THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS

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94-GT-126

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Printed in U.S.A.

Copyright 1994 by ASME

RIM SEALING OF ROTOR-STATOR WHEELSPACES

IN THE PRESENCE OF EXTERNAL FLOW
J. W. Chew
Aerothermal Methods
Rolls-Royce plc
Derby, United Kingdom
T. Green and A. B. Turner
Thermo-Fluid Mechanics Research Centre
University of Sussex
Brighton, East Sussex, United Kingdom

ABSTRACT

axial width of cavity divided by

Sealing of the cavity formed between a rotating disc

and a stator with an asymmetric external flow is considered. In these circumstances circumferential pressure variations in the external flow and the pumping
action of the disc may draw fluid into the cavity. Gas
concentration measurements, showing this effect, have
been obtained from a model experiment with a simple
axial clearance seal. In the experiment, guide vanes,
fitted upstream of the rim seal, generate an asymmetric
external flow. The measurements are shown to be in
reasonable agreement with three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) calculations and are also
compared with more elementary models. The CFD results give further insight into the effects of ingestion
within the cavity.

G,
L
m.
m
N
p
p
P

seal clearance divided by cavity radius

seal "length"
coolant (i.e. cavity) mass flow rate
ingested mass flow rate
number of guide vanes
static pressure
mean static pressure
non-dimensional inlet pressure

NOMENCLATURE
A
Cd
Cp ,,
Cw

mean annulus flow angle to axial

direction
discharge coefficient
pressure coefficient p z p l /2 pue
mass flow parameter ri /pr o

cavity radius

Op/ 2 p(V z + U 2 )
r

ro
R
Re ,z
Ro
u
Ue
Urn
udi
U

radius
outer radius of cavity
radius ratio r/r a
axial Reynolds number pu e r o /p
rotation number tar o /u 5
axial velocity
average axial velocity for annulus flow
continuity derived average velocity
(in r-z plane) for seal
velocity in r-z plane
representative of disc pumping
mean axial velocity in potential
flow solution

Presented at the International Gas Turbine and Aeroengine Congress and Exposition
The Hague, Netherlands June 13-16, 1994

v
V
w
z

rl
77 C
ry e

0
p
p

4P
w
Subscripts
a
c
in
out

1
2

tangential velocity component

mean tangential velocity in
potential flow solution
radial velocity component
axial distance
flow angle to axial direction
amplitude of circumferential
pressure asymmetry
concentration of nitrous oxide
concentration at cavity inlet
concentration at annulus inlet
angular coordinate
viscosity
density
sealing effectiveness
(77

?le)/(77c

lie)

angular velocity of rotor

annulus
cavity
radial inflow
radial outflow
upstream of guide vanes
downstream of guide vanes

available for estimating ingestion due to disc pumping

alone. Such models are directly relevant to situations
where rotational effects dominate, such as the inner
seal in a double seal arrangement.
The influence of external flow, and in particular circumferential pressure variations in the main gas flow
path on rim sealing, has been noted by Campbell
(1978). The importance of this effect has been confirmed by the experimental work of Abe et al (1979),
Kobayashi et al (1984), Phadke and Owen (1988),
Dadkhah et al (1991) and Hamabe and Ishida (1992).
These studies have included external flow with various
degrees of pressure asymmetry caused by guide vanes
or other flow disturbances in the stationary reference
plane. As suggested by Campbell, the presence of an
axisymmetric external flow tends to improve sealing,
while circumferential asymmetries tend to increase ingestion. The combined effects of guide vanes and rotor
blades on gas ingestion have been studied experimentally by Green and Turner (1992). It was found that
the measured ingestion with both guide vanes and rotor blades together could be less than the ingestion
with vanes alone. Thus, for a full description of the
problem, it appears that both three-dimensional and
unsteady effects must be included.

