
A 1994 survey by Johnson et al. [4] identified the
following mechanisms as important for turbine rim seal
ingestion:
Disk pumping
3-D geometry in the rim seal region
Asymmetries in the rim seal geometry
Periodic vane/blade pressure field (The pressure field
between the vane trailing edge and the blade leading
edge is now recognized as more complex than
previously characterized by half-stage simulations).
Turbulent transport in the platform/outer cavity region
Flow entrainment
Since then,
3-D, time-dependent flow structure within the diskstator cavity
has been shown to be a factor in the effectiveness of stator and
rotor cooling and must be added to the list of important factors
influencing turbine rim seal ingestion.
Turbine stages are generally designed with unequal
numbers of vanes and blades to prevent the occurrence of a
coupled vibration resonance. Thus, the peak and depression
pressure locations are not periodic with the vane or blade gap
width. For example, with a typical turbine stage containing 44
vanes and 58 blades [5], the expected instantaneous periodicity
is a half a revolution. With the unequal number of blades and
vanes, the mechanical resonance problems are minimized, but
the accurate simulation of rim seal ingestion is more complex.
Numerous 3-D steady-state and time-dependent CFD
studies with one or two airfoils from each half-stage have been
conducted since 2000, e.g., [6] and references cited therein.
Most of the steady-state simulations have under-predicted the
ingested gas-path flow. The time-dependent simulations have
improved the prediction of the cooling effectiveness but do not
include the effect of the interaction of the 3-D, time-dependent
flow structure within the cavity on cooling effectiveness. The
following review of previous rim cavity ingestion numerical
simulations is limited to those that had time-dependent, 360degree or large-sector CFD models.
Cao et al. [7] simulated the flow in a steam turbine rim
cavity with a pressure boundary condition at the gas-path
radius. The influence of any periodic pressure field in the gas
path was not imposed at this location. The cavity was
configured such that a four-lobed pattern of secondary cells
occurred within the cavity and rotated at less than rotor speed,
much like ball bearings in a race. The results demonstrated that
multi-lobed cell structure can be simulated with a disk cavity
with the cell structure related to the disk geometry. The
simulation results were also favorably compared to unsteady
pressure measurements on the stationary wall.
Jakoby et al. [8] investigated the gas-path ingestion
through an axial gap rim seal and flow within a rim cavity of a
16 vane, 32 blade rim seal rig for one flow condition. The
cavity had a ratio of cavity inner radius to outer radius at about
0.3. Instead of modeling the airfoils, gas-path boundary

into the wheel space between the rotating disk and the adjacent
stationary casing. As the gas path temperatures increase, the
rim seal cooling flow requirements increase if higher metal
temperatures are not allowed. With increased cooling flow to
prevent rim seal ingestion, the associated penalties to power
output and cycle efficiency from the ideal cycle also increase.
As a result, the turbine rim seal region has been identified as
one critical part of the secondary flow system where improved
technology is likely to result in improved power output and
cycle performance.
The effectiveness of the disk cooling and the life of the
rotor strongly depend on turbine rim sealing. For an aircraft
engine, high-pressure-turbine rotor, a modest increase in hot
mainstream gas concentration in the wheel space is sufficient to
decrease the life of the rotor. Considerable effort has been
devoted (1970 - present) to developing thermal design methods
for turbine rim seals that incorporate rig data and turbine
aerodynamic design data, e.g. [1, 2] and the references cited
therein. The methods have become intricate as the physical
phenomena associated with the ingestion process have become
better understood with analysis of experimental data and
numerical simulation of the turbine half-stages including rim
seals and the disk-stator cavity. The measured [e.g., 2] or
calculated half-stage pressure distributions downstream of the
seal or upstream of the blade [e.g., 1] are used in the ingestion
models. However, the fluid mechanics of rim seal ingestion in
the cooled stages of modern gas turbines is a complex, 3-D,
time-dependent phenomena and full understanding has been
elusive.
A turbine rim seal technology program was conducted with
rim seal ingestion experiments at Arizona State University to
obtain data for several seal configurations and with computer
simulations. The previous computer simulations, e.g. [3], have
included time-dependent CFD simulations with vane, blade and
rim cavity sector models and steady-state CFD simulations for
vane or blade half stages with the rim cavity. While each of the
previous CFD simulations provided insight into the rim seal
ingestion mechanism, the results generally under-predicted the
amount of gas-path ingestion that occurred in the experiments.
The objective of this study is to develop insight into the
physics of the rim seal ingestion process with a future objective
of minimizing the coolant required to reduce ingestion to an
acceptable level with geometric variations. In this paper, results
from 360-degree, time-dependent CFD simulations of
experiments with the 22-vane/28-blade Arizona State
University turbine rim seal rig are presented and compared with
test data. Results from the simulations will show the complex
pressure pattern above the rim seal caused by the interactions of
vane wakes and blade bow waves. In addition and reported for
the first time in the rim seal literature, unexpected ingress and
egress flow characteristics in rim seal gap will be documented.
The secondary flow patterns in the rim cavity will be shown to
be compatible with previous 360 deg cavity numerical
simulations.

