Influence of the Blade Count Ratio on Aerodynamic Forcing: Part II—High Pressure Transonic Turbine

The influence of the Blade Count Ratio (BCR) on the aerodynamic forcing of a transonic high pressure turbine has been investigated numerically. Main focus here was put on the change in unsteady aerodynamics, modal properties and the mode excitation. Using a scaling technique, six different transonic turbine stages with different numbers of scaled blades but maintained steady aerodynamics were generated and further analyzed. In the analysis a non-linear, time marching CFD solver was used and the unsteady, harmonic forces projected onto the mode shapes. For this transonic turbine the unsteady pressure at the rotor blade decreases in amplitude and spanwise distribution from low to high blade count ratios. In chordwise direction a local minimum for intermediate blade count ratios was found for the rotor and stator blades. Mode frequencies decreased monotonically with an increasing BCR. Significant mode changes for modes 5 and 6 of the different BCRs were captured using the Modal Assurance Criteria. It was found that for these transonic turbines the blade count ratio and reduced frequency are amongst others key parameters for a reduction in aerodynamic forcing. Even though an almost monotonic trend was found for the stator blade excitation, the rotor blade excitation behaves highly non-monotonic. A maximum value in excitation potential was found close to reported blade count ratio values. Optimization of certain modes is possible but case dependent, due to the non-monotonic nature. Moreover it was found that for a minor increase in upstream blade count the mean unsteady forces on the rotor blades is reduced, but the mode excitation not necessarily has to decrease.