1 INTRODUCTION
In modern gas turbines, ingestion of the hot mainstream gas into the space between a rotating turbine
disc and a stator can severely affect disc temperatures.
As discussed more fully by Campbell (1978), the designer is faced with the problem of suppressing ingestion while minimising component weight and use of
cooling air. Although previous research has given some
insight into this problem, there is still a need for detailed experimental data and the development of mathematical models for the prediction of hot gas ingestion
and its effects. In this paper experimental and theoretical results are presented for the model problem of
ingestion into the cavity between plane rotor and stator discs with a simple axial clearance rim seal and an
asymmetric external flow.
Much of the previously published work on rim sealing
has concentrated on ingestion due to disc pumping.
For example, Bayley and Owen (1970) considered the
simple axial seal in the absence of external flow and
obtained a correlation for the minimum sealing flow
rate needed to prevent ingestion. Other workers (e.g.
Phadke and Owen (1988), Daniels et al (1990), Chew
et al (1991) and Bhavnani et al (1992)) have further
examined the influence of disc pumping, for various
seal geometries, and empirically based models are now

.._..._.._

....-.........e

seal gap

trace
probe

Figure 1: General assembly of rig

The main aim of the present work is to clarify the
fluid dynamics of the rim sealing problem through combined experimental and mathematical modelling studies. The experimental apparatus and the mathematical
models used will be described in the next two sections.
Results are then reported and discussed in section 4,
with the main conclusions being summarised in section
5.

2 EXPERIMENTAL APPARATUS
A general outline of the rig, which is basically similar
to that used by Dadkhah et al (1991) and Green and
Turner (1992), is shown in Figure 1. This comprised
a rotor-stator system enclosed by an annular channel
through which the mainstream flow was drawn by a
large centrifugal fan located well downstream of the
seal gap; the total pressure and temperature upstream
of the NGVs were therefore atmospheric.
The central rotor-stator assembly was supported inside the external mainstream flow annulus by eight
aerodynamic struts upstream of the NGVs and eight
downstream of the rotor. No influence of the wake
from these struts was detected. The rotor was driven
by a radial inflow turbine at speeds up to 16000 rpm.
The stator and rotor faces were completely flat and
the wheelspace gap and the axial rim seal clearance
were maintained constant at 20 mm and 2 mm respectively (G = 0.1, G, = 0.01). The rotor and stator
shroud diameters were 400 mm and the constant diameter external flow annulus, of height 30 mm, contained
18 NGVs (20 pitching) individually moulded from an
epoxy/metal compound and mounted at one of four
alternative loations upstream from the seal edge, as
shown in Figure 2. The centrally fed cooling/sealing
flow was supplied from a separate source and was capable of delivering 0.15m 3 /s at a pressure of 1100 mm
W.G., and the coolant mass flow rate was measured by
an orifice plate.
2.1 Pressure
Static pressure tappings were made in the
wheelspace on three radial lines at nine radius ratios,
the most outer one being at R = 0.95. A single circumferential row of static pressure taps were made in
the mainstream exactly on the line of the trailing edge
of the nozzle guide vanes when fitted in position 2 to
measure the outlet static profile at the hub. This corresponded to a position 12.9 mm upstream of the edge of
the rim seal. All pressures, including those across the
wheelspace coolant flow orifice plate, were recorded using a micro-computer controlled Scanivalve.
2.2 Nitrous Oxide gas concentration
The detection and quantification of mainstream flow
ingestion was made by seeding the coolant supply to
the wheelspace with approximately 450 ppm of nitrous
oxide and sampling through four 1 mm bore tubes
at four radial positions, R = 0.163, 0.411, 0.658 and
0.905. The uncertainty in the gas concentration measurements, estimated at 2%, was due principally to
the averaging of the small rapid fluctuations in concentration experienced inside the wheelspace.