Copyright 2012 by ASME

conditions for the cavity were prescribed with stationary

velocity vector and pressure fields. A three-lobed structure was
observed within the cavity with significant pressure variations
between lobes. The instantaneous concentration of coolant in
the center plane of the cavity varied considerably, with higher
concentrations within the lobes than between the lobes. Details
of the flow path from the gas-path to the lobes were not
discussed.
Boudet et al. [9] modeled the flow in disk cavities for three
cases: (a) low-speed uniform flow in an annular gas-path, (b)
high-speed uniform flow surrounding a more complex disk
cavity with a narrow cavity width, and (c) a turbine rim seal rig
with vanes and blades, a chute seal and a small rim cavity. The
low speed flow condition (a) produced small ingestion cells
inside the annular inner radius. The high speed flow condition
(b) produced 11 not-quite-periodic cells in the narrow section of
the cavity. Sector model CFD calculations (c) showed notperiodic ingestion locations that were attributed to the relative
location of the vanes and blades.
Julien et al. [5] simulated the time-dependent flow
characteristics of a turbine rim seal test rig with 44 vanes, 58
blades, a U-shaped seal and rim cavity using a 74 deg sector
model with 9 vanes and 12 blades. The inner cavity inner and
outer radii were 0.892 and 0.975 times the gas-path hub radius.
For a no purge flow condition, six cells and pressure waves
occurred and the authors implied that about 30 cells would be
expected in the full annulus. For a low purge flow, the same
number of cells occurred. The pressure gradients decreased as
the purge flow was increased.
Boutet-Blais et al. [10] simulated a radial-overlap rim seal
with a shallow cavity adjacent to an annular duct without
airfoils. Eleven cells formed in a 180-deg sector with an
estimated 22 cells for the full annulus. The cells formed
outward of an annular slot for coolant injection. For the rig
configuration of [10], the number of cells formed with constant
density fluid was approximately the same as formed with a low
temperature coolant.
Tentative conclusions from this review are (i) that the
number of cells is more closely associated with the rim cavity
geometry than the number of airfoils and (ii) the cell spacing
may be self-adjusting to form near-circular cells. This is
compatible with the shape of recirculation cells behind bluff
bodies and other flow geometries.
To the authors knowledge, to date there has been no public
presentation of a 360-degree, time-dependent simulation of a
full turbine stage including interactions between the airfoils, the
rim seal and the rim cavity.

Modification II
P

24

C, T, P

PP

Blade
(28)

Vane
(22)

Main air flow

C, P (r= 144)
R= 141.2

b= 191.2

R= 182.7

R= 195.7

R= 218.6

R= 227.8

R= 153.2

C, P (r= 187)
C, P (r= 177)
C, P (r= 173)
C, P (r= 162)

C, P (r= 110)

R= 186.6

2.5

4.5

C, P (r= 81)

s=
16.5
C, P (r= 45)
T

r=19.1

C, P

Purge air flow

All dimensions are in mm

Figure 1. Arizona State University rig geometry and

instrumentation locations (C: concentration tap, P: pressure
probe, T: thermocouple), from [3]; all dimensions in mm.

in this paper. The turbine stage rig consists of 22 partial-height,

full-length turning vanes and 28 partial-height, cut-back blades
(Figure 3), an axially-overlapping, radial-clearance rim seal,
and an insert installed on cavity static wall inboard. The insert
creates an axial gap seal which connects the rim cavity and
the cavity inner to the insert. Rotation-induced ingestion, e.g.,
[4], can occur from the outer cavity into the inner cavity if the
purge flow rate is insufficient. The previous time-dependent
simulation [3] of this turbine rim seal rig was performed with
one full-length blade and one vane from a 1/25th sector of the
full annulus and with periodic boundary conditions.
Figure 2 shows the 360-degree 3D CFD model which
simulates the full annulus and wheel space cavity with the same
dimensions in the experimental rig except the axial gap at the
root of the blade trailing edge and the blade tip clearances.
These two features are not expected to impact the ingestion and
flow characteristics in the blade upstream rim cavity and are
dropped in the CFD model for simplicity. The casing is
attached to the blade and rotated with the blade at the same
speed. The axial distance from the blade trailing edge to the
CFD domain outlet has been set at twice the chord length of the
full-length blade. The stationary grid portion of the model
includes 22 vanes and the rotating grid portion includes 28

EXPERIMENTAL CONFIGURATION AND CFD

MODEL
The Arizona State University turbine rim seal rig has been
used to investigate flow characteristics when main gas path air
ingests into rim cavity under a series of geometry variations in
rim seal shape and cavity aspect ratio [3]. Figure 1 shows the
rig rim cavity configuration and dimensions simulated in CFD

