LES for Turbines: Methodologies, Cost and Future Outlooks

Flows throughout different zones of turbines have been investigated using Large Eddy Simulation (LES) and hybrid Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes-LES (RANS-LES) methods and contrasted with RANS modelling, more typically used in the design environment. Cases studied include low and high-pressure turbine cascades, real surface roughness effects, internal cooling ducts, trailing edge cut-backs and labyrinth and rim seals. Evidence is presented that shows that LES and hybrid RANS-LES produces higher quality data than RANS/URANS for a wide range of flows. The higher level of physics that is resolved allows greater flow physics insight which is valuable for improving designs and refining lower order models. Turbine zones are categorised by flow type, to assist in choosing the appropriate eddy resolving method and to estimate computational cost.© 2013 ASME