13 static
pressure
tappings
from SSto 79-5

Extemal tic

Figure 2: Details of the guide vanes; [i] the four axial

locations of the NGV trailing edge; [ii] plan view of
the NGVs

3 MATHEMATICAL MODELLING
3.1 Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
Earlier CFD studies for rotating disc flows have
largely been confined to axisymmetric conditions, for
which quite extensive validations against experimental
data have been carried out. The computer program
used here is a 3D extension of the code described by
Vaughan et al (1989). The numerical methods embodied in the code include a finite volume discretisation of
the differential equations, the SIMPLEC pressure correction algorithm, and a non-linear multigrid acceleration technique. The equations solved are the Reynoldsaveraged Navier-Stokes equations with a mixing length
model of turbulence. In this study incompressibility
has been assumed, as this is a reasonable approximation of the experimental conditions. As details of the

model and validation for axisymmetric rotating disc

flows have been reported elsewhere (e.g. Vaughan et al
1989 and Chew and Vaughan 1988), they will not be

w=0

(2)

repeated here.
To model the experimental conditions, a 20 0 sector
is considered with cyclic boundary conditions in the
circumferential direction (see Figure 3). The central
inlet to the cavity was specified as having a uniform
axial velocity with zero radial and tangential velocity
components. On solid walls the usual no slip velocity
boundary conditions were applied and zero derivative
conditions were assumed at the annulus flow exit.

v = V

u = U

c> = A

0.5.^p
P

VZ

+ U2 sin(N8 + A)exp(zN/r) (3)

0.5Ap
cos(NO + A)exp(zN/r) (4)
P V2 + U 2
0.50p
0. +

p( V2

U2)

sin(N6 + A)exp(zN/r) (5)

Here (w, v, u) is the velocity in a cylindrical co-

ordinate system

r=o.2m

(r, 8, z), p

is the static pressure,

is the flow angle to the axial direction, p is the fluid

density, N is the number of NGV's, T, V, U, A represent a basic solution, and Op is the amplitude of the
pressure perturbation at z = 0. The solution is derived
assuming small perturbations and neglecting curvature
effects.

_ r-o.2m

r=o.197m

Figure 3: Geometry considered for CFD solution and

predicted velocity vectors;Re. = 5 x 10 5 ; Ro = 1.6;
P=2.5;u m /u e =0.064(Cw=2000)
The annulus flow inlet conditions required special attention. The guide vanes were not modelled directly in
this approach. Instead the inlet conditions were adjusted so as to approximately match the experimental
flow conditions in the region of the rim seal. In order to achieve this, use was made of an approximate
analytical solution for potential flow with a periodic
circumferential variation (supplied by Cargill, 1992a).
For the conditions considered here this solution may
be written:
p = p+ 0.50pcos(N8)exp(zN/r)

(1)

The above solution was implemented in the code by

using eqns. (2), (3) and (4) to set the velocity field
at the inlet z = 0. N and A were specified as 18
and 66 so as to approximately match the experimental
conditions. U and V were calculated from a specified
mass flow rate and the flow angle. Near the annulus
walls the velocities were adjusted to give 1/7th power
law profiles across boundary layers of 1mm thickness.
The non-dimensional inlet pressure asymmetry P =
2.^p/p(V 2 + U 2 ) was adjusted so as to approximately
match the experimental pressure asymmetry in the seal
region.
To compare with the experimental measurements of
nitrous oxide concentration, it was necessary to solve a
species concentration equation. This was done through
the use of the energy equation with the source terms
omitted (i.e. no frictional heating). Laminar and turbulent Prandtl (or Schmidt) numbers of 0.7 and 0.9
were specified. Zero normal gradient of concentration
at the walls and exit was assumed. At the annulus and
cavity inlets, two different values of uniform concentration were specified.
The finite difference meshes used were uniform in
the 8-direction but non-uniform, with smooth expansions and contractions, in the r z plane. For the
calculations reported here, the mesh had 67, 10 and 55
locations in the r, 8 and z locations, respectively. Axisymmetric calculations with twice the number of mesh
locations in each direction, and a 3D calculation with

