Chinese Journal of Aeronautics, (2017), 30(6): 1844–1853

Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics

& Beihang University
Chinese Journal of Aeronautics
cja@buaa.edu.cn
www.sciencedirect.com

Effects of axial gap and nozzle distribution

on aerodynamic forces of a supersonic
partial-admission turbine
Jinpeng JIANG a , Jiawen LI a, Guobiao CAI a, Jue WANG b,*, Qiyan LIN c

a
School of Astronautics, Beihang University, Beijing 100083, China
b
System Engineering Division, China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, Beijing 100076, China
c
Beijing Aerospace Propulsion Institute, Beijing 100076, China

Received 21 October 2016; revised 19 December 2016; accepted 12 April 2017

Available online 14 October 2017

KEYWORDS Abstract The turbine in an LH2/LOX rocket engine is designed as a two-stage supersonic partial-
Aerodynamic force; admission turbine. Three-dimensional steady and unsteady simulations were conducted to analyze
Axial gap; turbine performance and aerodynamic forces on rotor blades. Different configurations were
Computational fluid dynam- employed to investigate the effects of the axial gap and nozzle distribution on the predicted perfor-
ics (CFD); mance and aerodynamic forces. Rotor blades experience unsteady aerodynamic forces because of
Nozzle distribution;
the partial admission. Aerodynamic forces show periodicity in the admission region, and are close
Partial admission;
Turbine
to zero after leaving the admission region. The unsteady forces in frequency domain indicate that
components exist in a wide frequency region, and the admission passing frequency is dominant.
Those multiples of the rotational frequency which are multiples of the nozzle number in a full-
admission turbine are notable components. Results show that the turbine efficiency decreases as
the axial gap between nozzles and the 1st stage rotor (rotor 1) increases. Fluctuation of the circum-
ferential aerodynamic force on rotor 1 blades decreases with the axial gap increasing. The turbine
efficiency decreases as the circumferential spacing between nozzles increases. Fluctuations of the cir-
cumferential and axial aerodynamic forces increase as the circumferential spacing increases. As for
the non-equidistant nozzle distribution, it produces similar turbine performance and amplitude-
frequency characteristics of forces to those of the normal configuration, when the mean spacing
is equal to that of the normal case.
2017 Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Production and hosting by Elsevier Ltd. This is
an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

* Corresponding author. 1. Introduction

E-mail address: wangjuetougao@163.com (J. WANG).
Peer review under responsibility of Editorial Committee of CJA.
Production and hosting by Elsevier
Supersonic turbines with partial admission are sometimes
employed in rocket engines to avoid an extremely low blade
height which would result in large secondary losses such as the
tip leakage loss. In addition, partial admission configurations

