Three-dimensional Navier-Stokes simulations of turbine rotor-stator interaction
Fluid flows within turbomachinery tend to be extremely complex in nature. Understanding such flows is crucial to improving current designs of turbomachinery. The computational approach can be used to great advantage in understanding flows in turbomachinery. A finite difference, unsteady, thin layer, Navier-Stokes approach to calculating the flow within an axial turbine stage is presented. The relative motion between the stator and rotor airfoils is made possible with the use of patched grids that move relative to each other. The calculation includes endwall and tip leakage effects. An introduction to the rotor-stator problem and sample results in the form of time averaged surface pressures are presented. The numerical data are compared with experimental data and the agreement between the two is found to be good.