Large Eddy Simulation for Turbines: Methodologies, Cost and Future Outlooks

Abstract

Flows throughout different zones of turbines have been investigated using large eddy simulation (LES) and hybrid Reynoldsaveraged Navier–StokesLES (RANSLES) methods and contrasted with RANS modeling, which is more typically used in the design environment. The studied cases include low and highpressure turbine cascades, real surface roughness effects, internal cooling ducts, trailing edge cutbacks, and labyrinth and rim seals. Evidence is presented that shows that LES and hybrid RANSLES produces higher quality data than RANS/URANS for a wide range of flows. The higher level of physics that is resolved allows for greater flow physics insight, which is valuable for improving designs and refining lower order models. Turbine zones are categorized by flow type to assist in choosing the appropriate eddy resolving method and to estimate the computational cost.