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cja.2017.09.003
1000-9361 2017 Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Production and hosting by Elsevier Ltd. This
is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Effects of axial gap and nozzle distribution on aerodynamic forces of a supersonic partial-admission turbine
are commonly applied to control the power output and get
higher efficiency in the control stages of power plants and indus-
trial steam turbines. However, additional forms of loss exist in
partial admission compared with full-admission turbines, such
as the mixing loss generated in the interface regions between
the low-energy dead flow and the high-energy through flow,
which significantly influences the efficiency.1 Furthermore, cir-
cumferential non-uniformity is increased due to partial admis-
sion. The flow in a turbomachine is highly unsteady because
of the interaction between adjacent rows due to the effects of
wakes.2,3 In a partial-admission turbine, rotor blades periodi-
cally pass through flowing regions as well as regions of no
flow, inducing strong flow-exciting forces besides vane wakes,
which may result in high cycle fatigue.4 Rotor blade
cracks once occurred in turbopump tests for some liquid
rocket engines designed with a partial-admission turbine,
and the failure is believed to be caused by exciting forces. It is
certainly necessary to investigate the unsteady flow and
aerodynamic forces in partial-admission turbines.
Experimental investigations and theory analysis of partial
admission have been conducted by several researchers.5–9
Numerical simulation has also been a powerful approach
widely used by researchers. Full 360 Computational Fluid
Dynamics (CFD) models and 3-Dimensional (3D) transient
simulations are usually required, and sometimes multistage
simulation is needed, which all make numerical investigations
with high computational costs.10 2-Dimensional (2D)1,11 and
quasi-3D12 simulations were usually conducted in the past.
With the development of CFD and the improvement of com-
puters, 3D transient numerical simulations for investigations
of partial admission have been widely conducted. Effects of
the axial gap between the first-stage stator and rotor and
multiblocking on the performance of partial-admission tur-
bines were numerically studied by Hushmandi and Fransson.13
They illustrated that reducing the axial gap produced a better
efficiency at the first stage, but the overall efficiency at the sec-
ond stage was decreased. Numerical simulations were con-
ducted for a steam turbine with different degrees of partial
admission by Qu et al.14, and they pointed out that the
unsteady computational result was more accurate to analyze
the flow of the control stage. Newton et al.15 investigated the
sources of loss in a turbine with both full and partial admission
numerically, and evaluated the distribution of loss with
entropy production. From these previous investigations about
partial admission, we can see that steam turbines has usually
been studied and the turbine aerodynamic performance has
mostly been focused on. However, unsteady forces on rotor
blades for a rocket engine turbine have been investigated by
relatively few studies, especially a turbine with partial admis-
sion. Jocker et al.16 numerically studied the aerodynamic exci-
tation mechanisms due to the unsteady stator-rotor interaction
in a supersonic turbine for a rocket engine turbopump. Hud-
son et al.17 experimentally measured and numerically simu-
lated the surface pressure on a rocket engine turbine blade.
Tokuyama et al.18 conducted numerical simulation for a
partial-admission turbine used for a rocket engine. The blade
scaling procedure was adopted, which resulted in a simulation
with one third of full passages. The unsteady aerodynamic
force was analyzed. They showed that unsteady force compo-
nents appeared in wide frequencies. Using a genetic algorithm,
the partial admission of a supersonic turbine was optimized by
Tog and Tousi.19
1845
The turbine in the current study is used for an expander cycle
LH2/LOX rocket engine. It is a two-stage supersonic turbine
with partial admission. A first-stage rotor blade cracked in a
test. Besides processing defects, the excitation produced by
the partial admission configuration and supersonic nozzles
was considered to result in the failure. Therefore, the unsteady
flow in a full-annulus turbine was numerically investigated in
this paper to study the unsteady aerodynamic forces. Further-
more, effects of the axial gap and nozzle distribution on the
tur-bine performance and aerodynamic forces were
studied, in order to search for a possible method to reduce
the excitation. Configurations with different equal
circumferential spacings between nozzles and unequal
circumferential spacings were
analyzed to study the effect of the nozzle distribution on the tur-
bine performance and unsteady forces on rotor blades. Config-
urations with various axial gaps between nozzles and the first-
stage rotor were analyzed to investigate the influence of the
axial gap on the turbine performance and aerodynamic forces.
2. Computational procedures
2.1. Fundamental equation
Reynolds time-averaged Navier-Stokes equations are solved
by commercial CFD software of ANSYS-CFX. The general
form of governing equations for the compressible viscous
unsteady flow in a Cartesian coordinate is expressed as
follows:
@ðq/Þ
þ divðqU/Þ ¼ divðC/ gradð/ÞÞ þ S/ ð1Þ
@
t
where q is density, / is the general variable for different equa-
tions, t is time,U is velocity, C / is the general diffusion coeffi-
cient, and S / is the general source term. Conservation
equations for mass, momentum, and energy can be obtained
by setting / to 1, u, v , w, and h, where u, v, w are velocity com-
ponents, and h is enthalpy. Turbulence models can be obtained
when setting / to turbulence kinetic energy k and turbulent
frequency x . The ideal gas equation of state is adopted for
enclosure.
The k x based Shear Stress Transport (SST) turbulence
model was employed in this study, since it can give highly
accurate predictions of the onset and the amount of flow sep-
aration under adverse pressure gradients.20–22 The SST model
combines the advantages of the k x model in the near-wall
region and the k e model in the bulk domain, and accounts
for the transport of the turbulent shear stress. The proper
transport behavior can be obtained by a limit to the formula-
tion of the eddy-viscosity as:
a 1k
mt ¼ ð2Þ
maxða1x; SF2 Þ
where a1 is equal to 5=9, S is an invariant measure of the strain
rate, and F2 is a blending function expressed as:
2
F2 ¼ tanhðarg2Þ
ffi p !
ffi ð3Þ 2 2 k 500m
b0xyffi y2 x arg ¼ max ;
ð4Þ

