Use of Pressure Measurements to Determine Effectiveness of Turbine Rim Seals

The ingress of hot gas through the rim seal of a gas turbine depends on the pressure difference between the mainstream flow in the turbine annulus and that in the wheel-space radially inward of the rim seal. In this paper, a previously published orifice model is modified so that the sealing effectiveness ε_c determined from concentration measurements in a rig could be used to determine ε_p, the effectiveness determined from pressure measurements in an engine. It is assumed that there is a hypothetical “sweet spot” on the vane platform where the measured pressures would ensure that the calculated value of ε_p equals ε_c, the value determined from concentration measurements. Experimental measurements for a radial-clearance seal show that, as predicted, the hypothetical pressure difference at the sweet spot is linearly related to the pressure difference measured at an arbitrary location on the vane platform. There is good agreement between the values of ε_p determined using the theoretical model and values of ε_c determined from concentration measurements. Supporting computations, using a 3D steady computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code, show that the axial location of the sweet spot is very close to the upstream edge of the seal clearance. It is shown how parameters obtained from measurements of pressure and concentration in a rig could, in principle, be used to calculate the sealing effectiveness in an engine.