20 points in the 9-direction, indicated that discretisation errors were sufficiently low for an initial assessment. Complete mesh independence is not claimed,
however. Convergence of the solution could usually be
obtained in about 100 multigrid cycles, requiring about
90 minutes cpu time on an Amdahl 5990 1400.
3.2 Simpler Models
Some success with relatively simple models for predicting ingestion due to both disc pumping (e.g. Chew
et al, 1991) and mainstream pressure asymmetry (e.g.
Hamabe and Ishida, 1992) has been reported previously. In this paper, we concentrate on the effects of
pressure asymmetry and include comparison of experimental results with an elementary model. The development of more complete models is currently being
investigated and may be reported later.
Considering that the length scale of the circumferential pressure asymmetries will be much greater than
the seal clearance, it might be assumed that the rim
seal flow can be treated as locally two-dimensional with
orifice theory assumed to apply. Hamabe and Ishida
(1992) have published such a method and proprietary
methods based on this approach have been available
for some time (e.g. Campbell, unpublished work). According to this model, the cavity pressure p c is assumed
constant, any effects of the tangential velocity component are neglected, and the mean velocity through the
seal, u rn , is given by:
19

= C '2 1 P,

pal

(6)

Here Cd is a discharge coefficient and p a is the annulus pressure, u rn takes the sign of p c p a , and U r ,
Cd and p a may be functions of 9. For a given annulus
pressure distribution, integration of eqn. (6) around
the circumference allows the flow into and out of the
cavity to be determined as a function of p c . Performing
calculations for a range of p, values the ingested flow
rate may be obtained as a function of the net throughflow rate for the cavity. An estimate of the sealing
effectiveness is then given by:

'D = m/(rh + min) (7)

where viz is the net coolant mass flow rate and rhi,,
is the ingestion flow rate.
The neglect of tangential velocity in the above model
deserves further discussion. The radial pressure gradient balancing the centripetal force terms has been neglected in axisymmetric models of disc pumping-driven

NCV trailing edge

measurement station

1400

s Re z =5.0x10 5

Rez=4.0x10S
10o Rezo3.0
x10

1200

1000

n
a 600
400

0
0

10 15

20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55

arnl distance downstream of NCV trailing cdgc (mm)

Figure 4: Measured annulus pressure distribution for

Ro = 0.0; [i] circumferential variation of pressure just
downstream of the vanes; [ii] axial variation of pressure
asymmetry amplitude

ingestion and, as a first approximation, its neglect may

also be justified for the current calculations (see Chew,
1989). A further effect of the tangential velocity may
be identified in the present three-dimensional situation.
With N nozzle guide vanes, an element of fluid travelling with tangential velocity v will traverse one wave of
the pressure asymmetry in time 2irr/Nv. If this time
is not large compared to the time taken for a fluid element to pass through the seal then inertial effects associated with the tangential velocity may be significant.
Defining a representative seal "length" L, we require
LNv/27rru m to be small for these inertial effects to
be negligible. Considering the conditions of interest in
aero-engines, it is considered likely that these inertial
terms can be significant. This argument is supported
by a fuller analysis (Cargill, 1992b) and, since it is easily extended to the combined guide vanes-rotor blade

case, may help understanding of the experimental results of Green and Turner (1992).
It is also of interest to examine the conditions under which disc pumping will affect the rate of ingestion. From the model for disc pumping-driven ingestion, we can associate a dynamic head of 2 pud,,, with
the pumping flow for the axial clearance seal. Here
ud fz is a radial velocity associated with the disc pumping, and is typically of order 0.lwr. Thus we might
expect rotation to have little effect on ingestion when
0.005pw 2 r' /Op2 is small, where .Ap2 is the amplitude
of the circumferential pressure asymmetry. This order
of magnitude analysis for the effect of rotation is very
similar to that of Hamabe and Ishida (1992).