where b ¼ 0:09, y is the distance to the nearest wall, and m
is the kinematic viscosity.
1846
The governing equations were solved using the Finite Vol-
ume Method (FVM). The upwind schemes were employed to
discrete advection terms, which gave results that agreed well
with test results. The second-order implicit schemes were
adopted for temporal discretization.
2.2. Computational model and boundary condition
The turbine studied in this paper is a two-stage supersonic tur-
bine with partial admission, and consists of 4 nozzles, 56
blades for the 1st stage rotor (rotor 1), 28 vanes for the
2nd-stage stator (stator 2), and 58 blades for the 2nd -stage
rotor (rotor 2). The rotational speed of rotors at the design
point is 42431 r/min. Nozzle and blade profiles are shown in
Fig. 1, and the CAD(Computer Aided Design) model is shown
in Fig. 2.
The 3D full-annulus model was taken in simulations. Struc-
tural grids for nozzles were generated by Gambit. Computa-
tional grids for the 1st rotor and 2nd stator and rotor
passages were generated by the IGG/Autogrid software pack-
age. Structured grid systems were created in the computational
domain with O-type grids near the blade surfaces and H-type
grids in the other regions. A grid-dependency check was con-
ducted by simulating the steady flow of the normal configura-
tion with different grid sizes. The grid size was determined to
ensure that the total-to-total isentropic efficiency was stable
above that size. The total number of grid nodes was approxi-
mately 4500000.
0
J. JIANG et al.
Cases for different axial gaps include a small gap configura-
tion (20% of the 1st blade axial chord), a normal gap config-
uration (32% of the 1st blade axial chord), and a large gap
configuration (46% of the 1st blade axial chord). Table 1 lists
the axial gap sizes for the three cases, where b r is the 1st blade
axial chord length at midspan. Fig. 3 shows the considered
computational configurations focused on the axial gap. The
axial gap was changed by shifting a nozzle axially. The domain
behind the nozzle was elongated or shortened correspondingly,
while the rotor domain stayed the same. By doing so, the axial
distances between the nozzle-rotor interface and the blade
leading edge were the same for all computational configura-
tions. However, the distances between the nozzle outlet and
the interface were different.
Fig. 4 is a sketch showing the nozzle distribution, in which
nozzles are numbered from 1 to 4 along the direction of rotor
rotating, and central angles a1 , a2 , and a3 are used to present
the circumferential spacings between nozzles. The circumferen-
tial distribution of turbine nozzles was changed by rotating
nozzles around the axis. Four configurations with different
Table 1 Cases with different axial
gaps.
Case Axial gap size
Case-gaps 0.2br (small gap)
Case 0 0.32br (normal gap)
Case-gapl 0.46br (large gap)
Effects of axial gap and nozzle distribution on aerodynamic forces of a supersonic partial-admission turbine 1847

Table 2 Cases with different circumferential spacings.

Case Circumferential spacing size ()
a1 a2 a3
Case-uni27.5 27.5 27.5 27.5
Case-uni30 30 30 30
Case 0 32.5 32.5 32.5
Case-uni35 35 35 35
Case-nonuni 30 32.5 35