Copyright 2012 by ASME

blades, rim seal gap and the whole disk cavity. The grid sliding
interface between the vane and blade is set at the vane platform
22 vanes
Outlet
trailing edge in the gas-path annulus. In the CFD grid
28 blades
coordinate system, the gas-path axial velocity is negative, the
radial velocity outward is positive, and the tangential velocity
Main
gas-path in the rotor rotation direction is positive.
A grid generation program, ICEM (V11), was used to
inflow
generate the structured mesh of about 18 million hexahedral
rim seal
elements. Figure 3 presents grid distributions in several regions,
including vanes and blades, rim seal and rim cavity. The
Inner seal
stationary mesh and rotating mesh were created separately and
merged while importing the mesh into commercial FLUENT
solver. The y-plus values were checked for use of wall function
model. In the main gas path, each vane and blade sector has 84
and 66 cells in the circumferential direction, respectively; this
Purge flow
leads to the same element count 1848 for 360-degree at the
sliding interface of the stationary and rotating grids. Thirty cells
have been placed in the radial direction of the gas path and ten
cells in the rim seal gap.
Figure 2. The 360-degree CFD model with 28 blade and 22
CFD boundary conditions were defined with rig test
vane segments.
conditions. A mass flow rate boundary condition (1.086 m 3/s
and Revax =1.12x105) was applied at the gas-path domain inlet,
rotor speed was set at 2400 RPM (Re = 5.86x105), the gas path
exit was set as outlet pressure, and the purge flow was seeded
with CO2 at 4% concentration. Three purge flow rates have
been simulated, with Cw = 1574, 3148 and 8656. The Fluent
(version 6.3.26) pressure-based segregated solver with the kShearStress Transport (SST) turbulence model was selected.
The time dependent solution used second-order spatial and
first-order temporal discretization. A fixed time step 1.3528
x10-05 sec was used with 66 time steps per blade pitch rotation
and 1848 time steps per disc revolution. About six inner
iterations were needed for each time step for the specified
convergence criteria. These simulations required a large amount
of computing resources. For example, the Cw=1574 case took
six weeks of continuous calculations with 44 dedicated
processors of Intel Xeon X5660 (12M Cache, 2.80 GHz, 6.40
GT/s Intel QPI) on parallel computing clusters.
Grid sensitivity studies were carried out with several
meshes using frozen rotor model assumption at the low purge
flow condition (Cw=1574). As the mesh was refined from a 12
million element model to an 18 million element model, only
minor differences were observed; the gas-path circumferential
pressure profiles near the vane trailing edge stayed similar and
the peak-to-trough p/pavg increased by 5% at outer shroud and
by 3% at platform; no major differences were observed in flow
characteristics in the gas path, rim seal and cavity regions. The
18 million element model was used in all subsequent timedependent simulations.
A steady state solution was first obtained with a frozenrotor approach before turning on the time-dependent
calculation. A comprehensive set of metrics was adopted to
check convergence, including dozens of monitor points
Figure 3. CFD mesh display.
throughout the domain for pressure, velocity components, and
sealing effectiveness and quantities such as torque balance and
Sliding interface

84 Elements

66 Elements

30 Elements

Copyright 2012 by ASME

(a)

Static Pressure at Monitor 2

B

92,600

Circumferential Pressure Distribution

at 1 mm downstream of vane trailing edge

1.0

25

15

92,500

0.8

Expt - outer shroud

CFD - outer shroud

10

92,450

28

Expt - platform

0.6

92,400

CFD - platform

20

92,350

0.4

92,300

Cp

Static Pressure (pascal)

92,550

0.2

92,250

0.0

92,200
92,150

-0.2

92,100
3

3.2

3.4

3.6

3.8

-0.4

Flow time in revolution

-0.6
0

Figure 4. Time dependent pressure at a monitor in gas path

10

15

20

25

30

35

deg)

(b)

Circumferential Pressure Distribution

at 1 mm
downstream of vane trailing edge
CFD pressure
distributions
at various time moments on hub 1 mm
1.0
downstream of vane trailing edge

Ratios of ingestion flow level to purge flow level

2.5

Expt - outer shroud

0.8 -5000

CFD - outer shroud

5.32
Exptrevs.
- platform

2.0

0.4

Cp

1.5
rim seal gap

1.0

Pressures - Pamb (pascal)

0.6 -5200

inner axial gap

-0.4

0.0
4

5.32 revs. + 2 blade pitchs

0.2

-0.2

5.32 revs. + 1 blade pitch

Pamb = 98000 Pascals

-5600
-5800

0.0

0.5

CFDrevs.
- platform
5.32
+ half blade pitch

-5400

-6000
-6200

-6400

-0.6 -6600
0
0

time in revolution

10

10

15

15

20

20

25

25

30 30

35 35

deg)
7

Figure 6. Gas path pressure profiles at outer shroud and on the

vane platform near the vane trailing edges for the low purge flow
Cw=1574 test condition.

Figure 5. Ingestion flow rates monitored at rim seal gap and

inner-axial-seal gap at low purge flow condition, Cw=1574.

rim cavity. After about one revolution, the ingestion flow rate
begins to fluctuate around 1.9 times the purge flow rate and this
mean value stays at the same level until 5.32 revolutions, when
the calculation was terminated. This high ingestion flow rate
resulted in a low sealing effectiveness as discussed later. At the
inner-axial-gap seal location, the ingestion flow rate is
computed by integrating the radial-inward mass flux through
the gap. The mean value of this ingestion flow rate is much
lower than the ingestion through the rim seal, about 12% of the
purge flow rate.
Figure 6a shows main gas path circumferential pressure
distributions at 1 mm downstream of vane trailing edge
locations, on the outer shroud and on the platform. Note two
vane pitches of circumferential angles are presented to facilitate
reading. The experimental pressure data are the time-averaged
results. The CFD pressure distributions are obtained from an
instantaneous FLUENT solution at 5.32 revolution flow time of

integrated ingestion flow rates at rim seal and inner axial gap
seal. Figure 4 presents the time-dependent pressure at a monitor
location at gas path mid span near the trailing edge of a vane.
Note the pressure peak frequency is 28 per revolution,
ascribed to the 28 blades. The pressure fluctuations are not the
same for each blade-pitch time period due to the significant
unsteadiness added by the seal and cavity geometry and flows,
as well as the unsteadiness caused by separation behind the
cut-back blade (Fig. 3). This unsteadiness may be related to
the flow field that causes the ingress and egress distribution
through the seal region.
Figure 5 shows, for the low purge flow Cw = 1574
condition, the time dependent ingestion flow rates at the rim
seal gap and inner-axial-gap seal, normalized by the purge flow
rate. At the rim seal gap location, the ingestion flow rate from
the gas path is computed by integrating the mass flux into the