4000

3000

2000

4 RESULTS
4.1 Annulus Flow
Measured pressure distributions downstream of the
guide vanes are shown in Figure 4 for various annulus
flow rates with no rotation and no cooling flow. From
tests with the guide vanes in positions 2, 3 and 4 in
Figure 2, the pressure distribution downstream of the
vanes was determined. Figure 4 [i] shows the circumferential pressure variation just downstream of the vanes,
while Figure 4 [ii] shows the axial decay of the pressure asymmetry amplitude /p2. The non-dimensional
pressure Cpis defined as (P2 pl)/ 2 pue where P2 is
the measured pressure, and pl and u e are the static
pressure and axial velocity upstream of the vanes.
With the inlet asymmetry specified as described in
section 3.1, the CFD calculation gave a more rapid
axial decay of the pressure asymmetry than was measured on the rig. The CFD results are shown in Figure
5 which gives results at fixed annulus flow rate and rotational speed, for various levels of inlet asymmetry,
and for two different coolant flow rates. Close to the
seal the pressure field is affected by interaction with
the ejected cavity flow, so results for this region are
not included in this figure. The numerical results show
a slightly faster decay rate than eqn. (1) (which indicates a factor 0.53 in amplitude between z = 10 mm
and 17 mm on the figure). The 0-variation and the
relation between the amplitudes of the circumferential
variations were found to be roughly in agreement with
eqns. (1) to (4).
While the agreement between eqns. (1) to (5) and
the numerical results is reassuring, the comparison of
the calculated and measured decay rate for the pressure
asymmetry gives some cause for concern. The flow rate
of decay that has been measured may well be associated
with shortcomings in the vane design, leading to flow

1000
location

10

12

14

16

18

20

axial distance from inlet (mm)

Figure 5: Axial variation of annulus pressure asymmetry from CFD solution; Re ; = 5 x 10 5 ; Ro = 1.6;
X u m /u e = 0.064 (Cw = 2000); 0 u,,,./u e = 0.194
(Cw = 6000)

separation. It must be concluded that details of the

experimental annulus flow will not be reproduced in the
numerical simulation although, in the region of the seal,
gross features such as average flow angle and velocities
may be captured.

4.2 Seal Discharge Coefficients

The simple model defined by eqn. (6) is clearly sensitive to the choice of discharge coefficient for the seal
and this can be expected to depend on both annulus
and cavity flow conditions as well as seal geometry.
While some guidance can be obtained from data in
the open literature, considerable uncertainty regarding
the appropriate choice of Cd remains; accordingly discharge coefficient measurements were included in the
present study. Figure 6 shows a plot of discharge coefficient against the annulus-to-seal mean velocity ratio. For these experiments there was no disc. rotation
and the vanes were not fitted. In the figure Cd,o,Lt
and Cd,2,, refer to flow out of and into the cavity,
respectively. The axial Reynolds number (Re ; ) and
cavity mass flow parameter (Cw) were varied in the

1.00.80.60
0.4-

___

0.20 . 0 _t

10

15

20

25

30

u./u, n
[i]

1.00.80.6

-_

U
0.4 -

reasonable agreement with the present results. Fitt et

al's (1985) analytical solution for inviscid flow through
a slot at low blowing rates also shows encouraging
agreement with the measurements at high values of
u e /u1 . For the inflow case, the comparison of the
present data with the inviscid, slot suction theory of
Dewynne et al (1989) is less encouraging. The discrepancies between theory and measurement for this
case at higher values of u e /u,,,, may well be associated
with circumferential pressure asymmetries in the annulus which might be expected to dominate at low suction
flow rates. Static pressure recovery in the seal, which
is not included in Dewynne et al's theory might also
account for some discrepancy between theory and experiment. Further investigation of this case is to be
undertaken. Unfortunately it was not possible to repeat the experiment once the differences with Dewynne
et al's result had been discovered. With considerable
uncertainties remaining, caution should be exercised in
applying eqns. (8) and (9) to other flow situations.
4.3 Sealing Effectiveness
The sealing effectiveness (D provides a convenient
measure of the degree of ingestion. From the concentration measurements on the stator, C is estimated according to the equation:

0.2 -

0.0 I
0

I
5

10

15

20

4 > = ('7 ?1e)/(r7c lie) (10)

I

25

30

u./u m

'Iii'
Figure 6: Discharge coefficients without vanes for Ro =
0.0; [i] outflow; [ii] inflow
ranges 0 < Re ; /10 6 < 1.4, 3.2 < Cw/10 3 _< 11 and
0 < Re /10 6 < 1.2, 3.5 < Cw/10 3 < 14 for the outflow
and inflow cases respectively. The following equations
are shown to correlate the results reasonably well.