uniform circumferential spacings and a case with non-uniform

circumferential spacings were studied. The circumferential
spacing sizes for different cases are summarized in Table 2.
When the circumferential spacing is 27.5, the nozzle outlet
edges overlap.
The working gas in the turbine is hydrogen-rich gas. The
specific heat capacity at constant pressure is 8254 J=ðkg
KÞ, and the specific heat ratio is 1.3666. The total pressure
3.061 MPa and total temperature 834 K were specified at the
inlet. The flow direction was normal to the boundary, and a
5% tur-bulent intensity was set. Static pressure was
imposed at the outlet, which was 0.45 MPa. The mixing
plane method was applied for interfaces between the stator
and rotor in steady simulations, while the sliding mesh
technology was used in unsteady simulations, and steady
simulation results were used as initial values for unsteady
simulations. No-slip and adia-batic conditions were
enforced along all the solid surfaces. 100 time steps were
set in a nozzle-passing period which was defined as the
period of time required for one blade to pass one nozzle.
The convergence criteria for the root mean square residual
was set to 1 105 . 20 iterations were performed for each time
step to ensure a convergence.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Flow field analysis
Steady and unsteady simulation results for the designed geom-
etry are analyzed in this section.
Simulation results of mass flow rate (m) _ and turbine effi-
ciency (gT ) are compared with test results in Table 3, and the
absolute deviation (Da ) and relative deviation (Dr ) are given.
Test results were obtained from the firing tests for the
LH2/LOX rocket engine. The measurement accuracy of mass
flow was 0.5%. Predicted errors for mass flow rate and the tur-
bine efficiency are both lower than 1.5%. It reveals that the
simulation results are in good agreement with the test results.
A contour plot of the Mach number at midspan is shown in
Fig. 5. A circumferential non-uniform distribution is produced
due to the partial admission configuration. Flow at the nozzle
exit is supersonic, and the Mach number in most of the area is
between 1 and 1.7. A rapid flow acceleration occurs around the
Fig. 5 Mach number contours at midspan.
nozzle exit corner due to the expansion of the working gas, and
the maximum Mach number exceeds 2. The acceleration flow
is hindered by the next nozzle’s exit flow which is affected in
turn by the acceleration flow from the previous nozzle. The
high-Mach number region is larger at the No. 4 nozzle exit cor-
ner leaving the admission area since not being affected by
other nozzle exit flow.
The static pressure contours at midspan is shown in Fig. 6.
Low pressure occurs at the nozzle exit corner due to the expan-
sion of the working gas. Fig. 7 shows the circumferential
pressure distributions at four positions between stages, and
the pressure p is normalized by the inlet total pressure p0,in.
The circumferential pressure downstream from rotor 2 is weak,
which is close to the outlet pressure and hardly affected by
upstream flow. The other pressure distributions have strong
circumferential variations due to the partial admission. The
pressure distributions show obvious periodicity in the admis-
sion area, corresponding to the four nozzles. Pressure is close
to the outlet pressure in the non-admission region. Pressure
around the region leaving the admission area seems to be lower
than that in the region entering the admission area, because the
supersonic gas expands and accelerates at the nozzle outlet
corners. The pressure distribution between a nozzle and rotor
1 is the most complex. Many local pressure peaks are caused
due to the interaction between the supersonic flow and rotor
1 blades. Strong pressure decreasing regions between a nozzle
and rotor 1 occur between nozzles, because of the expansion of
 _
1848
Fig. 7 Circumferential pressure distributions at four positions
between stages.
the supersonic gas at the nozzle exit corners. A larger area of
low pressure appears behind the No. 4 nozzle. As can be seen,
four pressure peaks exist at positions between rotor 1 and sta-
tor 2 and between stator 2 and rotor 2, which result from the
four nozzles. Pressure distributions at the admission area seem
to be approximated by a sine wave. Slight fluctuations around
the main wave can also be seen due to the influence of
upstream wakes.
Aerodynamic forces on a rotor blade are calculated as
follows:
Z and 12 multiples of the rotational frequency are remarkable,
Ft ¼ nt pds þ Fvisco ð5Þ
s
Z nents and components adjacent to them are outstanding. How-
Fz ¼ nz pds þ Fvisco ð6Þ
s
where Ft and Fz are the circumferential and axial forces,
respectively, Fvisco represents the viscous force on the blade,
nt and nz are theR circumferential and axial unite vectors,
respectively, and s pds represents the surface integral of static
pressure on the rotor blade.
The unsteady aerodynamic forces (F) on a rotor 1 blade in
time domain are plotted in Fig. 8. Time was normalized by the
rotational period (T), and one cycle is shown. The aerody-
namic forces are presented corresponding to the circumferen-
tial locations. Both circumferential and axial forces show
characteristic due to partial admission. In the admission area,
Fig. 6 Static pressure contours at midspan.
J. JIANG et al.
the unsteady forces show great fluctuations because of the non-
uniform upstream flow from the nozzles, and periodicity can
be seen from the figure. Force peaks occur between nozzle out-
lets and at the corner of the No. 4 nozzle, where a large pres-
sure difference between the pressure side and the suction side
occurs. After leaving the admission area, forces on the rotor
blade in both directions are close to zero. The circumferential
forces are mostly positive (along the rotating direction). There
are unusual fluctuations when the blade enters and leaves the
admission area. Negative forces are produced around the
region entering the admission area. This can be expected,
because the suction side enters the high-pressure region ahead
of the pressure. For a similar reason, a small positive force
peak occurs when leaving the admission area. The axial forces
are mostly negative (opposite to the axial flow direction).
Fig. 9 shows the results of Fast Fourier Transformation
(FFT) analysis of the unsteady aerodynamic forces on the
rotor 1 blade. Many frequency components exist in a wide
region, which is a characteristic of a partial-admission turbine.
The 1st harmonics of the rotational frequency means the
admission passing frequency. The 11 multiples of the rota-
tional frequency approximately correspond to the nozzle num-
ber in a full-admission turbine. As can be seen, the 1st
