Experimentally Verified Study of Regeneration-Induced Forced Response in Axial Turbines

Geometrical variations occur in highly loaded turbine blades due to operation and regeneration. To determine the influence of such regeneration-induced variances of turbine blades on the aerodynamic excitation, a typical stagger angle variation of overhauled turbine blades is applied to stator vanes of an air turbine. This varied turbine stage is numerically and experimentally investigated. For the aerodynamic investigation of the vane wake, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are conducted. It is shown that the wake is changed due to the stagger angle variation. These results are confirmed by aerodynamic probe measurements in the air turbine. The vibration amplitude of the downstream rotor blades has been determined by a computational forced response analysis using a unidirectional fluid–structure interaction (FSI) approach and is experimentally verified here by tip-timing measurements. The results of the simulations and the measurements both show significantly higher amplitudes at certain operating points (OPs) due to the additional wake excitation. For typical regeneration-induced variations in stagger angle, the vibration amplitude is up to five times higher than in the reference case of uniform upstream stators. Based upon the present results, the influence of these variations and of the vane patterns on the vibration amplitude of the downstream rotor blade can and should be estimated in the regeneration process to minimize the dynamic stresses of the blades.