Cd,out = 0.695 0.0592(u e /u m,) + 0.00147(u e /u m )'

(8)
Cd,i ri = 0.561-0.0496(ue/u m )+ 0.00353(ue/u1) 2 (9)
Comparison with other workers' results for discharge coefficient (brought to the authors' attention
by Jones,1992) are also shown in the figure. For the
outflow case, Hamabe and Ishida's measurements show

where r7 denotes nitrous oxide concentration and the

subscripts e and c refer to inlet conditions for the annulus and cavity, respectively. Where a single effectiveness is presented for the entire cavity, this is an average
of the measurement points. For the CFD results 1 is
also obtained from eqn. (10) using the species concentration solution. In the elementary model eqn. (7) is
used to give an overall estimate of (P for the cavity. If
full mixing is assumed within the cavity, eqn. (7) may
be derived from eqn. (10).
The experimental results for 4D are shown in Figure
7. Here 4D is plotted against the seal-to-annulus flow
velocity ratio u,/u e . From the simple model, which
neglects rotational effects, the data for a fixed position
of the guide vanes might be expected to collapse when
plotted in this way, provided the pressure asymmetry
is directly proportional to the annulus flow dynamic
head. According to the annulus pressure measurements
this relation is a fair (but rough) approximation in the
present experiments.
Looking first at the results in Figure 7 [i], for which
the vanes were just upstream of the seal, some collapse
of the data can be claimed. The results for the highest
rotation number Ro = wr o /u e 11 show generally

R Re,^510000
t Re,-510000
Re.-510000
X Re,-420000
+ Re,-290000
A Re,-510000
O Re,-410000
O Re,-290000

5
0.0

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.6-

0.5-

0.3

0.35

0.4

0.45

0.5

UI."

0.9-

0.7-

0.25

1.0-

0.8-

0.2

Ro-4.72
Ro.. 1.57
Ro-6.3
Ro-7.83
Ro-11.07
Ro-3.15
Ro-3.91
Ro-5.54

IIAPAIIIIII

IIUlIu

u..11I1 I

0.0

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

0.35

0.4

0.45

0.5

[ii] Urn/tie

iiI

IIp.

proximated as 0.007Ro 2 << 1, and so the experimental results are consistent with the order of magnitude
arguments. Further scatter in the experimental results
might be attributed to Reynolds number effects including variation of the pressure asymmetry, mixing of the
flow in the cavity and seal discharge coefficient variations. One aspect of the measurements that is not fully
understood is the apparent levelling off of the effectiveness, at a value less than 1, as u,,,/u e increases. This
phenomena has been noticed in earlier studies with
guide vanes fitted (see Green and Turner, 1992) and
may be associated with the complex interaction of the
coolant and annulus flows. Note that the dynamic head
associated with the circumferential velocity in the annulus is quite large and disturbances of this flow could
give rise to significant, possibly unsteady, static pressure variations.
The results given in Figure 7 [ii], for the vanes in
position 2 (shown on Figure 2), include the case of zero
rotation. The absence of rotation will radically alter
the flow and mixing in the cavity, so the estimates of
sealing effectiveness for the zero rotation cases should
be viewed with caution. The results with rotation show
similar trends to those in Figure 7 [i].
With the vanes fitted in position 3 (see Figure 2),
the amplitude of the pressure asymmetry at the seal is
roughly half that with the vanes in position 1. The criterion, discussed above, for pressure asymmetry dominated ingestion therefore becomes 0.014Ro 2 << 1. It is
debatable whether the results in Figure 7 [iii] show this
predicted increased sensitivity to rotation, the scatter

of the results being too large to pin-point the onset

0

iuiimH 111 I
0.0

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

[nil

0.25

0.3

0.35

0.4

0.45

0.5

U WUe

Figure 7: Measured sealing effectiveness; [i] vanes at

position 1; [ii] vanes at position 2; [iii] vanes at position
3

lower levels of sealing effectiveness than other conditions. This suggests that the ingestion is driven principally by the pressure asymmetry with disc pumping
becoming important at the extreme of the experimental
range. The criterion given in section 3.2 for rotational
effects to be negligible is that 0.005pw 2 r 2 /Op2 should
be small. For these conditions this can be roughly ap-