Copyright 2012 by ASME

trend is reversed in the high purge flow case. For Cw=8656, the
pressure loss across the inner-axial-gap seal becomes as great
as 100 Pa. For Cw=8656, the high pressure at the ID of the
inner cavity is caused by the stagnation of the coolant flow near
the centerline that is not significant for the two lower purge
flow cases. The velocity head of the purge flow with Cw=8656
case is 297 Pa, about 7.5 times and 30 times larger than those
for Cw=3148 and Cw=1574 conditions, respectively.
The cavity pressure distributions on the inner side of the
vane platform are different for three flow conditions. However,
the gas-path pressure patterns have 22 low pressures and 22
high pressures regions for in the gas path for each coolant flow
rate. For Cw=8656, the rim cavity pressure variations in both
circumferential and radial directions are smaller, attributed to
the high purge flow into the trough forward of the blade. For
Cw= 3148, low pressure regions alternate with high pressure
regions in the circumferential direction. Two of the high
pressure regions have double high pressure peaks. For
Cw=1574, a larger pressure variation in circumferential
direction and a more unevenly distributed pressure pattern is
shown. For all three conditions, smaller circumferential
pressure variations occur in the inner cavity.
The sealing effectiveness or coolant-concentration ratio
contours at the x/s=0.83 plane for the three flow conditions are
shown in Figure 7c. As expected, the sealing effectiveness is
zero in the gas path, outside of the vane platform. Both the
inner cavity and rim cavity are well purged for Cw=8656. A
few shallow-penetration locations show ingestion occurring
from the rim seal into the rim cavity sealing region. For the
Cw=3148 condition, the inner cavity is well purged near the
cavity ID. However, appreciable amount of gas path air is
ingested into the rim cavity near the outer cavity OD, shown by
12 low coolant concentration locations. As the purge flow is
further reduced to Cw=1574, significant ingestion takes place,
resulting in lower coolant concentration levels in the rim cavity.
The edges of the ingestion flows for Cw=1574 are not as sharp
as those for Cw=3148 case, indicating a flow and mixing
pattern that varies with coolant flow rate.
The radial velocity distributions in the rim cavity and inner
cavity are analyzed by plotting the positive and negative radial
velocities for the three coolant flow conditions at three radial
locations (Figure 8). The instantaneous radial velocity flow
directions for the Cw=3148 flow condition are clearly shown at
r=162 mm. The inward flow occurs in the boundary layer
along the stator wall and in 12 cells between the boundary
layers on the rotor and stator walls. The cell structure at r=182
mm has the same number of cells and shows changes in
circumferential areas associated with the inflow and outflow
regions. The radial flow pattern near the outer radius of the
inner cavity, r=144 mm, shows boundary layer flow inward on
the stator and outward near the rotor. No large scale cells in the
inner cavity are apparent from this analysis.
The instantaneous radial velocities for the Cw=1574 flow
condition are shown at r=162 and 182 mm; the patterns are not
as regular as for the Cw=3148 flow condition but with the same
number of cells, i.e., 12. The cell structure at r=182 mm is less

unsteady calculations with a procedure to take the average of

the circumferential pressure profiles of the individual 22 vane
pitches after rotating them to a common vane pitch range. This
procedure is expected to approximate well the time-average
process, considering that the annulus possesses 28 blades and
22 vanes, significant in a statistical sense in sampling the
relative configurations between vanes and blades. This
procedure has been verified by investigating three additional
CFD solutions at half-, one-, and two-blade pitch more rotation
time moments. Figure 6b shows the vane-pitch based average
profiles at these three additional moments are nearly identical
to the one at the 5.32 revolution flow time which is also
presented in Figure 6a; the differences in peak-to-trough Cp
values are less than 0.3% and 1.5% at outer shroud and vane
platform respectively. Figure 6a shows that CFD pressure
distributions match very well with the experimental results in
both overall profile shapes and magnitudes. Compared with rig
test data, the CFD peak-to-trough p values are 2% higher at
outer shroud and 5% lower at vane platform.

OVERALL FLOW CHARACTERISTICS

To examine the pressure distributions in the gas path and
cavity, three axial coordinate planes are selected as shown in
Figure 7a at locations with x/s = 0.17, 0.5, and 0.83, where x is
the distance from rotor disk wall surface and s is the disk cavity
width. The first two planes cut through the rotor lip and the
insert and intersect with the cap surface near the rig centerline.
The third plane cuts through the vane platform and the insert.
Figure 7a shows pressure contours in these three planes with
Cw=1574 at the flow time of 5.32 revolutions of unsteady
calculations. As a result of the swirl in the gas path, pressures
at outer radius are higher than those at inner radius. The
pressure characteristics of blade bow waves and vane wakes are
distinctly displayed in the planes of x/s = 0.17 and x/s = 0.83,
with 28 and 22 high pressure spots resulting from the blades
and vanes respectively in the gas path. The high pressure spots
in the mid location plane are blurred owing to the interactions
between blades and vanes. These pressure characteristics in the
gas path are also observed in the higher purge flow cases.
The gas-path pressure field (Fig. 7a) for Cw=1574 at
x/s=0.5 appears to have six sub-sets of high pressure regions
with two or three adjacent peaks around the circumference.
One possibility for this arrangement is that the pressure field is
a harmonic of the acoustic flow field that results from vaneblade flow interactions. The number of possible harmonics is
large. Additional effort will be required to explain the
interactions and obtain the insight sought from the numerical
simulation.
The pressure color-contour ranges are adjusted (Figure 7b)
to facilitate the visualization of cavity pressure from the three
purge flow levels. As purge flow increases, the cavity pressure
level increases since more flow is pushed through the cavity
and the gas path. In the two lower purge flow cases, the cavity
pressures increase radial outward as a result of the rotor disk
pumping effect. For instance, the pressure level is increased by
27 Pa as r/b increases from 0.3 to 0.9 in the Cw=3148 case. The

