Redesigning of Flow Path Using Tip-Cutting in Heavy Duty Gasturbine Compressor

This paper is focused on the redesign of flow path in heavy duty gas turbine compressor. The technique called tip-cutting is studied in detail. A method named equal streamtube is proposed in this paper. Using this method, the flow path redesign of the compressor with 18 stages is carried out at great length. To verify the redesign scheme, three dimensional CFD simulation is performed. The results show that equal streamtube method is effectual for tip-cutting. The redesign fulfills the demands very well. the suction stages numbering 9, 13 and 17 should be optimized in detail.