Using a pressure controlled vortex design method to control secondary flow losses in a turbine stage

A turbine design method based on pressure controlled vortex design (PCVD) is presented to design a small-size turbine stage. Contrary to the conventional controlled vortex design (CVD) method, the main objective of PCVD is to control the axial velocity and radial pressure in the stator–rotor gap. Through controlling axial velocity, the PCVD establishes a direct tie to meridional stream surface. Thus stream surface variation is induced, resulting in a large secondary flow vortex covering the full blade passage in the respective stator and rotor. This secondary flow vortex could be dedicated to control the secondary flow mitigation and migration. Through radial pressure, the PCVD is also associated with the macroscopic driving force of fluid motion. So the better benefit of CVD can be achieved. The core concept behind PCVD is to mainly control the spanwise pressure gradient by altering profile loading at various spanwise locations. Therefore not only the local profile lift is affected, but also the resulting throat widths, stage reaction degree, and massflow rate are altered or redistributed respectively. With the PCVD method, the global stage efficiency is increased successfully while the mass flow rate keeps constant. Additionally there is no endwall shape optimization, stacking optimization, or pitch/chord variations, concentrating solely on varying blade profile deflections and stagger.