Copyright 2012 by ASME

(a) Pressures for

Cw=1574
x/s=0.5

x/s=0.17

x/s=0.83
Vane
platform

Rotor
Lip

Insert

Insert
Centerline
Cap

(b) Pressures at x/s=0.83

Cw=3148

Cw=8656

Cw = 3148

Cw = 8656

Cw=1574

(c) Sealing effectiveness at x/s=0.83

Cw = 1574

17

Figure 7. Overall flow fields in three numerical simulations. All views are taken from vanes to blades, with rotor rotating anticlockwise. (a) pressure contours at various locations between blades and vanes at low purge flow condition Cw=1574; (b)
pressure contours at three purge flow levels near static wall; (c) sealing effectiveness contours near static wall.

Copyright 2012 by ASME

Vr directions

and outward along the rotor wall and forms a rotating cell
structure.
For Cw=8656 flow condition, there are no cells in the inner
cavity and no apparent cell at the inner region, r=162 mm, of
the outer rim cavity. The flow patterns at r=182 mm indicate
inward flow along the stator wall at several circumferential
locations but do not indicate a cell structure.
The
dimensionless flow parameter for free disk pumping is
Cw=9011 for the rotor. The radial flow inward regions may
also occur as part of the mixing as the flow reaches the inside
radius of the rotor tang that forms the underside of the gap seal
tang.
A cell structure similar to that shown in Figure 8 was
obtained by Julien et al. [5] for a large-sector CFD simulation.
The cells appear to be nearly circular for both simulations. The
simulations of Cao et al. [7] and Jakoby et al. [8] for cavities
with smaller inner to outer radius ratios had fewer cells
although the cells were approximately circular for both
simulations.

red
radial outward
yellow radial inward

r=182 mm

r=162 mm
r=144 mm

3148

Cw = 1574

8656

r=182 mm
rotor
wall

static
wall

FLOW THROUGH RIM SEAL GAP

The circumferential distributions of axial velocity,
tangential velocity and cooling gas concentration through the
rim seal gap are examined to better understand the rim seal
ingestion mechanisms. The better understanding will assist in
the development of a strategy for minimizing the coolant flow
rate required to reduce the ingestion rate to an acceptable level.
Analysis of these results showed unexpected ingress and egress
flow characteristics in the seals.
The circumferential distribution of axial velocity ratio
(Vx/U) at the rim seal gap center location at four time moments
(Figure 9a) does not show periodicity with blade or vane
locations for the Cw=1574 flow condition. A shift of the axial
velocity field with the blade rotation angle (Figure 9b) shows
an axial velocity distribution with the velocity peaks, valleys
and magnitudes in general agreement. Thus, the circumferential
distribution of ingress and egress flow patterns rotate in the
blade moving direction with the blade rotation rate.
The rim seal has a 2 mm radial clearance between rotor
wall at r=189.2 mm and the stator wall at r=191.2 mm as shown
in Figure 10. Five radial locations are selected to present the
axial velocity ratio distributions, two on the inner side of the
gap center (r=189.53 and 189.86 mm), one at the gap center
(r=190.2 mm), and two on the outer side of the gap center
(r=190.53 and 190.86 mm).
The axial velocity ratio distribution through the seal gap,
Figures 10, varies with coolant flow rate. For the lower coolant
flow rates, Cw = 1574 and 3148, the ingress flow has the
highest axial positive velocity ratio near the rotor, decreasing
toward the inside of the stator trailing edge. The peak ingress
velocity ratios at r= 189.53 mm are about three times that at
190.86 mm. The egress flow has the smallest negative axial
velocity ratio near the rotor surface and more constant negative
axial velocity ratio near the rotor surface and more constant
negative axial velocity ratio for the upper portion of the gap.

r=162 mm

r=144 mm

Figure 8. Radial velocity direction distributions at three radial

locations in the cavity.

well organized than the structure at r=162 mm, possibly due to

interactions with the ingress and egress flows along the stator
wall (discussed in a later section). The cells rotate at
approximately 0.86 times the rotor speed. This cell rotation
rate is compatible with previous 360-degree, time-dependent
simulations of flow in disk cavities [5, 7, 8, 10].
The radial velocity contours near the outer region of the
inner cavity, r=144 mm, show four cells in this region. The
coolant flow enters the inner cavity along the rig centerline as
shown in Figure 1. The coolant flow for Cw=1574 is less than
the free disk pumping rate for 2400 rpm and r=144 mm.
Therefore, the flow re-circulates inward along the stator wall

Copyright 2012 by ASME

blades
B

vanes
V

Gas-path seal cavity

Axial mid-gap of seal

r=191.2 mm
r=189.2 mm
Rim cavity seal
mixing region

0.8

189.53
0.6

CFD 360 Model (UnSteadyState Results, 5.32 revs.)