harmonics is a dominating component in both directions. This
can be identified in the regular circumferential distribution of
the unsteady force due to the admission as shown in Fig. 8.
The 1st harmonics for the circumferential force is an absolutely
dominating component, while it is relatively weak for the axial
force in comparison with the circumferential force. The 11, 10,
while the 22, 21, and 23 multiples of the rotational frequency
are notable. As we can see, multiples of 11 multiples compo-
ever, components over 30 multiples of the rotational frequency
are weak.
Fig. 8 Aerodynamic forces on a rotor 1 blade in time domain. Fig. 9 Harmonics of the aerodynamic forces on a rotor 1 blade.
Effects of axial gap and nozzle distribution on aerodynamic forces of a supersonic partial-admission turbine
The unsteady aerodynamic forces on a rotor 2 blade in time
domain are shown in Fig. 10. Both circumferential and axial
forces are also strongly affected by partial admission, just like
those on a rotor 1 blade. In the admission area, the forces are
mostly positive, and show remarkable periodicity. After the
blade leaves the admission area, both forces are close to zero.
There are unusual fluctuations for the circumferential force
when the blade enters and leaves the admission area. Negative
forces are produced around the region entering the admission
area, and a small negative force peak occurs when leaving the
admission area.
Fig. 11 shows the results of FFT analysis of the unsteady
aerodynamic forces on the rotor 2 blade. Components over
15 multiples of the rotational frequency are negligible. The fre-
quency range is much narrower compared to that of rotor 1.
The 1st harmonic is dominant in both forces. The 11, 10,
and 12 multiples of the rotational frequency are notable, just
like those on a rotor 1 blade. The 2nd harmonic is more signif-
Fig. 10 Aerodynamic forces on a rotor 2 blade in time domain.
Fig. 11 Harmonics of aerodynamic forces on a rotor 2 blade.
1849
icant than 11 multiples component compared to the force on a
rotor 1 blade.
Forces on a rotor 2 blade are much lower than forces on a
rotor 1 blade, because the pressure in rotor 2 is much lower
than that in rotor 1. Thus, aerodynamic forces on a rotor 1
blade are concerned in the following analysis.
3.2. Effects of axial gap
Steady simulations were conducted for cases with different
axial gaps, and turbine performances are listed in Table 4.
The differences of turbine efficiency from that of Case 0
(DgT ) were calculated, and were expressed as percentages of
the normal gap case efficiency. As can be seen, the turbine effi-
ciency decreases as the axial gap increases. This is due to the
increase of wake mixing loss between the nozzle exit corners
and leading edges of rotors as the axial gap increases.
Fig. 12 shows the contours of static entropy (s) on the
nozzle-rotor interface plane for configurations with different
axial gaps. As the axial gap increases, the entropy between
nozzles decreases. However, the main flow is affected and the
entropy downstream from the nozzle outlet increases. In addi-
tion, entropy near the inner endwall in the admission region
increases when the axial gap increases. As can also be seen
in Fig. 13 which shows the contours of total pressure (pt) on
the nozzle-rotor interface plane, as the axial gap increases,
the total pressure between nozzles increases, but the total pres-
sure downstream from the nozzle outlet decreases. By compar-
ing the contours in Figs. 12 and 13, it can be seen that
increasing the axial gap declined the wake strength and
increased the uniformity of flow. However, increasing the axial
gap increased the mixing of the wake and the main flow, and
losses could be expected to increase.
Histories of the circumferential force on a rotor 1 blade for
cases with different axial gaps are plotted in Fig. 14. It can be
seen that as the axial gap increases, the force peak decreases
and the valley increases in the admission area. The fluctuation
range of the aerodynamic force apparently reduces, while the
mean force barely changes.
Results of FFT analysis of the unsteady circumferential
force on a rotor 1 blade for cases with different axial gaps
are compared in Fig. 15. As can be seen, the amplitudes for
main frequencies decrease as the axial gap increases. The
amplitude for 1st harmonics slightly decreases, while those
for 11, 10, 22, and 21 multiples of the rotational frequency sig-
nificantly reduce. It indicates that high-order frequency com-
ponents are more affected by the axial gap.
Fig. 16 shows histories of the axial force on a rotor 1 blade
for configurations with different axial gaps. Major force val-
leys show little difference among different configurations.
The configuration with a small axial gap generates a relatively
larger minor force valley in the admission area. Generally, the
axial force is slightly influenced by the axial gap.
Table 4 Turbine performances for different axial gaps.
Case gT DgT =gT (%)
Case-gaps 0.4459 1.55
Case 0 0.4391
Case-gapl 0.4299 2.1
1850
Fig. 12 Static entropy on nozzle-rotor interface for different axial gap cases.
Fig. 13 Total pressure on nozzle-rotor interface for different axial gap cases.
Fig. 14 Histories of circumferential force on a rotor 1 blade for
different axial gap cases.
Results of FFT analysis of the unsteady axial force on a
rotor 1 blade for cases with different axial gaps are plotted
in Fig. 17. When the axial gap increases, the interaction
between nozzles and rotor blades weakens. Minor force valleys
decrease and flatten just as shown in Fig. 16, and thus high-
order frequency components decrease. As can be seen in
Fig. 17, over the 12 multiples of the rotational frequency,
amplitudes decrease when the axial gap increases. Considering
that axial forces were slightly affected by the axial gap, when
high-order frequency components strengthened, low-order fre-
quency components relatively weakened. It shows that the
J. JIANG et al.
Fig. 15 Harmonics of circumferential force on a rotor 1 blade
for different axial gap cases.
amplitudes of main low-order frequency components (1st har-
monic, 11 and 10 multiples of the rotational frequency)
increase as the axial gap increases.
In general, increasing the axial gap helps to reduce the
unsteady aerodynamic forces, while the turbine efficiency
would be sacrificed to some extent.
3.3. Effects of nozzle distribution
Steady simulations were conducted for configurations with
different nozzle distributions, and turbine performances are
compared in Table 5. As can be seen, the turbine efficiency
decreases as the circumferential spacing increases. It can be
Effects of axial gap and nozzle distribution on aerodynamic forces of a supersonic partial-admission turbine 1851

