Experimental and numerical investigations of mixed convection in turbine cavities for more flexible operations

Since the renewable sources, which have gained great attention due to the low-carbon policies, are inherently intermittent, the conventional power generation systems will be in use to meet the power demand. These systems, however, must be capable of operating along with renewables, which will lead to a need for more operational flexibility with frequent system ramps. Therefore, understanding and control of thermal stresses and clearances are essential for improving flexibility of conventional power plants. Computational fluid dynamics tools are of great importance in predicting the turbomachinery flows design since the direct measurements of detailed and spatial flow and temperature distribution are often not trivial in the real engines. During shut-down regimes of steam turbines, natural convection takes place along with relatively weak forced convection which is not strong enough to prevent a rising thermal plume leading to a non-uniform cooling in the turbine cavities. Although natural and forced convection have been studied separately in the literature, mixed type of flows in turbine cavities have not been investigated extensively. This paper provides unique experimental data set for validation and development of the predictive tools, which is generated from the detailed flow field measurements in a test facility designed for mixed type of flows in the turbine casing cavities with engine representative conditions. Additionally, large eddy simulations have been performed and validated against the generated experimental data, to gain deeper insight into the flow field. Thus, this paper offers a great insight in these complex flow interactions and unique experimental data for enabling the flexible operations and the development of advanced turbulence modelling.