of rotational effects. A reduction in the level of ingestion as the vanes are moved further upstream can
be seen by comparing Figures 7 [i], [ii] and [iii]. It
may also be noted that the level of ingestion for the
case wr o /u e 11 is considerably less than would be
expected in the absence of external flow. This is attributed to the sealing effect of the crossflow as shown
by the discharge coefficients in Figure 6.
A comparison of CFD predictions with effectiveness measurements is shown in Figure 8. The nondimensional inlet pressure for the CFD calculations was
set to P = 2.5 here. This gives a similar level of pressure asymmetry just upstream of the seal to that in the
experiment with the vanes in position 1. The degree
of agreement between calculation and measurement is
perhaps as good as might be expected considering the
simplifications in the CFD model. This result is encouraging in that it suggests that it may not be necessary to capture all the details of the annulus flow to
gauge the effect of ingestion.

Ap e = 0.25pUe
10

1 01
-

NGV =3

0.9
0.8

0.8

0.7

07

0.6

0.6

0.5

05

Measurements Re z = Six 10, Ro = 1.6 , NGV= 1

Rez=5X105, Ro=1.6, P=2.5
CFD

APe = 0.75pUe

Um/Ue
a
+

NGV= ^

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

Um/Ue
--6 measurements Re
--- simple model

5x105, R o= 3

Figure 8: Comparison of CFD calculations and measurements of sealing effectiveness

Figure 9: Comparison of simple model calculations and

measurements of sealing effectiveness

Figure 9 gives a comparison of effectiveness measurements with the simple model described in Section 3.2.
In these calculations eqn. (6) was used to model the
seal flow, with discharge coefficients given by eqns. (8)
and (9), and pressure asymmetries of the shape shown
in Figure 4 (for the higher annulus flow rate) were
assumed. Numerical methods were used to integrate
around the circumference of the cavity. Predictions
from the model are presented for pressure asymmetries equal to 75% and 25% of the axial dynamic head
for the annulus; these conditions are representative of
the extremes of the experimental range. The measurements shown are for a relatively low rotation number
(Ro .:s 3) and with the guide vanes fitted in positions
1 and 3. The main conclusion drawn from this figure
is that the simple model tends to overestimate the degree of ingestion. Further calculations using Dewynne
et al's (1989) result for the inflow discharge coefficient
showed some sensitivity to the choice of Cd,i,^ but confirmed this general conclusion.
4.4 The Seal and Cavity Flow
Since details of the disc cavity flow for a rotor-stator
in axisymmetric conditions have been discussed elsewhere (e.g. Chew and Vaughan, 1988), we concentrate
here on the three-dimensional flow that dominates the
present problem in the vicinity of the seal. An exam-

ple of the flow pattern is presented in Figure 3. This

shows distinct regions of inflow and outflow through
the seal, and indicates that the cavity flow becomes
axisymmetric away from the seal. An interesting point
to note in this figure is that the circumferential position of maximum inflow is displaced from the position
of peak annulus pressure. This is attributed to inertial effects associated with the circumferential velocity
component, as discussed in Section 3.2.
Further details of the seal flow are illustrated in Fig-

ure 10 which gives examples of velocity vectors in the

rz plane at locations of maximuminflow and outflow.
For the flow conditions in this figure the continuity derived seal velocity um is 2.3 m/s while velocities (in the
r z plane) up to 30 m/s occur in the solution. Clearly
the annulus pressure asymmetry dominates the flow in

this case.

Since the effects of ingestion on disc temperature are

of primary concern, it is interesting to look at the variation of sealing effectiveness (as defined by eqn. (10))
on the rotor. Figure 11 gives examples of these results
for two cases with different degrees of ingestion. The
CFD and experimental data for the species concentra-

tion on the stator disc are also given in these graphs.

In each case results at just one circumferential position
are plotted; variations with 9 being small.