circumferential spacing increases. The configuration with a

non-equidistant nozzle distribution has similar performance
to that of the normal case. It’s probably because the former
has the same average circumferential spacing as that of the
latter.
Fig. 18 shows the contours of static entropy on the nozzle-
rotor interface plane for configurations with different circum-
ferential spacings. As the circumferential spacing increases, the
entropy between nozzles increases and the width increases cor-
responding to the circumferential spacing. That indicates that
both the wake strength and width increase when the circumfer-
ential spacing increases. In addition, entropy near the inner
endwall in the admission region increases with the circumfer-
Fig. 16 Histories of axial force on a rotor 1 blade for different ential spacing increasing.
axial gap cases. Fig. 19 shows the contours of total pressure on the nozzle-
rotor interface plane. As the circumferential spacing increases,
the total pressure between nozzles decreases. When the circum-
ferential spacing increases, it becomes difficult for the wake to
recover to the main flow. By comparing the contours in
Figs. 18 and 19, it can be concluded that increasing the circum-
ferential spacing increases the wake strength and decreases the
uniformity of flow.
Histories of the circumferential force on a rotor 1 blade for
cases with different circumferential spacings are plotted in
Fig. 20. It can be seen that as the circumferential spacing
increases, the force peak slightly increases and the valley signif-
icantly reduces in the admission area, except for the No. 4 noz-
zle. The circumferential spacing has little influence on the force
peak and valley downstream from the No. 4 nozzle. As a
Fig. 17 Harmonics of axial force on a rotor 1 blade for different
result, the amplitude of the circumferential aerodynamic force
axial gap cases.
in the admission region increases, while the mean force slightly
decreases. Apparently, the decreasing uniformity between noz-
zle outlets increases the pressure difference, and thus results in
Table 5 Turbine performances for different circumferential force peaks increasing. However, flow at the
circumferential spacings. corner of the No. 4 nozzle is not affected by the circumferential
spacing, and thus the 4th force peak changes little. As for the
Case gT DgT =gT (%)
configuration with a non-equidistant nozzle distribution, the
Case-uni27.5 0.4401 0.23 force peak and valley are equal to those in cases with respond-
Case-uni30 0.4397 0.18 ing spacing. Downstream from nozzles leaving the admission
Case 0 0.4391 area, the force peak and valley are almost the same for config-
Case-uni35 0.4355 0.82
urations with different spacings.
Case-nonuni 0.4389 0.046
Fig. 21 shows the results of FFT analysis of the unsteady
circumferential force on a rotor 1 blade for cases with different
circumferential spacings. The 1st harmonic is dominant in all
concluded that increasing the circumferential spacing tends to cases. However, the main frequency components vary due to
decrease the turbine efficiency, although the reduction is different circumferential spacings. Main frequency
relatively small. This can result from the declining uniformity components for the configuration with a 27.5 spacing are
and the increasing mixing loss between nozzles as the approximately multiples of the 13 multiples of the rotational

