Rotordynamic Forces Due to Rotor Sealing Gap in Turbines

비대칭 터빈 로터 실에 기인한 축 가진력

Turbines have been known to be particularly susceptible to flow-induced self-excited vibration. In such vibrations, direct damping and cross stiffness effects of aerodynamic forces determine rotordynamic stability. In axial turbines with eccentric shrouded rotors, the non-uniform sealing gap causes azimuthal non-uniformities in the seal gland pressure and the turbine torque which destabilize the rotor system. Previously, research efforts focused solely on either the seal flow or the unshrouded turbine passge flow. Recently, a model for flow in a turbine with a statically offset shrouded rotor has been developed and some stiffness predictions have been obtained. The model couples the seal flow to the passage flow and uses a small perturbation approach to determine nonaxiymmetric flow conditions. The model uses basic conservation laws. Input parameters include aerodynamic parameters (e.g. flow coefficient, reaction, and work coefficient); geometric parameters (e.g. sealing gap, depth of seal gland, seal pitch, annulus height); and a prescribed rotor offset. Thus, aerodynamic stiffness predictions have been obtained. However, aerodynamic damping (i.e. unsteady aerodynamic) effects caused by a whirling turbine has not yet been examined. Therefore, this paper presents a new unsteady model to predict the unsteady flow field due to a whirling shrouded rotor in turbines. From unsteady perturbations in velocity and pressure at various whirling frequencies, not only stiffness but also damping effects of aerodynamic forces can be obtained. Furthermore, relative contributions of seal gland pressure asymmetry and turbine torque asymmetry are presented.