Aerodynamic Design of Fixed and Variable Geometry Nozzleless Turbine Casings

Abstract

A design method has been developed to produce nozzleless turbine casings which provide a centrifugal turbine wheel with a uniform inlet state. The analysis includes the effect of wall friction and has been found to accurately predict the mass flow versus pressure ratio characteristics of nozzleless casings. The uniform inlet state provided by this design approach provides turbine wheel/casing configurations with near optimum efficiency and a very low aerodynamic blade vibration excitation level. The model has been extended to produce variable area casings to simulate a simplified variable casing geometry. Testing has verified the accuracy of the approach both in the design point and variable geometry cases. Also depicted are new insights into turbine wheel design constraints discovered when using a variable geometry turbine casing.