Fig. 18 Static entropy on nozzle-rotor interface for different circumferential spacing cases.
1852
Fig. 19 Total pressure on nozzle-rotor interface for different circumferential spacing cases.
Fig. 20 Histories of circumferential force on a rotor 1 blade for
different circumferential spacing cases.
Fig. 21 Harmonics of circumferential force on a rotor 1 blade
for different circumferential spacing cases.
frequency, those for the 30 spacing case are approximately
multiples of 12 multiples of the rotational frequency, and those
for the 35 spacing case are approximately multiples of 10 mul-
tiples of the rotational frequency. The configuration with
unequal spacings has similar amplitude-frequency characteris-
tics to those of the normal case. The amplitude of the 1st har-
monic slightly varies, while the amplitudes of main high-order
frequency components apparently increase as the circumferen-
tial spacing increases.
Histories of the axial aerodynamic force on a rotor 1 blade
for configurations with different circumferential spacings are
shown in Fig. 22. The force peaks in the admission area
increase as the circumferential spacing rises, while the force
valley value slightly decreases. Similarly, the force peak and
valley downstream from the No. 4 nozzle are hardly affected.
It reveals that increasing the circumferential spacing could
J. JIANG et al.
Fig. 22 Histories of axial force on a rotor 1 blade for different
circumferential spacing cases.
Fig. 23 Harmonics of axial force on a rotor 1 blade for different
circumferential spacing cases.
result in increasing of the fluctuation range of the axial aerody-
namic force.
Results of FFT analysis of the unsteady axial force on a
rotor 1 blade for configurations with different circumferential
spacings are plotted in Fig. 23. The amplitude-frequency char-
acteristics of the axial force are influenced by the circumferen-
tial spacing in a way that the circumferential force is affected.
The amplitude of the 1st harmonic decreases, while the ampli-
tudes of main high-order frequency components increase as the
circumferential spacing increases.
Generally, increasing the circumferential spacing between
nozzles could reduce the turbine efficiency and increase the
fluctuation range of aerodynamic forces. It is better to use a
circumferential spacing as small as possible when designing
nozzles for a partial-admission turbine.
Effects of axial gap and nozzle distribution on aerodynamic forces of a supersonic partial-admission turbine
4. Conclusions
3D steady and unsteady flow simulations of a two-stage super-
sonic partial-admission turbine have been conducted for differ-
ent configurations, to investigate effects of the axial gap and
circumferential spacing on the predicted aerodynamic perfor-
mance and forces. Results show that:
(1) A strong circumferential pressure distribution is created
by the partial admission. Pressure distributions show
obvious periodicity in the admission region, correspond-
ing to the nozzle number. The pressure distribution
between nozzles and rotor 1 is especially complex.
(2) Rotor blades experience unsteady aerodynamic forces
due to the partial admission. The circumferential force
fluctuates when the blade enters and leaves the admis-
sion region. Aerodynamic forces show periodic varia-
tions due to nozzle exit flow in the admission area,
and are close to zero after leaving the admission region.
(3) Unsteady force components on a rotor 1 blade appear in
a wide frequency region, and the admission passing fre-
quency which is also the rotational frequency is domi-
nant. Those multiples of the rotational frequency
which are multiples of the nozzle number in a full-
admission turbine are notable components.
(4) The turbine efficiency decreases as the axial gap between
nozzles and rotor 1 increases. At the same time, the fluc-
tuation range of the circumferential aerodynamic force
in the admission region decreases. In frequency domain,
amplitudes of main frequency components for the cir-
cumferential force on a rotor 1 blade decrease with the
axial gap increasing. As for the axial force on the rotor
1 blade, the variation is relatively complex. Amplitudes
of frequency components below the 12 multiples
increase, while those over 12 multiples decrease as the
axial gap increases. Generally, unsteady aerodynamic
forces can be reduced by increasing the axial gap at some
expense of turbine efficiency.
(5) The turbine efficiency reduces as the circumferential
spacing between nozzles increases. Fluctuation ranges