CFD 360 Model (UnSteadyState Results, 5.32 revs.+ 0.5 Pitch)
CFD 360 Model (UnSteadyState Results, 5.32 revs.+1 Pitch)
CFD 360 Model (UnSteadyState Results, 5.32 revs.+2 Pitch)
0.6

190.20

190.53

190.86

-60

60

120

180

-60

60

120

180

Vx/U

0.4

0.2

(a)

0.4

Vx /U

189.86

-0.2
-0.4

0.2

-0.6

0.0

Cw = 1574

0.8

Vx/U

0.6

-0.2
0.4

0.2

-0.4

0.0

-0.6
-180

-120

-60

60

120

-0.2

180

Theta (deg)
0.6

-0.4

Cw = 3148

(b)

-0.6
-180
0.4

0.4

-120

Vx/U
0.2

0.2

Vx/U

0.0
-0.2

-0.2

-0.4

-0.4

-0.6

-0.6
-180

-0.8
-180

Cw = 8656

-120

-60

60

120

180

-120

Circumferential Angle, deg

Theta* (deg) = Theta - 360/28 x Blade steps

Figure10. Axial velocity distributions at the rim seal gap for three
purge flow conditions. Note: Vx>0 indicates ingress; Vx< 0
indicates egress.

Figure 9. Axial velocity ratio circumferential distributions for

Cw=1574 at the rim seal gap center location for four blade
rotation moments, with and without a blade location shift in the
plotting of the data.

ingress circumferential distribution through the rim seal does

not have the periodicity associated with either the blade
bow waves (28) or vane wakes (22). The orifice models for
rim seal ingestion use the periodic blade-based or vane-based
circumferential pressure variations as the ingestion driving
force. Re-examining the orifice models and utilizing
information about the pressure field resulting from vane-toblade flow interactions may improve the models.
The character of the axial velocity ratio profiles for
Cw=8656 is different than that for the lower coolant flow rates.
The peaks of the ingress velocity ratios (Vx> 0) are between

Note that the egress velocities for r=190.53 mm and 190.83 mm

are at the same value as at 190.2 mm. The egress axial velocity
ratio circumferential profiles are less peaked than the ingress
profiles. One possibility is that a turbulent slug of air is being
expelled from the mixing region between the seal gap and the
stator wall. The velocities in the outer half of the gap do not
vary.
Figure 10 shows 17 ingress velocity peaks at Cw=1574
coolant flow condition and 15 peaks at Cw=3148 condition.
This means for the two modest coolant flow conditions, the

Copyright 2012 by ASME

The tangential velocity ratio valleys are jagged compared to the

peaks and have shapes close to those for the axial velocity
ratios. The maximum peak-to-valley value for Cw=3148 is 0.4
to 1.6. The tentative conclusion is that gas-path flow is ingested
with a high tangential velocity ratio, 1.3 to 1.7, and is
discharged with a tangential velocity ratio of 0.6 to 0.9. As
discussed later, the tangential velocity ratio of the flow in the
cavity seal mixing region near the outer radius of the rim cavity
is 1.1 to 1.4. Thus, the egress tangential velocity ratio through
the seal gap is decreased by friction on the underside of the
vane platform.
The tangential velocity ratios for Cw=8656 have values
from 0.15 to 0.8. Note that the free disk pumping flow rate for
this operating condition is Cw=9011. Thus, some of the flow in
the outer cavity flowing out through the seal gap has relatively
low angular momentum. The highest tangential velocity ratios,
0.6 to 0.9, indicate that the ingested flow from the gas-path to
cavity adjacent to the seal gap has not fully mixed with the gaspath flow.
The circumferential distributions of the sealing
effectiveness, , at the seal gap center (Figure 11b) are
compatible with the axial velocity ratios, Figures 10. For
Cw=8656, the sealing effectiveness is near one for much of the
circumference. The sharp valleys with
values near 0.2
indicate that flow from the gas-path seal cavity with a high gaspath concentration has been ingested.
The peak sealing effectiveness values for Cw=1574 and
3148 are associated with egress, Vx< 0, and indicate the sealing
effectiveness in the rim cavity seal mixing region. Note that the
peak sealing effectiveness values for Cw=1574 are 0.7 or less;
the peak sealing effectiveness values for Cw=3148 are 0.9 or
less.
Figure 11. Tangential velocity and sealing effectiveness
circumferential profiles at rim seal gap center location.

