Proceedings of 2014 ASME Turbo Expo

Turbo Expo 2014

June 16-20, 2014, Dusseldorf, Germany

GT2014-26989
UNSTEADY AERODYNAMICS AND FORCED RESPONSE STUDIES ON AERODERIVATIVE GAS
TURBINE EXHAUST SYSTEM
Luca Di Mare
Lecturer Whole Engine Modeling
Imperial College London
London, UK

Deepak Thirumurthy
Aerothermal Specialist
Rolls-Royce Energy Systems, Inc.
Mount Vernon, Ohio, USA

Jeffrey S. Green
Associate Fellow Vibrations
Rolls-Royce plc.
Moore Lane, Derby, UK

John Myers
Lead Experimental and Design Systems
Rolls-Royce Energy Systems, Inc.
Mount Vernon, Ohio, USA

ABSTRACT
Industrial and aeroderivative gas turbines use exhaust systems
for flow diffusion and pressure recovery. These processes result
in a three-dimensional, unsteady, turbulent, and complex flow
in the exhaust diffusers. The downstream balance-of-plant
systems such as heat recovery steam generators or selective
catalytic systems require, in general, a steady, uniform flow out
of the exhaust system.
Aeroderivative gas turbines for power generation application
have a wide operational envelope. Even though the exhaust
systems are designed for 70% load to 110% load, its
performance is significantly altered at low power operations.
Application of gas turbines at low power can increase exhaust
diffuser vibrations because of diffuser flow separations and
wakes from the last stage of the power turbine. Aerodynamic
excitations which result in excessive structural vibration can
cause the units to trip and the power plant to stop, resulting in
customer revenue loss.
The primary motivation for this research is to investigate an
aerodynamic mechanism to ensure reliable operation of the
exhaust system by identifying the regimes where aerodynamic
instabilities can occur. In-house and university supported
initiative to predict unsteady aerodynamics at low power
conditions shows the presence of turbulent and time dependent
flow.
The frequency spectrum results are discussed for low power
and high power gas turbine operating conditions. The numerical
predictions are in good agreement with test results.

NOMENCLATURE
TDC
U
Fi
Gi
Pr
R
Re
S
T
E
k
p
s
t
ui
xi
y+

ij

t
ij

exhaust diffuser top dead center

primary dependent variable vector
flux vector
stress vector
Prandtl number
body force vector
Reynolds number
surface area
temperature
total internal energy
turbulent kinetic energy
pressure
complex frequency
time
velocity vector
spatial vector
non-dimensional distance from wall
reference domain
kronecker delta
turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate
ratio of specific heat
wave number
bulk viscosity
viscosity of air
turbulent viscosity
viscous stress tensor
density of air
turbulent kinetic energy specific dissipation rate

Copyright Rolls-Royce Energy Systems, Inc. 2014