Energy Systems

Axial and Radial Turbines

TURBINE (Preliminaries)

Axial Flow Turbine

A gas turbine unit for power generation or a turbojet engine for

production of thrust primarily consists of a compressor, combustion

chamber and a turbine. The air as it passes through the compressor,

experiences an increase in pressure. There after the air is fed to the

combustion chamber leading to an increase in temperature. This high

pressure and temperature gas is then passed through the turbine,

where it is expanded and the required power is obtained.

Turbines, like compressors, can be classified into radial, axial and

mixed flow machines. In the axial machine the fluid moves

essentially in the axial direction through the rotor. In the radial type,

the fluid motion is mostly radial. The mixed-flow machine is

characterized by a combination of axial and radial motion of the fluid

relative to the rotor. The choice of turbine type depends on the

application, though it is not always clear that any one type is superior.
 Turbine

Turbofan Engine of an Aircraft

In recent years advances have been made in turbine blade cooling

and in the metallurgy of turbine blade materials. This means that

turbines are able to operate successfully at increasingly high inlet

gas temperatures and that substantial improvements are being made

in turbine engine thrust, weight, and fuel consumption.

Flow angles and Blade angles

Two-dimensional theory of axial flow turbine.

An axial turbine stage consists of a row of stationary blades, called

nozzles or stators, followed by the rotor, as Figure 2 illustrates.

Because of the large pressure drop per stage, the nozzle and rotor

blades may be of increasing length, as shown, to accommodate the

rapidly expanding gases, while holding the axial velocity to

something like a uniform value through the stage.

It should be noted that the hub-tip ratio for a high pressure gas

turbine in quite high, that is, it is having blades of short lengths.

Thus, the radial variation in velocity and pressure may be neglected

and the performance of a turbine stage is calculated from the

performance of the blading at the mean radial section, which is a

two-dimensional pitch-line design analysis. A low-pressure turbine

will typically have a much lower hub-tip ratio and a larger blade

twist. A two dimensional design is not valid in this case.

In two dimensional approach the flow velocity will have two

components, one axial and the other peripheral, denoted by

subscripts 'a' and ' w ' respectively. The absolute velocity is denoted

by V and the relative velocity with respect to the impeller by Vr .

The flow conditions 1 indicates inlet to the nozzle or stator vane, 2

exit from the nozzle or inlet to the rotor and 3 exit form the rotor.

Absolute angle is represented by α and relative angle by β as

before.
 U2

Figure 2 Axial Turbine Stage

GAS TURBINE (Blade loading Capacity, Flow coefficient)

Again applying the angular momentum relation-ship, we may show

that the power output as,

P = m (U 2Vw2 −U 3Vw3 ) (1)

In an axial turbine,
U 2 U 3 = U ( say )

The work output per unit mass flow rate is

WT = U (Vw2 −Vw3 )

Again, WT = C p (T01 − T03 )

Defining T0 = T01 − T03 = T02 − T03

The rotor blade inlet angle is chosen to suit the direction  2 of the gas
velocity Vr 2 relative to the blade at inlet,  2 and Vr 2 are found by
vectorial subtraction of the blade speed U from the absolute
velocity V2

After being deflected and usually further expanded in the rotor blade
passages, the gas leaves at p3 , T3 with relative velocity Vr3 at angle
𝛽3 . Vectorial addition of the blade speed U yields the magnitude
and direction of velocity V3 and  3
 Va1

Rotor blade inlet

Va 2 triangle

Va 3

Figure 3 Combined velocity diagram