10
0.8
0-6
0-4
0.2

0-20

0-10

Iil

r(m)

0-20

0.10
[ul

r(m)

Figure 11: Sealing effectiveness on rotor and stator

discs; 0 measurement on stator Re, = 5.1 x 10 5 ; Ro =
1.6; NGV = 1; CFD Re_. = 5 x 10 5 ; Ro = 1.6;
P = 2.5; [i] u1 /u e = 0.064 [ii] u m /u e = 0.194

[il]
Figure 10: Velocity vectors (r z plane) in vicinity
of seal; Re z = 5 x 10 5 ; Ro = 1.6; u 1 /u e = 0.064 [i]
position of maximum outflow; [ii] position of maximum
inflow

10

The CFD results clearly show that over most of the

rotor the effects of ingestion are less than on the stator.
However, near the seal, the rotor is severely affected
by ingestion. The extent of this region is likely to be
sensitive to seal geometry and, if it can be confined to
regions of blade material, significant ingestion (as measured on the stator) might be tolerated in the engine.
On the stator the level of agreement between calculation and measurement is generally good. At r/r o 0.4
there is clearly some disagreement at the lower coolant
flow rate Cw = 2000. This radial location lies between
inlet dominated and rotation dominated flow regions in
the cavity and turbulence modelling difficulties might
be expected here. Note also that the finite difference
grid resolution is relatively poor in this region.

in specifying annulus flow inlet conditions to produce

levels of circumferential pressure asymmetry similar
to those in the experiment. This approach was successful in that it avoided the need to model the guide
vane flow and provided representative boundary conditions for the cavity flow calculation. Some encouraging agreement with species concentration measurements was found and the calculations enabled the effect of ingestion on the rotor disc to be examined. The
predictions show that a small area of the disc, close
to the seal, is severely affected by ingestion. At lower
radii the coolant flow shields the disc from the ingested
mainstream gas giving sealing effectiveness levels considerably higher than those on the stator disc. The
CFD calculations did not reproduce the experimentally
observed persistence of ingestion at higher coolant flow
rates. This may be due to the lack of detailed modelling of the annulus flow, unsteady effects that are
not catered for in the model or insufficient spatial resolution in the CFD model. Clearly there is scope for
further investigations. The computing times used in
the present study are sufficiently modest to show that
further CFD developments are feasible. However the
goal of unsteady calculations, including guide vanes,
rotor blades and disc cavity, would require the commitment of considerable computing resource by today's
standards.

5. CONCLUSIONS
The combined experimental and theoretical study
has given further insight into the rim sealing problem. For most of the experimental range covered, the
asymmetric annulus flow provided the dominant driving force for ingestion. At the higher values of rotation number tested, disc pumping increased the level
of ingestion, as is consistent with order of magnitude
arguments. In these cases the presence of the annulus
flow reduced ingestion relative to the case of a cavity
in a quiescent environment. At relatively low coolant
flow rates, the measurements are consistent with the
problem being dominated by the circumferential static
pressure asymmetries created by the guide vanes. At
higher coolant flow rates interaction of the coolant flow
(ejected through the seal) and the annulus flow may be
more important. It is conjectured that this interaction
gives rise to the observed levelling off of the sealing effectiveness (at values less than unity) as the coolant
flow is increased.
A simple model, neglecting rotation and assuming
orifice theory to apply locally around the circumference of the seal, shows some of the trends observed in
the measurements, but tends to over-estimate the level
of ingestion. This contrasts with the results of Hamabe and Ishida (1992) who found remarkable agreement
between a similar model and their experimental measurements. Note, however, that Hamabe and Ishida's
experiments were for a non-swirling external flow and
their choice of discharge coefficient in the model could
be questioned. The neglect of inertial effects, associated with the swirl component of velocity, is thought
to contribute to the over-estimation of ingestion in the
present study.
In the CFD model a potential flow solution was used

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors gratefully acknowledge support for this
work by the Ministry of Defence and Rolls-Royce plc.
We are also pleased to acknowledge the contribution of
Dr. C. M. Vaughan, who programmed the CFD code,
and our colleagues who have contributed to helpful discussions of this work. In particular, the interest of Dr.
A. M. Cargill (now deceased), Mr. D. A. Campbell,
Mr. J. A. Millward and Professor T. V. Jones has
been appreciated.

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11

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12