COMPARISON WITH EXPERIMENTAL DATA

Radial velocity ratio, Vr/U, and tangential velocity ratio,
Vt/U, measurements from [3] are reproduced in Figure 12. The
experimental data were obtained from a circumferential region
in the r- plane at the x/s=0.83 location (Figure 7),
approximately half way between the rotor seal tang and the
stator wall. These velocity ratios were obtained at the
circumferential measurement locations that had the greatest
inward or outward radial velocities from 10 sets of
instantaneous PIV images. The experimental measurements
were limited because only the coolant had seeds for the PIV
measurements and the 2-D PIV optical system precluded
acquiring data in regions with axial velocities not close to zero.
The gas path flow with a tangential velocity of greater than
wheel speed downstream of the vane was not seeded.
The numerical simulation profiles are the maximum and
minimum radial or tangential velocities at each radial location
from an instantaneous calculation time. The experimental radial
velocity ratios lie within the envelope of the numerical
simulation data. The largest inward experimental radial velocity
ratios were close to the ingestion profile from the CFD
simulation. The experimental tangential velocity ratios were
lower than the maximum simulation velocity ratios, especially

0 and 0.3 with some peaks less than zero. The number of
velocity valleys is approximately 28. The gas-path
concentration on the stator wall at radii less than the rotor seal
radius is near zero for Cw=8656. Thus, the ingress flow was
mixed and returned to the gas path without reaching the stator
wall measurement location. One conclusion from examination
of the axial velocity ratio data for this flow condition and seal
geometry is that the pressure field from the blade has the
primary influence on the ingress velocity distribution when the
cavity is purged at a sufficiently high rate.
The tangential velocity ratio, Vt/U, at the center of the seal
gap (Figure 11a) also varies with coolant flow rate. For the flow
conditions with appreciable ingestion, Cw=1574 and Cw=3148,
the instantaneous tangential velocity ratio varies from 0.5 to
1.7. The high tangential velocity ratio is a result of the ingestion
from gas path where the air tangential velocity is about two
times local wheel speed near the hub. The peak ratios for
Cw=1574 average a small-amount greater than for Cw=3148.
The peak tangential velocity ratios occur at approximately the
same circumferential locations as the peak ingress locations.

10

Copyright 2012 by ASME

CFD - max

1.01.0

Expt - ingress

0.90.9

Expt - egress

0.80.8

Sealing Effectiveness,

0.1
0.0
-0.1
-0.2

0.85

0.90

0.95

Expt, Cw=3148
CFD, Cw=3148

0.40.4
0.30.3
0.20.2
0.10.1

0.60.6

(b)

1.00

1.0

0.70.7

0.8 0.8

0.9 0.9

1.0 1.0

CFD sealing effectiveness on static wall

at various time moments for Cw=1574 condition

0.9
0.8

Local Seal Effectiveness,

CFD - min
CFD - max

Vt/U at x/s =0.83

Expt - ingress
Expt - egress

1.6
1.4
1.2

1.0

0.7
0.6
0.5
5.32 revs.

0.4

5.32 revs. + half blade pitch

0.3

5.32 revs. + 1 blade pitch

5.32 revs. + 2 blade pitches

0.2
0.1
0.0
0.5

0.8
0.6

0.6

0.7
0.8
Radial Position, r/b

0.9

1.0

Figure13. Sealing effectiveness on the cavity static wall surface.

Insert

rotor lip

0.4

0.0
0.75

CFD,SectorModel, Cw=1574

CFD, Cw=3148

Radial
Position,
Radial
Position,r/b
r/b

r/b

0.2

Expt, Cw=3148

Rotor Lip

0.80

CFD, Cw=1574

CFD, Cw=1574

0.50.5

Insert

-0.5
0.75

Insert

-0.4

Expt,
Cw=1574
Expt,
Cw=1574

0.60.6

0.00.0
0.50.5

rotor lip

-0.3

0.70.7

Rotor Lip

0.2

Rotor Lip

Local Sealing Effectiveness,

0.3

Insert
Insert

Vr/U at x/s =0.83

Sealingeffectiveness
Effectivenesson
onstatic
Staticwall
Wall
Sealing

(a)
(a)

CFD - min

0.80

0.85

0.90

0.95

overlap radial seal with the Arizona State University rig gaspath, single-overlap seal and cavity configuration.
The local sealing effectiveness on the static wall surface
from numerical simulations is compared with rig test data
(Figure 13a). The rig data are the time averaged results. The
simulation sealing effectiveness radial profiles are obtained
from instantaneous FLUENT solutions of unsteady calculations
by averaging the circumferential variations for each radial
location. The high purge flow condition Cw=8656 results are
not included in Figure 13a because both CFD and experiment
show the cavity is well purged and the sealing effectiveness is
very close to one for all data points. For the Cw=3148
condition, the CFD results in rim cavity agree with the
experimental results except for a location on the stator wall
adjacent to the rim cavity seal mixing region, where strong
circumferential variations in the sealing effectiveness and
strong mixing exist (see sketch above Fig. 10). For the low
purge flow rate, Cw=1574, the numerical simulation and
experimental data are in general agreement with the numerical
simulation under-predicting the local sealing effectiveness by
approximately a tenth. These numerical simulation results are a
significant improvement compared to results from previous

1.00

r/b

Figure 12. Comparison of experimental data with CFD results in

the x/s=0.83 plane for Cw=1574 condition.

in the outer region of the cavity. Considering that the gas path
air near the hub downstream of the vane has high tangential
velocity, about two times local wheel speed, the ingestion flow
is expected to possess high tangential velocity in the rim seal
and outer region of the rim cavity before mixing with the flow
in the cavity.
The differences between the experimental measurements
and the simulation results for the tangential velocity ratio will
not be resolved until the experiment is rerun with gas path
seeded for PIV measurements. However, the authors
conclusion from the comparison with the radial velocity PIV
data is that the numerical simulation characterized an important
time-dependent aspect of the rim seal ingestion process for the