of circumferential and axial aerodynamic
forces increase. In frequency domain, the amplitude
of the 1st harmonic decreases, while the amplitudes
of high-order main frequency components increase for
all forces as the circumferential spacing increases. In
general, the force fluctuation in the admission region
increases with the spacing rising. As for the non-
equidistant nozzle dis-tribution, it produces similar
turbine performance and amplitude-frequency
characteristics of forces to those of the normal
configuration, when the mean spacing is equal to that
of the normal case. A circumferential spac-ing as small
as possible is recommended for high turbine efficiency
and small aerodynamic forces.
References
1. He L. Computation of unsteady flow through steam turbine blade
rows at partial admission. Proc Inst Mech Eng Part A: J
Power Energy 1997;211(3):197–205.
1853
2. Zhao B, Yang C, Chen S, Qi MX, Zhou M. Unsteady flow
v a r i a b i li t y d r i v e n b y r o t o r - s t a t or i n t e r a c t i o n a t r o t o r
e x i t . C h i n J Aeronaut 2012;25(6):871–8.
3. Ghenaiet A, Touil K. Characterization of component interactions
in two-stage axial turbine. Chin J Aeronaut 2016;29(4):893–913.
4. Xie YH, Gao KK, Lan JB, Xie GN. Computational fluid
dynamics modeling three-dimensional unsteady turbulent flow
and excitation force in partial admission air turbine. Math Probl
Eng 2013;2013:251926.
5. Yahya SM, Doyle MDC. Aerodynamic losses in partial admission
turbines. Int J Mech Sci 1969;11(5):417–31.
6. Cho CH, Cho SY, Ahn KY. A study of partial admission
characteristics on a small-scale radial-inflow turbine. Proc
Inst Mech Eng Part A: J Power Energy 2010;224:737–48.
7. Beer W, Hirsch P. Influence of partial admission on the down-
stream stages of a reaction turbine: An analytical approach
verified by measurements. New York: ASME; 2013. Report No.:
GT2013- 570 94661.
8. Li JL, Guo XH, Yu C, Huang SH. Catastrophe performance
analysis of steam-flow-excited vibration in the governing stage of
large steam turbines with partial admission. J Energy Res Technol
2013;135(4):041601.
9. Y a h y a S M . S o m e t e s t s o n p a r t i a l a d m i s s i o n t u r b i n e
c a sc a d e s. I n t J Mech Sci 1969;11(10):853–66.
10. Kalkkuhl TJ, Engelmann D, Harbecke U, Mailach R. Numerical
analysis of partial admission flow in an industrial steam turbine.
New York: ASME; 2012. Report No.: GT2012-68482.
11. Lampart P, Szymaniak M, Rzazdkowski R. Unsteady load of
partial admission control stage rotor of a large power steam
turbine. New York: ASME; 2004. Report No.: GT2004-53886.
12. Sakai N, Harada T, Imai Y. Numerical study of partial admission
stages in steam turbine. JSME Int J Ser B 2006;49(2):212–7.
13. Hushmandi NB, Fransson TH. Effects of multiblocking and axial
gap distance on performance of partial admission turbines: a
numerical analysis. J Turbomach 2011;133(3):031028.
14. Qu HC, Zhang D, Xie YH, Cao SH,Wu QL. Numerical
simulation of unsteady flow phenomena and exciting force in
control stage of steam turbine under multiple working conditions.
New 591 York: ASME; 2011. Report No.: POWER2011-55261.
15. Newton P, Copeland C, Martinez-Botas R, Seiler M. An audit of
aerodynamic loss in a double entry turbine under full and partial
admission. Int J Heat Fluid Flow 2012;33(1):70–80.
16. Jocker M, Hillion FX, Fransson TH, Wahlen ˚ U. Numerical
unsteady flow analysis of a turbine stage with extremely large
blade loads. New York: ASME; 2001. Report No.: 2001-GT-0260.
17. Hudson ST, Zoladz TF, Dorney DJ. Rocket engine turbine blade
s u r f a c e p r e s s u r e d i s t r i b u t i o n s : e x p e r i m en t a n d
c o m p u t a t i o ns . J Propul Power 2003;19(3):364–73.
18. Tokuyama Y, Funazaki K, Kato H, Shimiya N, Shimaga M,
Uchiumi M. Computational analysis of unsteady flow in a partial
admission supersonic turbine stage. New York: ASME; 2014. 604
Report No.: GT2014-26071.
19. Tog RA, Tousi AM. Experimental and numerical investigation of
design optimization of a partial admitted supersonic turbine.
Propul Power Res 2013;2(1):70–83.
20. Jia W, Liu HX. Numerical investigation of the interaction
between upstream cavity purge flow and main flow in low
aspect ratio turbine cascade. Chin J Aeronaut 2013;26(1):85–93.
21. Wei ZJ, Qiao WY, Shi PJ, Chen PP, Zhao L. Tip-leakage flow loss
reduction in a two-stage turbine using axisymmetric-casing con-
touring. Chin J Aeronaut 2014;27(5):1111–21.
22. Zhang SW, MacManus DG, Luo JQ. Parametric study of turbine
NGV blade lean and vortex design. Chin J Aeronaut 2016;29
(1):104–16.