Energy Systems

Axial and Radial Turbines-III

Degree of Reaction

Another useful dimensionless parameter is the "degree for reaction"

or simply the "reaction" R. It may be defined for a turbine as the

fraction of overall enthalpy drop (or pressure drop) occurring in the

rotor
h2 − h3
Thus, R= (1)
h01 − h03

T2 − T3
or, R=
T01 − T03
Turbine stages in which the entire pressure drop occurs in the nozzle-

blades are called "impulse stages".

Stages in which a part of the pressure drop occurs in the nozzle and

the rest in the rotor are called reaction stages. In a 50% reaction

turbine, the enthalpy drop in the rotor would be half of the total for the

stage.

An impulse turbine stage is shown in Figure1, along with the velocity

diagram for the common case of constant axial velocity. Since no

enthalpy change occurs within the rotor, the energy equation within

the rotor requires that Vr 2 = Vr 3 .

If the axial velocity is held constant, then this requirement is satisfied

by
3 = − 2
 3
Va

Figure 1 Impulse turbine stage with constant axial velocity

Degree of reaction

From the velocity diagram, we can see that

Vrw3 = −Vrw 2

i.e. Vw2 −Vw3 = 2Vrw2

= 2 (Vw2 −U )

 Va 
= 2U  tan  2 −1
U 
Vw2 −Vw3
Then, =
U
= 2 ( tan  2 −1) (2)
The Eq (2) illustrates the effect of the nozzle outlet angle on the
alpha_2

impulse turbine work output.

It is evident, then, that for large power output the nozzle angle should

be as large as possible. Two difficulties are associated with very

large  2 . For reasonable axial velocities (i.e., reasonable flow per

unit frontal area), it is evident that large  2 creates very large

absolute and relative velocities throughout the stage. High losses are

associated with such velocities, especially if the relative

velocity Vr 2 is supersonic.
In practice, losses seem to be minimized for values

of  2 around 70 . In addition, one can see that for

large  2  tan  2  ( 2U Va )  , the absolute exhaust velocity will

have a swirl in the direction opposite to U. While we have not

introduced the definition of turbine efficiency as yet, it is clear that,

in a turbojet engine where large axial exhaust velocity is desired,

the kinetic energy associated with the tangential motion of the

exhaust gases is essentially a loss.

Furthermore, application of the angular momentum equation over

the entire engine indicates that exhaust swirl is associated with an

(undesirable) net torque acting on the aircraft. Thus the desire is for

axial or near-axial absolute exhaust velocity (at least for the last

stage if a multistage turbine is used). For the special case of

constant V
Va
f
and axial exhaust velocity Vw3 = 0 and Vw2 = 2U ,

the Eq.2 becomes,

 Vw 2U 
 =2  tan  2 = V = V = 2 
 a a 