11

Copyright 2012 by ASME

sector models [3], where the ingestion was underestimated and

sealing effectiveness over-predicted. The 360-deg, timedependent simulation removes much of the limitations due to
the periodic boundary conditions imposed on the previous
sector model. For the three cooling flow conditions, the
numerical simulations produce the experimental results of high
sealing effectiveness in the inner cavity. The inner-axial-gap
seal is effective in decreasing or eliminating ingress from the
rim cavity into the inner cavity.
The CFD sealing effectiveness profiles derived from
different time moment solutions are found to be nearly
identical. For example, the radial seal effectiveness profiles
from four time-moment CFD solutions for Cw=1574 (Figure
13b) have negligible differences.

experimental data on the outer shroud and the hub, 1 mm

downstream of the vane trailing edge.
The sealing effectiveness on the cavity static wall from
numerical simulations is in general agreement with rig
data.
The maximum and minimum radial velocity profiles
determined from the numerical simulation bracket the rig
data. The experimental tangential velocity profiles do not
indicate the high values obtained from the simulation; this
difference will not be resolved until the experiment is rerun
with gas path seeded for PIV measurements.
REFERENCES
1. Johnson, B. V., Jakoby, R., Bohn, D. E., Cunat, D., 2009, A
Method for Estimating the Influence of Time-Dependent
Vane and Blade Pressure Fields on Turbine Rim Seal
Ingestion, J Turbomachinery, Vol. 131, 021005, April 2009.
2. Sangan, C. M., Pountney, O. J., Zhou, K., Wilson, M.,
Owen, J. M., Gary D Lock, G. D., 2011, Experimental
Measurements of Ingestion through Turbine Rim Seals.
Part 1: Externally-induced Ingress, ASME Paper GT201145313, July 2011.
3. Zhou, D. W., Roy, R. P, Wang, C.-Z., Glahn, J. A., 2011,
Main Gas Ingestion in a Turbine Stage for Three Rim
Cavity Configurations, Journal of Turbomachinery, Vol.
133, 031023, see also ASME Paper GT2009-59851.
4. Johnson, B. V., Mack, G. J., Paolillo, R. E., and Daniels,
W. A., 1994, Turbine Rim Seal Gas Path Flow Ingestion
Mechanisms, AIAA Paper AIAA 94-2703.
5. Julien, S., Lefrancois, J., Dumas, G., Boutet-Blais, G.,
Lapointe, Caron, J-F., Marini, R., 2010, Simulation of
Flow Ingestion and related Structures in a Turbine Cavity,
ASME Paper GT2010-22729.
6. Zhou, K, Wilson, M., Lock, G., Owen, J. M., 2011,
Computation of Ingestion through Gas Turbine Rim Seals,
ASME Paper GT2011-45314.
7. Cao, C., Chew, J. W., Millington, P. R., Hogg, S. I., 2003;
Interaction of rim seal and annulus flows in an axial flow
turbine; ASME-paper GT2003-38368
8. Jakoby, R., Zierer, T., Lindblad, K., Larsson, J., deVito, L.,
Bohn, D. E., Funcke, J., Decker, A., 2004, Numerical
Simulation of the Unsteady Flow Field in an Axial Gas
Turbine Rim Seal Configuration, ASME Paper GT200453829.
9. Boudet, J., Autef, N. D., Chew, J. W, Hills, N. J. and
Gentilhomme, O., 2005, Numerical Simulation of Rim
Seal Flows in Axial Turbines, The Aeronautical Journal,
August 2005, pp. 373-383.
10. Boutet-Blais, G., S., Lefrancois, J., Dumas, Julien, G.,
Harvey, J-F., Marini, R., Caron, J-F, 2011, Passive Tracer
Validity for Cooling Effectiveness through Flow
Computation in a Turbine Rim Seal Environment, ASME
Paper GT2011-45654.

CONCLUDING REMARKS
Numerical simulations with a 360-degree, time-dependent
CFD model have been performed for a turbine stage with (i) an
unequal number of vanes and blades and (ii) a trench-type,
single-overlap rim seal at three coolant flow conditions. Results
from the 360-deg simulations show complex pressure patterns
resulted from the blade and vane flow interactions and the rim
seal ingress and egress characteristics that are not obtainable
from sector model simulations. The results also show typical
flow characteristics of secondary flow cells within the outer rim
cavity.
Simulations with other airfoils, rim seals, rim cavities and
cooling arrangements will further improve the understanding of
the rim seal ingestion process.
The major findings are summarized as follows:
For all three coolant flow conditions, the periodic pressure
fields adjacent to the trailing edges of the vanes (22) and
the leading edges of the blades (28) interact to form an
irregular pressure pattern midway between the vane
trailing edge and blade leading edge above the rim seal
location. This irregular circumferential pressure
distribution provides insight to the driving forces for
ingestion.
The ingress velocity circumferential distributions through
the rim seal do not have the periodicity associated with
either the blade bow wave or vane exit pressure
variations for the two lower coolant flow conditions where
significant ingestion occurs. The axial velocity
circumferential distributions rotate at wheel speed.
The ingress and egress periodicity through the rim seal is
associated with the blade count for the high coolant flow
condition where little or no gas-path flow enters the
boundary layer along the cavity static wall.
Twelve cells occur within the rim cavity for the two low
coolant flow conditions, rotating in the same direction as
the rotor but at a lower speed.
The gas path pressure distributions determined from the
numerical simulations are in excellent agreement with the

12

Copyright 2012 by ASME